Chapter One: The First Night
It was too quiet, I knew my wife very well, and if she wasn't talking, she was up to something. We had just finished our couple's night out with our neighbors, Jill and Paul.
The drive was getting eerie as my grip on the steering wheel tightened. I knew what I had to do to get her to spill the beans, as they would say. I sighed deeply.
"Go on then," I said.
"It's nothing," my wife Elize said as she looked out her window.
It was past ten at night, and we lived in the suburbs. There was nothing to see but stretches of strip malls and gas stations.
"No, spill it, or you're just going to keep both of us up most of the night, thinking about it," I shook my head.
"Well, it's just that, you ordered the spicy lo mein," Elize said.
"So?" I asked.
"Anytime we go to a Chinese restaurant, new or old, you always order lo-mein and you always want it as spicy as it comes," Elize said.
"I like it spicy, when is that a bad thing?" I asked.
"Paul and I picked that place because it had good reviews, and we thought that you would pick something else other than lo-mein," Elize shrugged as she looked at me.
"So, that's it?" I asked.
"Yes, why don't you try something different?" Elize asked.
I was a man of patterns. I went to the same gas station every time, ordered the same thing at any of the fast-food places, went to bed at the same time, and woke up at the same time.
It was just who I was, but Elize was all over the place. There was no pattern to anything she did. She liked to be unpredictable.
"I will try something else next time," I nodded.
"Thank you," Elize said.
I knew that wasn't going to be the end of it, and I was right. Elize brought it up again the next time we went out, I ordered something I liked, and again she had a problem with it.
"How about this," I said as we sat up in bed that night. "From now on you order for me?"
"Then you will pretend to like it so that you don't make a scene," Elize shook her head.
"I don't do that," I said as I looked at her.
"When we all went on the cruise you were silent the whole trip and smiled only when we were taking pictures," Elize pointed out.
I worked long ten-to-twelve-hour days, five days a week, sometimes six, and all I wanted to do was relax at home. Even on my vacations, all I wanted was peace, quiet, and an excellent book to read, not some tablet or something to read online, I liked the feeling of a good paperback, so I could turn the pages and feel what I was reading.
"I wasn't pretending," I said as I looked at her.
"You hated it," Elize replied.
"Hate is a strong word," I shook my head. "I wasn't completely happy, the whole time."
That was it. Elize turned off her light and turned her back to me, indicating that she wasn't talking about the subject anymore.
Elize and I had been married for four years now. Before that, we had been together for two years. She found my precise schedule and routine cute and admirable when we first got together. Now I could tell. It was annoying her.
She wasn't perfect herself. Elize worked from home. She used to go to work, but with everything happening in the world, her job paid her well enough so she could stay home and do it. This resulted in Elize being bored a lot of the time. She turned from someone that wasn't materialistic to someone that wanted to keep up with everyone else.
Elize had to have everything that everyone else had in our gated community or something better. We had to get new vehicles because everyone else had the most up-to-date vehicles, had to get solar panels because everyone else got them, and the list went on and on, even down to her clothes.
Elize didn't want to be caught wearing the same thing twice. Even when we went on our double date with Paul and Jill, she wouldn't wear anything they had seen before. The result was a walk-in closet that neither of us could walk into without pushing boxes of clothes aside.
I was content with my clothes, shoes, car, everything, but not her.
Another thing that irritated me was the community cluck cluck club, as I called Elize and the group of female friends she had made since moving here. They constantly talked on the phone, texted, or made posts on the community's web page. It was nonstop.
The most reason and target of their talks was Jill, which bothered me the most. When Elize was around Jill, she loved her, called her sister and her best friend, and everything in between. The moment she got away from Jill, it was totally different.
We had a community barbecue at the community center a few weeks ago. All the kids were there in the pool and having a good time. We didn't have kids, and neither did Paul and Jill, so we all sat by the side of the pool.
Well, that's when mistakes were made in their eyes. Jill got up and took off her top and her towel. She stood in a two-piece suit and dived into the pool.
The next day on the community web page, everything was about indecent exposure around the pool area, especially when kids were around, and anybody going to the pool should wear appropriate swimwear.
When I saw it, I immediately knew my wife had something to do with it.
Elize is a physical gem to look at, a great body, nothing to scream at, but for the most part, she is in decent shape with all the average curves.
Just like most of her friends, they are mostly average at best.
Then there is Jill, who most would consider what people call a big, beautiful woman. She has a lot of curves, mainly in the chest area, but she has large hips and a huge ass. Not overly big, but for most, they would consider it huge.
So, when Jill got up and was in that two-piece, there was a lot of staring as her massive chest bounced, swayed, and jiggled all over the place.
I tore into my wife for the first time in ages. How was Jill inappropriate when her best friend Gina was wearing a two-piece, with a see-through wrap around her waist that showed she was wearing a thong bikini bottom?
Elize said she was hiding it behind a wrap. The wrap was utterly transparent. Elize had been wearing a two-piece with her C-cup breasts bulging out the top. Many women that were there were dressed in two-piece bathing suits. It was summer and very hot outside.
Elize said most of the boys and most of the men were staring, and they felt uncomfortable.
I was there, and most of the men I talked to were gawking. They could say they don't like chubby girls, but every one of them was staring with their jaws on the floor.
I am sure they went home and told their wives that it was uncomfortable and Jill shouldn't be wearing something like that, but they were saying that, so they didn't start an argument. At the pool, they all talked about how big Jill's tits were and how phat her ass and thighs were.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I came home after a long day at work and cracked open a beer as I slumped onto the couch. "Hi," Elize said as she came into the living room.
"Hey," I said.
After last night's chat about the cruise, we hadn't talked to each other.
"I was thinking," Elize said as she sat down.
"Okay," I nodded.
"We have that vacation weekend coming up," Elize said as she stared directly at me.
How could I forget? Paul rented a condo on the beach down in Florida; supposedly, there would be an air and sea show for the whole weekend.
Loud crowds and even louder events, which Paul and my wife would love to drag us all through.
"Well, Jill wanted to go to her brother's cabin in Tennessee," Elize said.
Immediately my eyes lit up. The cabin was tranquil, right on a stream in the middle of nowhere, a small dirt road led up to it, and there was no traffic or neighbors for miles around in every direction.
"See, I knew you would be interested," Elize smiled. "So, Paul and I got to thinking."
Paul also worked from home while Jill worked at the veterinary clinic. Elize and Paul talked constantly online and over text messages.
"Continue," I said.
"The two of you can go to the cabin and Paul and I could go to the condo," Elize beamed.
I had suspected that the two of them were having an affair. Jill was sure of it too, but neither of us could catch them. There was no proof.
I had cameras everywhere, inside and out, and there were no surprise visits from Paul or Elize leaving the house unexpectedly.
Even though Elize was as random as can be, she did have somewhat of a fixed schedule to work, and when she wasn't working, she was with her cluck cluck club.
Jill and I had tried to put two and two together, but when Elize was out, Paul was inside. When Paul was out, Elize was inside. The two times never meshed, so we both gave up.
