Disclaimers
If you find any errors, please remember that I am striving to include something for everyone, and some people are always looking for mistakes.
This is a story. It is not a story about what you would do in this situation, or even what you think should be done. There would be no point in writing a story where everyone's reaction is the same. This overlooks the individuality of the characters and what they, as created by the author, would do. That may not align with what you would do. Please try to keep that in mind when reading.
No sex in this one. Sorry.
Word Count: 3,344
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Gretchen Johnson considered the worst possible scenario.
The explanations were reasonable. Her husband, Cameron (Cam for short), was recently having to work late a couple of times a week, and was also often unavailable to speak with her at lunch, being told he was in meetings. He was a junior vice-president in his company and both he and the company saw him with a bright future.
He told her that they were just busy, some new clients they were trying to sign were making demands and he was being asked to accommodate them. It was for his future, their future, he told her, and she wanted to believe him, but for some reason she didn't. Call it a gut feeling, call it women's intuition, but she was sure there was more to the story.
She didn't want to believe he was cheating on her but she couldn't help it. She would get a whiff of perfume, just a whiff, but when she smelled his shirts while doing the laundry there was nothing there. Had she imagined it? There were no strange charges on the credit cards or money missing from the bank account. Nothing except a feeling.
Until.
Until Maria stopped by one morning after Cam had gone to work. She had been at dinner with her husband last night and had seen Cam at dinner with a woman. She was very beautiful and dressed to kill. Cam had been in his suit, though his tie was missing. They were sitting alone in the back and speaking quietly, intimately.
It could have been a business meeting, but the woman's dress screamed sex, not business. On the other hand, there were no intimate touches across the small table, no gestures of affection except a brief kiss on the cheek when they parted ways at the end of the meal.
Gretchen worked part-time. She considered being Cam's wife to be her primary job, but she also wanted to contribute to the finances herself. Cam didn't ask her to contribute to their monthly expenses, so she used the money she made to treat herself. A new outfit now and again, or a spa day. Perhaps lunch with her friends. She felt better about herself when she made the money she spent on herself.
But Maria's report was fueling those fires. Gretchen knew she was an attractive woman but Cam was, oh God, Cam was a wet dream. They had been married for 12 years and she loved him more every day. His love for her had never seemed to falter, even that fateful day 4 years ago when the doctors told them she couldn't carry children.
Had that changed? Had Cam decided he needed a child and was seeking her replacement, or at least someone that could give him a baby? Would he leave her for the other woman? Or worse, expect her to raise his child, her failure as a woman being thrust in her face every single day?
She didn't spend all her money. She had a tidy savings, thinking she might want to do something special for Cam one day and wanting the funds available, whatever it might prove to be. Did she want to take the next step? Had things gone so far that she needed to have her husband followed? She didn't want to believe they had but the anxiety was eating at her.
She had to know the truth and asking him would do no good. He'd obviously created the cover story -- new clients, meetings, work-related -- and that would be his answer now as well. No, she would have to take that next, horrible step and hope that it was nothing.
She had no idea how to hire a private investigator. She decided it would be like anything else these days: find it on the internet. There were several listings and she just looked at them over and over until one stood out to her. She hadn't thought about it ahead of time but selected one that specialized in female operatives. She wasn't sure why but suddenly that seemed important. She called and was invited to come by that afternoon.
Gretchen signed the contract and paid the fee. She provided Cam's picture and information about his work and regular schedule. She felt terrible even as she did it but she had to find out the truth. She prepaid for a week of surveillance and they would decide if anything further was needed after that.
The week went much the same as the last several had gone. Cam had some meetings during lunch and a couple of evening ones as well. The pictures from lunch seemed like business meetings, in the sense that both Cam and the woman were dressed professionally. And again, no intimate touches except for the cheek kiss at the end.
The woman was pretty, no doubt about that. Her hair was dark blonde, almost brown, and had an attractive face that didn't have, nor require, much makeup. The business suit she wore didn't give much away about her body. She seemed to have decent sized breasts and was certainly slimly built, but no detail could really be discerned.
The evening shots, however, were something different. While Cam was dressed as Maria had described him the time she had seen him, with his suit still on but the tie off, the woman, the same woman, was dressed much different. The clothes weren't slutty, just more 'night out' than 'day at work'.
Gretchen gleaned more about her physically from these pictures. Her breasts were definitely on the larger side, probably C's but maybe small D's. The skirt went to her knees but the calves that extended to her CFM heels were slim but muscular, and well-shaped. She was a very attractive woman and Gretchen certainly couldn't fault Cam for his choice. Not that it made her feel any better.
They always went their separate ways at the end of the meal. No motels, which Gretchen already knew, but no trips out to the car or back to the woman's place. She assumed they were doing it somewhere else, maybe in his office (there was that couch...) or hers. The PI couldn't follow them there.
The operative had tried to get some sort of damning audio, but the conversations were all benign in nature. At lunch they spoke mostly of business, and the woman talked about some health issues her father was having. Her name was Allison and she appeared to be around 30 years old. Cam and Gretchen were each 35, with Cam just 3 months older. The conversations at dinner weren't much different, although the transcripts showed Cam had mentioned her a couple times in passing.
It was clear that the evening meetings Cam was having were with this woman, and when he let her know that Tuesday that he would be having another evening 'business meeting' she was ready. She didn't plan to go in guns blazing, but a confrontation was called for and it would be a spectacle.
Over the course of the week they'd used different restaurants for their meetings, so Gretchen arranged to borrow a friend's car and waited outside Cam's office. She had pulled her hair up and was wearing dark glasses, neither of which she was prone to do normally, and she hoped Cam wouldn't recognize her.
He came out of his office a little after 6:00 and went to his car. She followed him as close as she could, not wanting to lose him but not wanting to be spotted. She breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled into the parking lot for Devereaux's, a steak and seafood place. She parked where she could see the entrance and watched Cam walk in.
She waited about 15 minutes for the woman to arrive before deciding she had probably already been inside. She got out of the car and walked to the restaurant, but rather than going inside she went around the building, looking in windows to see if she could find where they were sitting and make sure they were there.
She finally saw them, seated near the back. She felt a tear leak from one eye as she gave in to the sadness for just a moment. Intellectually, she could understand Cam's desire for a woman that could give him a child, but why did he have to do it like this? Why couldn't he have been honest with her and given her the dignity of a divorce rather than sneaking around.
She made a mental note of where they were seated and made her way to the front entrance. She caught the eye of the hostess and let her know that the party she was meeting was already seated and she would find her way. The hostess just smiled and nodded her head.
Gretchen made one wrong turn but soon saw the table where her cheating bastard of a husband was sitting with the husband-stealing slut. She was still about 10 feet from the table when Allison...that was her name, right...saw her coming. The look on Gretchen's face must have telegraphed her destination because Allison never lost eye contact and then said something to Cam. He turned around and saw his wife storming toward them, and smiled
What the fuck? Why in the hell was he smiling? Or was it laughing? Was he laughing at her? No matter, she charged ahead.
"This is damnedest business meeting I've ever seen, Cameron!"
"Gretch, what are you doing here?"
"Catching you cheating on me, you bastard."
"It's not what you're thinking, Gretchen." Allison tried to interject.
"Shut up, slut!" Gretchen screeched.
This wasn't how Gretchen wanted this to go. She had wanted to remain relatively calm and retain some decorum, but her emotions had gotten the better of her. She was aware of some staff coming her way to deal with the confrontation.
