Coincidence

No sex in this one.

Well now here's a thing. I have always said that you can never stop someone doing something they shouldn't, it is their choice and totally their decision. You can talk about it until you are blue in the face and then till the cows come home. Nothing will change that persons thought process and ultimate decision. They can be swayed or persuaded towards a choice but it is always theirs alone to make. It's only afterwards that the consequence of that decision is felt by those involved and of course affected by it. Those consequences just have to be lived with or dealt with in some way. In life we make decisions on a daily basis, some are trivial, like what to eat others not so and can have a far reaching effect.

I am one of those lucky ones, married, in full time work with healthy offspring, money is tight but then it's the same for everyone, always something that is needed and uses what little cash is available. Normally able to get a short holiday most summers. We have a reasonable sex life, making love a few times a.week which normally leaves us satisfied, won't set the world on fire but I understand that is normal after a few years. I have never had the need to stray and get a little strange, always thought the same was true of my wife.

We had a pretty good circle of friends and family, some from each of us, some neighbours, parents from the school our kids went to and of course some from our workplaces, some closer than others. All in all we were just a normal perhaps some would say boring couple.

One day changed that life a little for me and made me wonder.

I have always been a thinker, never a fighter. Always wanted a quite life and for the status quo to be in my world, some would even label me a coward.

It is my habit to take a packed lunch with me to work, eat that lunch at or near my work station and then straight back to work afterwards. For a change I might sometimes take a walk round the car park (there is nowhere else to go) if the sun is shining, but more than often I stay inside and at work for the duration. Not sure really why I chose to do what I did that day and I still haven't said anything to anyone, even after after all these years was it just a coincidence?

What was different that day?

I decided to pop home for lunch, something I can never remember doing before, as I said, I always take a packed lunch, but today it was left abandoned at work and why I journeyed home is beyond me, perhaps my subconscious took over.

I arrived home and no, unlike some husbands arriving home unexpectedly I was not welcomed by a strange car in the drive or even one I recognised, the drive was empty, just as I had left it that morning.

All was quiet as I turned the key and opened the front door, I am not sure if I crept up to the door, opening it as silently as I could or I just opened it normally and we happened to have well oiled hinges. There was no trail of discarded clothes scattered around the floor. Nor were there sexual noises coming from the bedroom or indeed anywhere else. All was as it should be, peace reined in the house.

My wife was standing in the lounge, think she must have heard me, she was dressed in her normal attire of trousers and a top, of course I couldn't see what she had on underneath, if any thing, they were just clothes that anyone would wear when doing house work or just spending the day at home.

Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, just something was off which I put aside but stored away.

She looked slightly startled, perhaps even a little embarrassed with wide staring eyes and I could see a little blushing. She initially said nothing and appeared to be gathering her thoughts, eventually enquiring what I was doing home during the day, never done this before she said (nor can I remember doing it since). I answered that I just wanted a change for lunch.

We sat in the kitchen, everything we did seemed always to be held around that kitchen table, just as well it couldn't talk. Hot drinks and a sandwhich were made, conversation was limited to what had happened that morning and why I travelled home as I only had a short time for lunch and the travelling would take up most of that limited period. I had no logical answer for my unexpected visit, just popped home to see my wife.

All too soon lunch was finished and it was time to get prepared for the return to work.

A toilet break was needed before I went on my short journey back to work for the afternoon.

My wife's demeanour instantly changed and she became a little agitated, suggesting that I didn't really have the time as I needed to get back to work and I could go when I got there.

Strange behaviour, strange her reluctance for me to use our one and only bathroom. I didn't ask why, perhaps in hindsight I should have.

Now I had to do some rapid thinking. Did I climb those few stairs to the bathroom or did I just leave as suggested and return to work.

If I climbed the stairs and stood outside the door before entering would I hear anything? If my hand hovered on the door handle which led to our bathroom I would have to make another decision. Would I lean on the handle only to find the door locked, which could only be done from the inside? Would I find it unlocked, would I open the door and reveal the contents, whatever that was? Another thought, another decision, if nothing was in the bathroom would I then have to search each of the bedrooms for whatever wasn't in the bathroom?

Or should I leave without doing anything?

Each any of those decisions have the potential for long lasting effects for both of us and of course our marriage. My mind went back to maintaining that status quo which I always sought.

I stood pondering my decision for a few seconds, my wife stood a little distance away silently watching me

My thoughts were switching between opening the bathroom or the front door.

The thinker or possibly the coward in me caused me to do as requested and I left the house without a much needed visit before my return to work, battling my troubled thoughts, still wondering why I wasn't to go into my own bathroom and why I didn't have the courage to do so.

What or who was in there that she didn't want me to see? Why didn't she want me to enter the bathroom? Both unaswered questions which as a consequence of not asking and never having the courage to enquire since I will never know.

Another decision, do I go straight back to work or did I stay loitering in the area with a view of the house?

I of course I know the answer to that, probably the only one who does. I guess I will keep the result of that choice to myself, and unless something changes probable to my grave.

My wife knows who or what prevented my use of our bathroom that lunchtime and I guess she will hope that this little incident is long forgotten and will stay that way.

Lastly was it a coincidence that a friend of the family whom I worked with had taken the afternoon off?

I will leave that thought with you.