Copyright © 2020 - This is an original work by Kalimaxos and is protected under copyright by U.S. copyright law. It is only submitted at Literotica.Com and any submission to any other site has not been authorized by the Author.
This is a short work about business travel just before the Coronavirus lockdown.
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What did she say?
It was Saturday afternoon and we had company over. Jenny and her husband Trev had been our friends since we moved to Houston. We went to dinner with them, to parties in the neighborhood, also to each other's place after a movie or an outing. They were the same age as us, late twenties. All of us are college graduates dealing with college debt, careers, and occasional separations due to business trips by both Trev and my wife Debby.
Deb was getting ready for one and Trev had just left our house for the airport for a trip to the west coast that was his territory. It was our way of life. They traveled and we kept the fires burning at home. Jenny and I had jobs as an accountant, and architect respectively. Our travel was minimal if not rare. Most times, only one of the two couples had a spouse traveling. When that happened, the other spouse would visit the couple in town for dinner or a cookout on the weekend.
After Trev said his goodbyes and took the cab to the airport, I let the girls chat in the kitchen and went to the garage. I cleaned my workbench and then checked the security system we had spent good coin on since the recent robberies in our subdivision. We had microphones and cameras in each room that fed the server in the attic. A connection to our account in the cloud saved everything captured when each device was activated by motion sensors. I could check any room using my phone app or any computer I could log in to. Out of habit, I checked to make sure it was working.
"How was your last trip?" I heard Jenny ask my wife Debby as they sat at the kitchen table.
"It was the usual," Debby snickered. "Work, dinner, bar, and then... eventually... some sleep."
"Is it true what they say about people on business trips screwing around Debby?" Jenny said clearly worried about her husband.
My wife paused before she answered. A pregnant second pause.
"I wouldn't be too concerned Jen," my wife replied taking a sip of her drink. "Trev always comes home to you doesn't he?"
"Yeah, but I wonder what he does when he is alone. If he is alone."
"Jen," my wife reassured her. "He comes home to you... ignore what happens when he is away."
"What do you mean by that Deb?"
"Exactly what I said," my wife replied. "What happens when people are away from home means nothing."
I stood there in shock as my wife's words bounced around and replayed in my head.
"What happens when people are away from home means nothing."
"What happens... when people are away from home... means nothing!"
"What happens when people are away from home means nothing?"
Did she actually say that? I asked myself.
"Debby, what are you saying?" Jenny asked my wife.
But by this point Debby had gotten quiet and more reserved.
"Nothing Jen," she replied cautiously. "Just that you are worried over little. Trev loves you to death. He comes home to you and loves you. His trips are just business. Nothing more."
I could tell that Jenny was not appeased by Debby's comment, but she politely let my wife change the subject. I let them chat for a while before I returned to the kitchen and got myself a cup of coffee. After what I had heard, I wanted my mind to be clear.
After another forty minutes of social banter, Jenny drove herself home and we settled for the night. I was polite to my wife, but cautious. To say what she had said had me on edge would be an understatement. As she went upstairs to take a shower, all kinds of things crossed my mind.
Was she cheating when she was away? Had she done it many times? Just once? Recently? Weeks or months ago? But the way she had said it spoke volumes. Her comment was not one of thoughtful introspection. In fact, there had been no consternation or disapproval in her tone. Just a matter of fact statement. An "it is what it is" acceptance without disapproval of any kind.
What should I do? What does any man do? Do I confront her with just a few words to say? Do I toss four years of marriage down the drain? We had been thinking of starting a family! Was she having sex with people when she traveled? How could I be sure the child would be mine?
Then I did some quick thinking. She usually traveled to Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, and Omaha. Did she have lovers at each stop? Or was there just one lover she met in one place? Was he better looking? Hung better? Thicker, longer?
None of these thoughts made me get hard or excited. Instead all I felt was disappointment, apprehension, and sadness. The woman I loved was cheating on me. As much as I wanted to be wrong, the logical part of my mind said otherwise. My wife Debby, in a slip of the tongue had exposed her infidelity.
I did not sleep with her that night. She came downstairs to get me, but I acted like I was asleep on the couch with my face buried in the pillows. She tried waking me, but I acted like I was in deep sleep and she eventually gave up. Not caring to turn and face her I stayed in that position until I actually drifted to a fitful sleep until the morning.
The first thing I sensed as I began to wake was the smell of coffee and the sound of her walking in sandals in the kitchen. I popped one eye open slightly and saw a cup of coffee not inches away on the table in front of me. Still apprehensive, I said nothing and did not move, but I realized that I was only postponing the inevitable. When I opened my eyes, Debby was standing near the couch in just her sandals and robe. Her blond hair draped over her right shoulder as she looked at me thoughtfully.
I looked up at her and then got up ignoring the coffee. She gave me an anxious look as I passed by her without a word. Locking the bathroom door, I did my morning business and started brushing my teeth. Creaking sounds from just outside the door told me she was standing just outside, but then they drifted off.
That entire morning, we did not say a word to each other. I was glad as I was not ready to talk to her. I was not afraid to confront her. If anything, I was looking forward to it, but I had to know for sure first. I needed information. That was my nature. I never made a move without knowing the score.
Taking my laptop, I settled in the study area we had set up on the corner of our living room. It was a desk that looked toward the living space from the corner and I could work without her seeing the screen.
Debby passed by a few times from the bedrooms to the kitchen but kept away from me. The silence made me angry at her. Why had she not asked me what was wrong? Was this part of her game? After settling down, I focused on my search of private investigators in the cities she traveled to. Filling out forms and writing a description of what I needed done, I then used my private credit card to retain the four detective agencies to investigate my wife next time she was on a trip.
"Are you hungry? She finally asked around two in the afternoon.
I was but did not want to eat with her.
"No," I replied and made like I was busy.
She stared at me from the kitchen trying to figure out what was wrong with me, but I didn't feel like looking back.
Her quiet condemned her in my mind. Any wife who had nothing to hide would have been wondering why her husband had shut down on her. Any wife with nothing to worry about that is.
"Maybe we can go out," I said suddenly and stood up reaching for my wallet, cell phone, and car keys.
She looked surprised, for a few seconds, then she nodded and reached for her purse. She already had her phone in her hand. The same phone she constantly kept on her hand or person. Debby never let that phone out of her sight. And it was password protected.
As we headed for the door, I let her walk out first and stared at her beautiful and youthful figure. The figure that until last night I had thought was mine as my body was hers.
We always took my car when we went out together, so she moved to the passenger side waiting for me to open the door like I always did. With recent events in mind, that was the last thing I wanted to do. But I forced myself to. Whatever happened until she left for her trip on Tuesday, I had to make sure she did not get too suspicious. I thought that I may have blown it already.
"Sorry about today," I said. "I think I made a mistake at work with a project and have to do some quick talking and fixing when I go in on Monday."
"Oh!" she said in relief...then caught herself and acted concerned. "The Johnson project?"
She asked about a house I finished three weeks before. So much for her paying attention during our conversations.
"No," I replied. "Something to do with a future project. I'll do new drawings and correct my mistake this week. It should be OK. I just hate making mistakes."
"You are too hard on yourself," she replied now more relaxed as I had given her an explanation she wanted. "Everyone makes mistakes."
I almost said, 'that's for sure,' but held back.
