I hate the quarterly parties that my wife's company holds, but here I am wasting another perfectly good Friday night. They are held at a local hotel, in a private room off of the bar. The night starts with a catered meal followed by the usual state of the company speech and a short awards ceremony. That wraps up with an announcement that the room is reserved until the bar closes and the DJ starts playing.
I had noticed at the first one that most of the people attending were alone and commented to my wife how odd it was that the business had so many single employees.
"Oh, most of them are married. Just not many spouses come to these. You don't have to either."
I thought that was weird, but not as weird as when the DJ stopped and announced that family hour was over, despite nobody having brought their kids. I was having fun dancing with my wife and wanted to stay, but she said it was time for us to go. I noticed almost all of the other couples were leaving as well. It went exactly the same every quarter. She never tried to talk me out of going, but she always made it clear my attendance wasn't necessary. That did nothing to calm my nerves, so I never missed even one. I was wary, but there was nothing else in her behavior to make me suspicious.
Which brings me back to tonight.
"Honey, we need to talk."
