After KK's affair with her massage therapist ended, things were normal for quite a while. About 18 months or so later, I became suspicious, and later confirmed, that my wife had cheated again. This event took place when we were in our thirties.
One of KK's good friends, Katie, finally found "the man of her dreams." A big wedding ceremony was to be held at a resort in St. Maarten. The timing was such that the kids were in school, with both sets of grandparents unavailable to take care of them. I had work conflicts that couldn't be moved, so KK and I would not both be able to attend the wedding together, leaving KK with the choice to go solo, or not attend.
KK was supposed to be in the wedding party, a bridesmaid. I didn't know Katie very well at all, and didn't feel like my presence, or absence for that matter, was of any consequence. It didn't seem like that big of a deal to me at the time.
KK was annoyed, taking my lack of interest in the opportunity to travel and attend the wedding negatively - she kept cajoling me to try and find someone to watch the kids, asking me to cancel my work plans. We got in an argument over it. I ended up asking, "if it's so important, why don't you figure out someone to deal with the kids, then figure out how to cover my work responsibilities."
Eventually it blew over, at least I thought so. KK nagged me a couple more times over the notion of going with her. To appease her, I looked into a sitter, along with trying to juggle my work responsibilities. In the end, it simply didn't pan out. Lots of times with KK there are "Catch-22" things; I found someone we both knew to stay with the kids, but KK didn't feel comfortable. Finally, I had a director's meeting, the date cast in concrete, in conflict with the wedding event.
We got in one final huge argument over it, before I just said, "I'm not going. There's no time left to find a sitter, there's no way I can blow off work for this stupid shit - I don't even know Katie." KK was pissed for a week, but there was no more nagging.
About a month later, KK departed for the wedding event, which was going to span from Friday to the following Sunday, including travel, the bachelorette party, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, an after-party, the ceremony, and reception.
I took KK to the airport mid-morning that Friday - one of the kids was with us, sick, so I didn't go into the terminal with KK. I dropped her curbside with her bags, then went on about the day. During the trip, KK called a couple of times, catching me on one call in the early evening, just after dinner.
The conversation was unremarkable, they were getting ready to go to the bachelorette party. KK seemed impatient, in a hurry to end the call. I remember telling her to "behave, but have a good time."
KK's replied in an angry tone, "What the hell does that mean?"
I said, "I just want you to take care of yourself."
KK said, "I'm fine. Kiss the kids. I gotta go." Then she hung up.
The next call was odd - it was a couple of days later - in the middle of the night, I was pretty certain KK had been drinking - there was lots of background noise that I couldn't quite make out, like the sound of wind, laughter, her speech was slurred, the conversation disjoint and short.
On that call, I cautioned her not to drink too much, told me, "I was not the boss of her."
I suggested, "Just be careful, and take care of yourself."
KK's reply seemed hostile, "You bet your sweet ass I'm taking care of myself!"
She actually hung the phone up on me at that point. The call left me uneasy, as the drinking thing usually doesn't work out for KK - the combination of being petite and not metabolizing alcohol very well almost always led to problems. I eventually managed to go back to sleep.
There were no more phone calls until the morning KK was scheduled to depart for home - she called from the airport to tell me that her flight was leaving on time, to make sure to be at the airport to pick her up. Several hours later, I was at the airport, kids in tow, waiting outside the gate area.
The arrivals screen flashed that her flight had landed, but after thirty minutes, still no wife coming down the escalator. I decided that she must've been seated at the back of the plane, it was probably taking a while to unload the cabin.
I happened to glance up, mostly out of coincidence, just in time to see KK breaking off a too familiar, far too intimate kiss, disengaging an embrace with a strange man! From the distance, I couldn't make out who it was. I only glimpsed him in profile, as he hurried off away from the railing of the mezzanine.
My blood was boiling. I felt my face and ears flush with heat, I looked around at the kids, who were fortunately distracted by all the people traffic - they did not appear to have witnessed mommy kissing some strange dude.
I watched KK, looking sort of wobbly, get onto the escalator - it looked like she was going to trip and fall. I distinctly remember feeling like I was on the verge of passing out; light-headed, angry, enraged, hurt, a flood of conflicting feelings and thoughts, ranging from taking the kids, dumping KK at the airport, to the desire to take her someplace secluded, and fuck her senseless.
KK made it down, steadying herself on the handrail, finally getting off the bottom landing, nearly tripping again. By the time she reached the landing, I'd managed to regain some control over myself, my swirling emotions had reduced to simple anger, combined with nausea. I decided not to make a scene, because of the kids, and the crowded airport lobby.
KK was wearing a sundress (which was really not seasonal for our city, but sort of made sense coming from St. Maarten), and white "stripper shoes" - she seemed to be a little drunk! The outfit struck me as entirely inappropriate - not like a proper wife and mom, as KK's too-high, "fuck me" heels and skimpy dress, were attention-getting and not at all "mom-like."