Do Two Wrong's Make It Alright?
It's 1pm, about an hour before I finish work on a Wednesday, as I head out to the front of the house to collect another load of bricks. Just as I begin to load the bricks, I watch as a pale green Toyota Camry drives past, it looks exactly like my brother's car. Seeing the driver, I realize that it is indeed my brother's car, being driven by his wife, Veronica. I almost waved, but it's clear she hasn't noticed me over on the sidewalk at the house we're building.
I'm Jack Button, a thirty-year-old bricklayer. Well, that's the job I've been doing for the last five months anyway. Before that I worked as a trade's assistant, a painter, an Uber driver, and about ten other different jobs since I left high school twelve years ago now. I never seem to have much money, but I always get by.
I live in Boise, Idaho along with my family. There's my younger brother Billy, twenty-eight, his wife Veronica twenty-seven, and their two young kids, Jason and Melissa at seven and five years old respectively. Billy is a plumber and works for my father's small plumbing business, along with my father John and mother Mary.
I do have a younger sister as well named Brittany at twenty-five, but she's turned out to be the brains in our family, leaving Boise to go to college in California where she now works near San Francisco as an IT Developer. I'm the black sheep of the family though, drifting from job to job, and not getting along too well with my father since I was a teenager.
He's never held back in letting me know how disappointed he is in me, that I didn't get a trade and for refusing to follow him into the family business like my little brother has. I don't really care, I'm happy for my brother to take over once my dad retires, although at only fifty-five, he's still got some more good years of work left in him yet.
My mom tries her best to involve me with my dad, but she's been fighting a losing battle since I was fifteen. We're both as stubborn as each other. Billy on the other hand gets along with everybody, loves his family, loves his job, although I wouldn't call him the sharpest tool in the shed and he's also quick to temper. He's a good plumber but doesn't have a head for business, which is why my dad is so pissed with me. He knows I could run the business, but I just don't care to.
As I wrapped up my shift at the house we're building, I got on my motorbike to head home, or the bar, haven't made my mind up yet. As I rode around the corner, I spotted my brother's car parked in the driveway of a nice house. It must be a friend of Veronica's, the car parked beside it in the driveway looks like a brand-new red Chevrolet which had a big sign on the door for Boise Motors, one of the car yards in town.
One of the perks of working for a builder is that we start early and finish early. It's only 2pm as I head to a bar downtown. Upon leaving the bar after 5pm, I happened to ride past the Boise Motors car yard and saw the same red Chevrolet I'd seen earlier. What surprised me was that an old school and workmate Micky Johnstone was the guy getting into the car. I pulled over, turned around and began to follow him home. Sure enough, he pulled into the same house where I'd seen my sister-in-law parked earlier in the afternoon.
As far as I know, Micky is single like myself. We kind of got along in school, he was always popular and knew how to manipulate people. I guess that's what makes him a good car salesman now. One of the jobs I used to do was as a parts courier, delivering spare parts to the different car yards around Boise, and that's when I caught up with Micky again. We even used to go out together a few times for beers and women. Although I usually ended up with the beers, and Micky with the women.
Yeah, he was a player alright. A real lady's man. So, what the fuck is Veronica doing at his house after lunch on a Wednesday when Billy's at work and the kids are in school? The obvious crossed my mind, but I refused to believe it. Billy and Veronica seem to me to be happy and in love with a young family. They started dating when Veronika was in her senior year at high school and were later married before either of them had turned twenty. Billy was almost twenty-one when his son was born, although I did get him drunk anyway, what else are older brothers for?
I figured there had to be an explanation for why Veronica would be visiting Micky's house, maybe he now has a girlfriend I don't know about. I put it out of my mind and headed home. I wasn't going to say anything to my brother, I don't really know if there's anything to say.
The weekend went by, I almost got lucky on Saturday night at the bar, but the woman I fancied had overbearing ugly friends that dragged her away from me before I could seal the deal. Fucking ugly bitches.
During the week I was back on the job, but when I left the site on Wednesday, I again spotted my brother's car parked at Micky's place. Micky's red Chevrolet was also parked beside it, as I started to get a sinking feeling in my gut. Does Micky have a girlfriend that Veronica is visiting, or is Veronica Micky's girlfriend? And why would Micky be there if Veronica was visiting his girlfriend? I don't like where this is going.
I get along well with my younger brother Billy, and with his wife Veronica. I used to look out for Billy a lot when we were younger, he always tried to follow me into the crap I was getting into. That's another reason my dad wasn't happy with me. To him, Billy was a good kid that was being led astray by his older, more irresponsible brother. Maybe some of that was true, but Billy was the one wanting to follow me into mischief. I always saw it as my role to make sure he never got into the worst of it, that I protected him a little from what could happen.
Not that Billy couldn't stand up for himself or fight, he could do both of those things. Just that he was too trusting and a little too easy to manipulate on the account of him being not too bright. Some of the guys I knew had no problem trying to take advantage of that and get Billy to do shit he shouldn't be. That's where I always stepped in, telling them to find someone else to do their dirty work.
Veronica and Billy seem like a great match too, with her being the attractive brains of their relationship while Billy is the brawn, the loyal supportive bread winner and father. Veronica also works part-time as an Executive Assistant for a business downtown, and to me she always seemed like a great mom that loves her family. They both have a big mortgage for a nice four-bedroom house and plan on having another kid to go with the two they've already got. So, to think that Veronica could be cheating on Billy with Micky fucking Johnstone of all people is a little hard to swallow.
That weekend I happened to see Micky out at a bar downtown with a couple of other guys from the car yard. When they spotted me, they called me over to join them for a beer or two. While I got along with Micky's workmates a little better than with Micky himself, it was still a good catch-up with the guys I used to work with. What I did find out during the night was that Micky was indeed still single and lives alone. So, what the fuck is Veronica doing there? And what the hell do I tell my brother?
I thought about it during the week, about talking to my brother Billy about what I've discovered. The truth is I don't really know if Veronica's cheating on him with Micky, it just looks that way. Is that really enough to destroy my brother's marriage and family? I know Billy, there's no way in hell he'd put up with Veronica cheating on him. It'd be the end of their marriage for sure.
Then what about the kids? What about their mortgage? She would probably end up staying in the house with full custody of the kids while Billy has to move out, pay rent and then child support with house payments on top as well. To top it off, Billy is already part owner of my parent's plumbing business, would they be forced to sell that or pay out Veronica in a messy divorce too?
This is not good. I need to be sure before I do or say anything.
On Wednesday at 2pm after work I rode past Micky's house once more, yet again I saw my sister-in-law's car parked in his driveway along with Micky's car. This time I went down to the dealership, to see if Micky was still at work. I made up some bullshit reason for dropping by the parts department, talking to the guys I drank with on the weekend. Micky wasn't there, I found out. He goes home for a long lunch every Wednesday. He gets back to the office by 3pm.
Fuck! It looks like my worst fears are true. Veronica is fucking Micky every Wednesday after lunch. Why the fuck would she do this? Why risk everything she's got with my brother and their family? Just for an idiot like Micky Johnstone. It makes no sense to me. But for now, I'm not going to say anything to Billy. I need to think about this, if it's true it'll destroy him.
On Friday, Billy called me to ask if I was interested in going out to a comedy show downtown tonight. I asked him if Veronica was going, maybe I could talk with her at some point during the night. No, he told me she's heading out for 'girl's night' with some of her co-workers and they've got mom and dad playing babysitters for the night. I declined the invite but did take notice of where Billy said Veronica was going, maybe I'll go there for a few drinks and have a quite chat with her.
I got to the large bar downtown a little later than I planned to, I always take too long to get my shit together. I wandered around a bit looking for Veronica, expecting to see her with a group of friends or up on the dance floor. But I saw neither, maybe they left already to go to another bar. I ordered a beer and sat down at a table near the bar contemplating what to do when I saw Veronica leaving a table near the back to go to the ladies' toilets.
I couldn't see who she was sitting with, their table was in a darker part of the bar and was a good distance from where I was sitting. I got up and moved, walking down the opposite side of the bar to where her table is. The dance floor was in between where I was now sitting drinking my beer as I watched Veronica return to the table.
