I looked up from the book I was reading -- Danielle Steel's latest creation -- and let out a sigh. My husband of six years and counting Dominic -- Dom to his mother, and to me only in the heat of orgasm -- was pruning his beard, turning his etched face this way and that, catching the slightest hint of gray in his sculpted fuzz. I stifled in a snigger at the sight of this tall 40-year-old hunk of a man preening like a school girl getting ready for her prom date.
"You look gorgeous already babe," I intoned, ever the supportive husband. And I meant those words. Look at him, my husband: 6' tall, slightly bookish -- due to his age-defying flop of russet blond hair -- with broad shoulders, pronounced delts and biceps -- no tattoos, thank the goddess -- massive thighs from his years of rugby in prep school, and in the juncture of those tree trunks the most delicious piece of male organ this side of Atlantic, with delicious balls that always manage to churn out such delectable concoctions every time we had sex.
"I know," my husband answered back, flashing me one of his famous grins and holding the pronounced bulge of his grey boxers. "So you want a piece of this, uh, you wanna piece of me?" And I had to laugh because despite his handsomeness, this sudden randy transformation looked absurd in a hot way, like watching a schoolmarm teacher perform a pole dance. My husband laughed too, despite himself.
"Okay, now I just have to dress myself, and off I go to -- what's his name again?"
"Chojun. C-H-O-J-U-N."
"Right, Mr. New Colleague's party. Whatever."
"Don't be like that. He's going to be in your team for the next five years, and considering how your company's turnover rate is, that--"
"Yeah I know. I'm just messing with you."
"Humph." I watched him pull on his dress-shirt and black pants. It was going to be a casual affair, but I insisted he dress up to the nines, because he was going to be the team leader after all. "I'm sorry I can't make it. It's this damn flu, I can't seem to shake it off."
"Don't worry babe, just get a good rest and I'll be back from the party in no time."
"I love you. Don't kiss me, you'll get sick."
"I know." He grinned, and blew a kiss at me from the door. Then he was off to the party, leaving me in the safety of my cocoon of blankets.
After a couple of hours, I got restless and pulled up my tablet. I logged into Instagram and took a look at the pictures my husband and his work friends uploaded of the party. The party looked certainly fun, with a Polynesian theme, at which my husband's formal kit clashed seriously with the rest of the get-ups of Hawaiian shirts and flowery fabrics. I giggled at the pictures of my husband looking like Dracula amongst his more theme-concurrent colleagues. Well that's one on me I guess.
As I swiped over the pictures and the reels I paused when I saw a picture of the new colleague. I read his name: Dr. Cho-jun Seo, a new transplant from South Korea. He looked stunning in a blue shirt, open halfway down his chest, which was smooth as a baby's bottom. He looked young, like how Asians tend to be, but not so young that it would be creepy. He had a mischievous look in his eyes, like they were twinkling in some dirty joke that only he could understand. He looked tall, at least not dwarfed by my husband in the pictures in which they were together. His hair was jet black, styled in a conservative way.
I did not know why but looking at my husband and his handsome new colleague made my heart race slightly, and not from my flu. The pictures kept coming in, and I watched in real time as my husband got closer and closer to Cho-jun, eating together, drinking together, talking with heads down together -- a big thing with Dominic. I watched them standing close together, smiling for the photographs and videos. In some of those reels, my husband looked at Cho-jun with a rare sparkle in his brown eyes, much like how he would gaze at me after a deep satisfying bout of sex.
What would they talk about, I wondered. Work, definitely. Cho-jun looked like someone who went to the gym regularly, so that could be another topic they commiserate on. Maybe music, though I knew my husband loathed the popular music coming from Korea -- overproduced banalities, he called them. He did like some Korean ballad singers I listened to, for instance Roy Kim. I wondered if they could have talked about music, my husband and Cho-jun.
The next moment I came to it was already late, in fact it was 2 a.m. There was a low mumbling in the general direction of the front room, like my husband had a company. That was when I saw his shirt and his pants lying haphazardly on his side of the bedroom floor. My heart lurched in my throat, imagining the scenario in which this could have happen.