1
"Oh, please," Jeanie said, rolling her eyes. "He's totally fucking somebody else."
Kelly looked down at her barely eaten salad and shrugged.
"I seriously doubt it," She said in Ryan's defense. "He doesn't have the time, between work and studying."
"Cheaters make the time, sweetie." Jeanie said and took a large gulp of her Chardonnay.
Kelly sighed.
Couples had good times and bad, she knew this as a fact. She'd seen it with her parents, with friends, with neighbors. The strongest couples worked it out, they struggled because the relationship was worth it, Kelly always thought what she and Ryan had was worth anything they could give.
But lately it seemed the outside world had done everything in its power to separate them. Real estate had turned out to be anything but the freedom and financial release it had originally promised. The entire industry seemed like a scam at this point. She'd been torturing herself for two years and in that time had only managed to sell two properties.
Then there were the kids. Blake had been going through his rebellious phase, Tina was off to school.
Kelly's sisters had essentially disowned her over a bad business deal.
And Ryan had been there with her through thick and thin. But lately it seemed he had become distant, his face constantly stuck in his phone, his thoughts elsewhere.
"How would I know if he's cheating?"
"There's signs," Jeanie said flatly. "Is he always in his phone?"
"Yes."
"Does he take the phone everywhere with him, even when he gets in the shower?"
Kelly feigned deep thought but she knew the answer almost immediately.
"Yes." She said softly.
"What about work, he working a lot later than usual?"
Kelly nodded.
"He's cheating," Jeanie said again, this time with more confidence. "It happens, babe."
"There has to be a way to tell for sure." Kelly shrugged.
Jeanie smiled and finished her wine off in one last gulp.
"Check his phone." She said.
"How?" Kelly asked. "He always has it on him."
"Do it while he's in bed next to you."
Jeanie smiled slyly and told how she'd caught her last ex cheating.
"Just get an Amazon blink camera, set it up above the bed, he won't even know it's there."
Kelly frowned. Spying on her husband was not something she was prepared to do, but it would go one of two ways: she'd either find out that he wasn't cheating, or she would find out that he was.
And she wasn't sure how she would take either.
"Look," Jeanie said. "Ryan is a hunk, he's thirty-eight, keeps in phenomenal shape, makes a shit ton of money, and has the world at his fingertips, guys like that, they're conquerors, that's what they live for, in a way you can't blame him, it's in his genetics."
"I thought I was good enough." Kelly frowned.
"You are, honey," Jeanie said comforting her friend. "You're beautiful, successful, everything a man would want."
"Then why would he cheat?"
"Because it's what they do," Jeanie said. "Men cheat because they have a dick."
"And women?" Kelly asked.
Jeanie smiled viciously.
"We cheat for revenge."
2
Kelly left the lunch date feeling worse than before. Yes, Jeanie had been wrong in the past, but never about anything like this.
The brokerage was a block away. In the five minutes it took Kelly to walk from the restaurant to her small desk, she had ordered a security camera from Amazon, read the instructions and finalized her plan to find out the truth about Ryan's recent attitude.
If she was right, and he wasn't cheating, she promised she would work harder to open communications.
But what if you're wrong? She thought.
3
When Kelly received the small, unmarked package from Amazon the next day she made sure Ryan was in the shower when she opened it.
The instructions were dull, mostly technical jargon, but the main idea was summed up perfectly with a picture and diagram.
She scanned the code with her phone, linked into the system, and set the camera above their bed, on the curtain rod.
And then she waited.
It didn't take long for her to begin receiving input and images. While Ryan tapped away at his phone, the camera recorded. Periodically Kelly would check the video feedback on her own phone, relieved to see mostly mundane social media scrolling.
She kissed Ryan goodnight and rolled over. Her nerves calm.
4
Kelly stirred awake. She looked at her phone: 3 AM. Next to her, Ryan tapped away at his phone. She pretended to stay asleep. After a few moments Kelly fell back into a dreamless slumber. Her anxiety rising, knowing the video footage would be available when she woke up.
5
"Oh this bitch is trash!" Jeanie laughed.
She was scrolling through the Facebook page of Tammy Brooks, Ryan's alleged fling.
Kelly had gone through the video footage, noticed the tell tale patterns of Facebook messenger on Ryan's phone, and zoomed in. The conversation was infuriating, explicit, and, to Kelly's chagrin, hotter than anything Ryan had said to her in years.
When she first read the the back and forth a wave of emotions ran through her: anger, hate, sadness,?and yet there was something else she couldn't quite put her finger on.....release maybe? A subtle hint of acceptance, as well as the promise of what was good for the goose was good for the gander.
She immediately told Jeanie the minute she got to the office and Jeanie did what she did best: she stalked.
"Well," Jeanie sighed. "There's two ways you can go about this: throw his ass to the curb, or play by the same rules he plays by."
Kelly chewed the tip of her pencil.
"Maybe," She said. "Right now I'm just floored, I feel empty."
Just as she said this Mark Simon walked by her cubicle.
"Hey," he nodded and kept moving.
Jeanie's face lit up.
"No," Kelly said immediately upon seeing Jeanie's face.
"Yes!" Jeanie said. "He always flirts with you, and I hear he's great in bed."
"From who?"
"One of the girls in legal used to date him," Jeanie said. "Apparently he has a kinky side that just won't quit, and he's well endowed."
"Define 'well endowed'."
"Eight inches maybe?" Jeanie said. "And thick."
Her left eyebrow raised.
"You're a mess." Kelly laughed.
"Me." Jeanie said. "I'm the girl from legal."
They both laughed.
"Let me know," Jeanie said. "I can hook it up."
She stood up and left Kelly to her own thoughts.
Kelly bit her lower lip in thought. In the back of her mind a plan was forming.
6