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Sorry. This is an edited version of my earlier story. I confused the names of the characters in the earlier version and fixed it here. Otherwise, it's still the same story.
This is my take on the classic line. Best laid plans... and all that. I hope you find it amusing.
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It was Friday evening, just a few weeks before our tenth anniversary, and I was coming through the front door of my home. It had been a long, hard week and I was ready to relax. I knew that my wife, Debbie, would be home by now and starting dinner. I love Friday nights. We'll cook together, take our time, talk, laugh, eat, and on a good night we'll go to bed early. I was so tired, I thought that going to bed early tonight might just mean getting a good night's sleep.
I walked into the living room where my wife and Greg, a good friend from just a few houses away, stood and looked nervously in my direction. Greg and his wife, Janet, were frequent visitors to our home. We spent many evenings together talking over dinner and playing games. Janet was a lovely woman with a wonderful heart and I admired her tremendously. Secretly, I had a bit of a crush on her, although I would never do anything to betray my wife.
Both Greg and my wife were telegraphing every thought in their heads and I missed every single one of them. I was one clueless bastard. All I saw was the woman I loved and my good friend from down the street, and I'm thinking "OK, let's fire up the grill and char some steaks!"
The looks on their faces finally got through to me and I say, "What's with you two? You look like the dog died and we don't even have a dog. Is everything ok?"
"Honey, we need to talk."
I look at her and I don't think I've ever seen my wife so nervous. I'm starting to worry. "Sure, dear. How about I get changed first, or is this an emergency?"
"Henry, we need to talk now before I lose my nerve."
"OK, now you're scaring me. What's wrong?"
In a voice so quiet it's almost like she's talking to herself, "I had this all worked out, but now that I'm trying to say it I can't seem to find the words." She glanced at Greg, who nodded, and then she looked back at me. "Henry, I love you and you know that, but I'm not `in love' with you anymore. I don't know if I ever was. I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you." She paused for a long time and I just looked at her in disbelief.
My head was spinning and my stomach was churning. I was feeling sick and I didn't know what I would do first -- pass out or throw up.
"Henry, I want a divorce."
There it was. She dropped the bomb on me not two minutes after I walked through the door.
"Is this some kind of joke? If it is, I have to tell you it's been a bad week and your timing sucks!"
"It's not a joke, Henry. I'm sorry. I do want a divorce."
"You've never once told me you were unhappy with me and the first words out of your mouth are `I want a divorce.'"?
"I'm sorry. We didn't want to hurt you, Henry. It all got out of control. It just seems like..."
"Wait! What do you mean, `We'? Who's `we'? Are you involved with someone else?" My God, I can be thick sometimes. You think you understand someone and then when the truth is literally standing there right in front of you and you can't see it, you fall into denial and confusion. Debbie wasn't answering my question and then I noticed Greg put his arm around my wife. "You mean Greg? You're fucking Greg?"
"Believe me, honey, we didn't mean for it to happen. It was an accident and we fell in love."
"It was an accident? An accident is when you trip and spill your drink! Did he trip and spill his dick into you? You mean that kind of accident?" I was seething.
Somehow, Greg managed to find his voice at this point and he stopped hiding behind my wife. "There's no need to talk like that, Henry. We never set out to hurt you. In a perfect world, you would never know. But we fell in love and we can't keep hiding it any longer."
Those words echoed in my brain, "...you would never know." He didn't say, "...you would never have known." That would suggest past tense. It might even allow for regret. What he said was forward thinking. Those were the words of someone who planned, lied, and schemed, who manipulated people to get what he wanted and what he wanted was my wife.
"So you just planned to sneak around, tell lies, fuck my wife, and pretend to be my friend while you stab me in the back? You know, the usual chicken shit cowardly crap that no real man would ever do."
"Watch it, asshole."
"Watch what? You think you can claim any real manhood now? A real man doesn't cheat on his wife and he doesn't fuck another man's wife. He doesn't sneak around like a coward. A real man doesn't lie and betray the people that trust him." I could see him balling his fists and I was hoping and praying he would take a swing at me. All the time he's known me I've been a caring, patient, and helpful neighbor and friend. He's never seen what I'm capable of and right now I had the will to kill the son-of-a-bitch. All I needed was a good excuse.
"Stop it, Greg. We deserve it. We cheated and now we have to face it." At least one of them was looking in a mirror.
"How long? Tell me that much. How long have the two of you been fucking behind my back?"
My loving wife seemed to be fascinated with the carpet. She couldn't take her eyes off it. "About a year." She finally looked at me. "Honey, I swear it wasn't supposed to go like this. The first time was just an impulse. We gave in to temptation. After that, we couldn't stop. It was like a drug. I finally realized that I love Greg and we need to make it right."