Disclaimer - Mature themes, adult language, sex, violence. This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this story are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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It's Only Dinner
- by gstein
She told her husband that it was only dinner but it was more than dinner. This is the anatomy of a wife's dinner date with another man.
It was while they were eating breakfast on Wednesday morning when Emily presented Mark with another piece of a puzzle which Mark had been trying to figure out for over a week.
"Damon is going to call you today," Emily casually mentioned to Mark.
Mark was surprised and asked, "Why is he calling me?"
"Because he wants to talk to you and make sure that you're okay with us having dinner."
"Why?" Mark asked in a surprised tone of voice.
"What do you mean, why?" Emily asked.
"Why does he want to talk to me? You've told him you'll go with him. And you've told me you're going with him. So it's a done deal, you're going to dinner with him. So why is he calling me? And why is he calling now?" Mark asked sarcastically.
"Because he's a gentleman and he wants to do the right thing."
"Oh now he's going to call me and ask for permission to take my wife on a date and that makes him a gentleman?" Mark asked in his sarcastic tone of voice.
Emily stared at Mark with an irritated look on her face.
"Mark! I've already told you this dinner isn't a date! It's only dinner! It's only dinner with a man I'm working with on the city's climate change project! That's all it is and nothing more! Please stop saying it's a date because it's not! Stop trying to blow this dinner up into something it's not!" Emily almost screamed but didn't.
"Okay. Okay. I hear you. I got it," Mark said. But then he added, "But what if I say no?"
From across the kitchen Emily glared at Mark and said to him, "What do you mean, what if you say no?"
"I mean when he and I talk and he asks me for permission to take you out to dinner, what if I tell him no, that's what I mean," Mark said.
Emily was now getting irritated with Mark.
"First, he's not going to ask you for permission to take me out to dinner. And second, we're both adults and we don't need your permission. This is just a courtesy to you. He's simply going to feel you out and make sure you're comfortable with he and I having this business dinner...,"
Mark interrupted her and said, "And what if I say no?"
"Mark, I know you and I know you're not going to tell him no. I know you'll be a gentleman and tell him you're okay with us going to dinner. So quit trying to make me upset. Just talk to him. Be pleasant and courteous with him. Be the cool, worldly and sophisticated man you are and set him and yourself at ease with this dinner, okay?" Emily said.
Mark really didn't like the idea of talking to Damon but he knew he had no choice. Because by now Mark had figured out where he fit in to her puzzle and that was to support his wife's dinner date with Damon Washington. So he would talk to him and see what he had to say and what he could learn.
Damon Washington was an internationally recognized thought leader and consultant in the field of Climate Change. He had written many papers and published at least six books on the subject. He spoke on Climate Change at many of the Universities across the United States, in the United Kingdom and across Europe. He was a frequent guest commentator on CNN, FOX News, BBC, Sky News and the major US television networks. His social media blog was had close to a million subscribers. And he had testified before both Senate and House committees on Climate Change. So needless to say, Damon was a celebrity, at least in the sphere of climate change.
Now what made this dinner a puzzle was because Emily at first told Mark that she was going to have a dinner with her Climate Change Strategy project team. The whole team. But then, just a few days later, she told him the dinner would be with just a few team members, not the whole team. And then, just a last week, Emily told Mark the dinner was with just Damon Washington because they were going to use the time to discuss some strategies and ideas they wanted to present to the whole team but they needed time together to privately discuss their ideas.
And to Mark all of these different stories sounded fishy and he became suspicious. And now, with Emily telling him that Damon was going to call him to make sure that he was comfortable with their dinner, Mark was even more suspicious. But there was nothing he could do but play along.
"Okay, tell him to call me, but tell him I'm busy and if I don't answer to leave me a message and I'll get back in touch," Mark told Emily.
"Mark!"
"Yes?"
"Mark, when he calls please answer him. He's very busy and doesn't have time to play phone tag with you. So please answer and talk to him," Emily implored.
"And I'm not busy? Have you forgotten that next week I'm leaving for India for four weeks and I have a lot to do to get ready for that trip?"
"Mark, I know you're busy, you're both busy, but please answer his call and you two talk and set each other at ease about this dinner Friday night, okay?" Emily asked.
"Okay! Okay! I'll answer when he calls!"
And after that awkward moment Mark and Emily moved on from talking about her and Damon's dinner to talking about their plans for the day and then they got on with their business.
Of course Mark spent his day anticipating the phone call from Damon that eventually came in just before 4:00 PM. Both men were polite and Mark told Damon that he was comfortable with him taking Emily to dinner. And Damon assured Mark, in a roundabout way, it was just dinner and business and nothing else. That he would pick Emily up at 6:00 and they would have dinner at an upscale restaurant and she would be back home by 10:00 PM at the very latest.
And what he and Damon talked about sounded proper and on the up and up. But after the call Mark was not comfortable. Instead the conversation left him feeling even more certain there was more to this dinner than met the eye. That something was going on with Emily and Damon that wasn't quite right. He could just feel it.
Wednesday evening was uneventful and Thursday came and went without another revelation or discussion about the upcoming dinner. In fact neither Mark nor Emily even mentioned it. The couple were normal as usual but Mark's nagging sense of dread would not subside. Figuratively speaking, it was now screaming in his head that this dinner meeting was just a cover for a tryst. That Emily and Damon were engaged in some promiscuity right under his nose and they had manipulated him into approving it.
Now when the sun came up Friday morning Mark was already out of bed and in his home office and drinking his second cup of coffee. The dreaded day was here and Mark Taylor was already struggling with it. His persistent suspicions of Emily's dinner with Damon had awakened him early and forced him to get up and out of bed. And now sitting alone in his office he wanted to scream - NO! - to the top of his lungs, but he knew that screaming in protest of this dinner date would be a futile act because it was going to happen regardless of what he wanted.
Then a few minutes before 9:00 AM Emily stepped into Mark's office to tell him she was going for a hair and nail appointment and she would be back after lunch. And before he could ask or say anything to her she was gone. And while she was gone Mark struggled with getting any work done because he couldn't get his mind off of Emily seemingly getting her hair and nails done just for...
him
.
