Danica picked up her phone and smiled at the name on the screen.
"Hey there. What's up?"
John Carter, her former high school English teacher and current instructor of a creative writing class she was taking during her summer break from college, replied, "I've got some news."
"Tell me."
"My wife and I are separated."
"Holy shit, John. What happened? Did she find out?" Danica asked.
"No, no. You're safe," John told her. "This has been coming for a long time. When she got back from Florida with the boys after visiting her sister, she said it might be best if we separated for a while. She said she needed time to think. I'm sure her sister talked her into this. She always hated me."
"I'm really sorry...for you," Danica said. "Are you still going to teach the class? I mean, like, I know you have more important things on your mind right now, but it's important to me."
"Yes. Nothing really changes other than my address," John said. "I'll give that to you in a minute. Obviously, you are always welcome to visit."
Danica grinned. "We'll see. Maybe it's time we cool it for a bit. I'm so sorry to hear this, John."
"Thanks. I'd love to still see you, Danica. But, you're right about maybe not every other day. Not that I didn't enjoy that."
Danica laughed and said, "I think we both did. Consider it research for my story, which will never turn out as well as what you and I did."
"Here's the address," John said.
They chatted for another few minutes before hanging up. Afterwards, Danica just slouched on the couch, somewhat in shock of what just happened.
'Marriage must really suck,' she thought to herself.
Her mind spun with ramifications of the news. Primarily, how would this affect the relationship between her and John? However, even at nineteen, Danica was never one to pass up opportunities thrown into her lap, and this might be one. She often wondered about John's wife when she and John were together. There had been a twinge of guilt at first, but Danica quickly got over it. Then she pondered what a wife in that situation—an apparently loveless marriage—would be feeling emotionally.
Never one to leave things to her imagination, Danica decided to act.
The next day, Danica put a few pages of the story she was writing for John's creative writing class into a folder and drove to John's old address. She prayed he would not be there. Danica rang the doorbell and soon was facing a quite pretty woman with shoulder length blonde hair and big, beautiful eyes.
"Hello," Danica said. "Is Mr. Carter home?"
The woman hesitated before saying, "Uh, no. Can I help you?"
"I'm a student in his evening class and I wanted to give him some homework I completed."
"John doesn't live here anymore," the woman said in a voice that seemed to be on the verge of breaking.
"But...he gave me this...oh God, I'm so sorry," Danica said.
"It's OK. It was rather sudden."
When Danica did not respond or show any indication of leaving, the woman said, "Would you like to come in?"
"Oh, no," Danica stated. "I couldn't...I mean, I don't want to intrude or anything."
The woman smiled and said, "Come in."
Danica obeyed.
It felt more than a little strange for her to be walking into a family room that she and John had shared so often. Once there, John's wife said to Danica, "My name's Cheryl, by the way."
"Hi. I'm Danica."
"If you want to leave the papers with me, I should be seeing John soon," Cheryl told her.
"Maybe I'll hang onto it," Danica said. "I'll just take it to class."
"You can do all that online. Share files, I mean."
Danica grinned at the obvious sarcasm in the remark.
"I know," she replied. "But I prefer to have Mr. Carter read them while I'm there and then we can discuss it in person. It's much better than chatting."
Cheryl said, "What type of stories do you want to write?"
Danica lied and told her, "Romantic stuff. Like what you see on Hallmark Channel."
"Well, there certainly is a market for THAT. You'll do well, I'm sure."
"Thanks. But I just got started writing, thanks mostly to Mr. Carter's class in high school. He's so good."
Cheryl looked away for a moment, deep in thought it seemed to Danica. Then Cheryl asked, "Can I get you something to drink?"
"No, thanks. I won't stay long."
"It's fine. I needed a distraction."
Danica waited and then said, "Do you want to tell me what happened?"
Cheryl pursed her lips and nodded. Then said, "Yes, maybe I need to talk this through out loud so it makes some more sense to me."
She took a deep breath. "I take the boys to Florida every summer when school's out to visit my sister. They have a great time on the beach and I get to see Karen. We've always gotten along great. She's a couple years older."
Cheryl smiled and said, "She's over forty, now. I'm still in my thirties."
Danica laughed. "Good for you."
"This trip was very different," Cheryl said more seriously, looking down at the floor. "And forgive me. I have no idea why I'm saying this to someone I met ten minutes ago."
Danica moved over to the couch, next to Cheryl. "It's OK. We all need somebody sometimes."
Nervously, Cheryl continued: "My sister and I have always been close. We did everything together, even double dating a couple times. I love her. But, last week she...well, she did something I wasn't comfortable with."
Danica studied Cheryl's face. Cheryl said, "She kind of...you know, came on to me."
"My God," Danica moaned. "You mean...sexually?"
