Debbie stood in front of the bathroom mirror and smoothed her eyebrows. She ran a brush through her short layered hair and gave it a liberal dousing of White Rain. She recently had cut it short, short like that actress on the tv show "Law and Order SVU". Cut it short at the request of her husband Mike. She turned the bathroom light off and walked into the bedroom. He was in bed reading. She leaned over and kissed him, it was 10:30 and she was leaving for work. She had been on the night shift at the hospital for the last 6 months and it was getting old. She got in her car and drove... around the block. She pulled into Kim's driveway and, as if on command, the garage door opened, swallowed her car and closed again. As she got out of her car she was handed a steaming mug of coffee.
"Here, you're gonna need this," Kim said. "It's gonna be a long night."
Kim was her best friend. Well actually her second best friend. Her best friend was her next-door neighbor Tracy, but that was about to change, Kim was going to move up.
They sat on the trunk of her car and watched. They drank their coffee, they talked and smoked a few cigarettes. But mostly they watched. She drew deeply on her Misty, god it tasted good. Mike hated cigarettes, in fact a few months ago he pretty much had given her an ultimatum. Lose the cigs or lose me. So she quit smoking... kind of.
At 11:45 it happened. Their house was dark, but there was no mistaking the white door opening. A shadowy figure stepped out, turned and locked the door (can't be too careful nowadays, Deb thought) and scampered to the little yellow house next to theirs. A moments hesitation and the door opened. A stream of bright light spilled onto the stone driveway. In the doorway stood Tracy, her best friend, in a short black teddy. Mike stepped in and the door closed.
Deb turned to Kim, her heart pounding a million times a minute, she felt lightheaded. There had been signs he was cheating, quite obvious ones, but until this moment there was still the slight hope... she would've given anything to have been wrong. She began to cry softly, Kim held her. After a moment she pulled back, wiped her eyes and said
"The bitch is mine!"
The travel alarm went off at 7:15. Deb filled her mug with fresh coffee and went back to her perch on the trunk. At 7:30 Mike came out of their house to leave for work. She didn't know when he'd left Tracy's house, it didn't matter. As soon as he drove off she moved the car across the street and parked it in their garage. A couple of minutes later she came out of the house, still dressed in her nurse's uniform but carrying a small sports bag.
She went directly to Tracy's, opened the screen door and knocked loudly on the wooden door. She waited a moment and knocked again. A pink curtain was lifted from the small window in the door before it was opened. Tracy wiped the sleep from her eyes and drew the robe tight around her.
"Well good morning, sleepyhead," Deb chirped as she walked into the kitchen with Tracy.
She sat at the kitchen table watching Tracy pour them each a cup of coffee. Tracy was adorable: very petite, big blue eyes and silky straight blonde hair that fell a deep 6 inches below her shoulders, almost to her bra strap. Tracy brought the coffee to the table and as she placed the cup in front of her, Deb made her move. She grabbed Tracy's hand and slapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrist. Taking advantage of Tracy's grogginess she stood, twisted Tracy's arm behind her back and cuffed it to her other wrist.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing, Deb?"
At this point Deb shoved Tracy onto a kitchen chair and was half pushing, half dragging it to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom she sat on Tracy's lap. She dug in her sports bag and took out a roll of silver duct tape. She stood Tracy up and pulled the terrycloth robe down around her shoulders. As she had guessed, Tracy was still wearing the silky black teddy. She pulled on the end of the tape until it came free and began wrapping it around Tracy's chest, arms and back. She made 4 or 5 loops and shoved Tracy back onto the chair. She continued wrapping the tape around her, literally taping her to the chair. She was able to make about 20 loops before she ran out of tape, there was no way Tracy would get loose on her own. Deb had saved one large piece of tape and squished it directly over Tracy's lips to keep her quiet.
She went into the kitchen and came back in with Tracy's cigarettes and lighter. She lit one and leaned back on the vanity.
"Ok Tracy, here's the scoop. I know you're screwing my husband. There's no denying it: I didn't go to work last night. I watched you two." Tracy's eyes got big, she definitely was wide awake now.
