Author's note: This is a little something I have been working on for some time. It's my first submission in over a year or two, under a new name. If there is enough interest and demand, I am open to doing another installment of the story. All characters are eighteen years of age or older.
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The first and most important thing she had to plan was the Excuse.
Everything depended upon the Excuse. One bad excuse could raise unwanted questions. Using one excuse repeatedly, over and over, could draw unwanted attention and focus. The last thing she needed was her husband to make some offhand comment at a social gathering between friends and coworkers about how she had been worked to the bone with the late hours every night. A single bad lie could be the falling domino that could ruin everything.
It had to be believable. There had to be a plausible explanation for running late. Nothing too elaborate, nothing so complex that depended upon so many components to make it work. Often the simplest of excuses were often the best.
Hobby Shop didn't have a whole lot to choose from, she texted her husband almost as soon as she left the store. Going to try Vivienne's, she texted again.
By the time she pulled the sedan to a stop in the seedy little parking lot, she had already switched the bags of the hobby shops, taking the contents of her purchases from the blank, white plastic bag that came from Hobby Shop, and placing them into blue and white bag with the name Vivienne's that she had plucked from the crevice between her seat and the center console. Pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks and glitter glue. The essentials for her youngest's school project.
She gave herself a quick and silent look over in the rear-view mirror of the car. Her deft fingers ran through the long blonde tresses as her blue eyes took in the sight of her appearance. Good. Not great. Not the way she occasionally dressed up when she needed a fix, but given the circumstances, the rushed, unexpected opportunity, she looked good enough. With the sunglasses upon her face in the dark of night, she felt ready to go and sate her addiction.
The parking lot was mostly empty. Only a few cars remained in the parking lot. A look at the watch illuminated beneath the neon lights had told her that there wouldn't be much to be found at such a late evening. The afternoon rush was long done and over with for the day, and on a Sunday evening, it would light and quiet. It was by far not the best time to be there, but something was better than nothing.
Her heart was racing, beating furiously in her chest as she crossed the parking lot on foot. Her breaths were growing rapid with excitement as every footstep carried her closer to the building. The shame and guilt she often felt at times, those nasty, incessant feelings that gave her doubts and hesitation were nowhere to be found that evening. She wanted this. She needed this. She needed to sate herself.
The long weekend had been sheer torture. Staying home with her family, depriving herself of the chance to break free, if only for a short time. She put up with family dinners, suffered through watching movies with her family. Game night. Fucking game night. All she wanted was to get out, to get free, a chance to go off on her own and please the raging, hungry beast that was her addiction. She was a ticking time-bomb, waiting to go off, yearning to explode in hedonistic indulgences.
Just one, she told herself. Just one, and she would be gone. Back in the car, back to the hum-drum life that waited for her at home with her husband and kids. Back home,to think and dream and crave of the next time she could get her fix once again.
She pulled open the heavily tinted window door of the store, immediately surrounded by the familiar sights. The rows of adult DVDs and Blu Rays. Sex toys of every kind and variety. Lubricants of various makes, scents, and flavors, to sate any desire or need.. From behind the counter near the door, the heavy-set, bespectacled man looked up from the phone in hand, giving only the slightest of nods to the regular visitor.