"Hi honey," she said.
I could hear people talking in the background, laughing, the clink of glassware. Some country song was playing too loud. She wasn't in the office.
"Where are you?" I asked. "Why aren't you home yet?"
"I'm at a very nice lounge."
"What the hell are you doing there? Do you want me to come--"
"No, I don't. I have... I have a date."
I stopped breathing. My eyes lost focus. A date? There was only one thing a 45-year-old woman, who up until a second ago I thought happily married, meant by that.
"Whaaa...." I could not get the words to form.
"It's just one night. I will be home in the morning, then I will be all yours again."
"You... you want to cheat on me?"
"It's not cheating if you know about it beforehand," she said.
I regained my ability to speak and shouted, "The fuck it isn't. You get back home right now!"
"Please, dear. Try to understand. The kids are all gone. Our days are boring. This will spice up our sex life."
"No! It will not! Do not do this!"
"Oh, dear," she said reproachfully. "We have been married for 25 years. This will be just one night out of all those nights we have been together."
"Fuck you. If you do this we are done!"
She laughed. "After all we have been through, honey? I will be home tomorrow and tell you all about it."
She disconnected and I stared at the phone in my hand.
I called back but it went to voice mail. I began to shout at the beep but realized it was futile.
I needed to leave now, find her before she could do this. It would kill our marriage. Even the fact that she had set it up was going to do major damage to us.
I hated her right now, but I could not let her do whatever she was planning on doing with some picked up random asshole. She could get hurt.
I tried to find her phone, but it was unreachable. She had turned it off. Damn!
I thought about calling the police, then realized how that conversation would go. I would end up even more humiliated than I was at the moment.
I jumped up from the sofa and began to pace around the living room. How could she do such a thing? What had broken in her mind to make her think I would allow it, that I could overlook it?
No. Our marriage ended the minute I answered her call.
I sat down at the computer with a fierce determination. I felt like crying, but knew if I gave in to that emotion I would just melt and be useless.
I knew what needed to be done. I would Google a divorce attorney and set up an appointment. I would move half the money out of our joint account into a personal account I could set up online. I would go to my employer's benefits site and change my beneficiaries--
But I could do none of that. Fucking Comcast was dead. Spinning balls and timed out pages.
I cursed and ripped a sheet of paper from a pad. I started making a list of financial moves to make once the internet was back up.
I rummaged under the sink and grabbed the dark rum. I mixed a very strong rum and coke and drained it, then made another and took it to the bedroom. I lay down on top of the covers and mourned our marriage. I let myself cry.
I lay staring at the ceiling for a long long time. Then I heard her car in the drive.
I sprang up. I was momentarily excited until I remembered where she had been. Then I was burning hot with rage.
Had she called it off? Had he not shown up? Either way, it didn't matter. The cheating slut was going to be flushed out of my life.
I decided not to rush out like I was anxious. I would sit in my bedroom chair and wait. I dried my eyes and made myself impassive.
I heard her open the front door and go into the guest bathroom. I heard water running.
Isn't that what the cheating wife always does? Showers off her lover's drying semen, the sweat, the saliva?
But it was just the sink. Then minutes of silence.
She came into the bedroom.
She wore a sheer black blouse with no bra and a crimson miniskirt. I could see her large pink nipples as clearly as if she had been naked. Her four-inch black heels matched her top. She wore no stockings. Jesus, she had gone out in public like that? That getup had a specific message. It said I am available to fuck.
Where was my modest loving wife? This cunt had killed her.
She looked me in the eyes and lifted her skirt.
She wasn't wearing panties, either.