***All characters are over 18 and are fictional. Any resemblance to any real-life persons or situations is purely coincidental.
There is a no sex in this story, but I feel it still belongs in the Loving Wives section. I'm sorry if this disappoints you, but I still hope you give it a chance and hopefully you'll enjoy it.
...
It was around noon when James got the text from his wife, Amanda, letting him know she would be home late because of work. That happens sometimes between them; even he has to occasionally stay later after hours when something comes up at work. It's not a problem for them as long as they text each other about it ahead of time so they aren't surprised later. Since Amanda would be home late, he figured he'd stay later himself to get some extra work done and get a little overtime pay for it. He texted her back to say to let her know he would be staying late at work as well, and she replied with a thumbs-up emoji.
It was nearly 4 p.m. when he realized he had all of his work done for the day. It shouldn't surprise him since it seemed to be a slow work day. He had a few emails to take care of, but other than that, he had nothing else to do. He already promised his wife he would stay late at work, so he figured he'd sneak off for a drink with coworkers instead.
He was about to text his wife about his new plans when the receptionist called him to let him know there was a woman at the front desk asking to speak with him. The woman claimed she was an employee from another branch and was there to speak to him about a private matter.
This happens sometimes. James worked in the Human Resources department and handled work for several branches. Most of the time, the employees in his department did their work over the phone or by email, but occasionally someone comes in directly when there's a bigger issue involved. Sometimes it's because of a benefit or pay issue; other times, it's because they're having a problem with a coworker or supervisor and they didn't want to talk about over the phone. He found that when a woman comes to the office, it's usually the latter.
He told the receptionist to let her in. When he saw her enter the office, he had the distinct impression that he recognized her from somewhere, but he couldn't place it. He assumed he must've seen her somewhere, probably from visiting other branches or at a company function. Being in HR, he had to know a lot of employees within the company, even those he rarely met. But there were still a lot of people he couldn't remember or hadn't met before.
She was an attractive woman, a little shorter than James, with long dark hair. She wore a professional suit with the skirt cut off just above the knees. He could tell she had a good body, probably worked out a lot. He figured she was a full-size C-cup like his wife. Being in his position, he knew he shouldn't be checking out women like that. But he was only human, after all, and sometimes couldn't resist. As long as he didn't look too long or try to say or do anything about it, he would be in no trouble.
When she came around to his desk, he stood up to greet her.
"Hello, I'm James," he introduced himself while extending his hand.
"I'm Brandi," she replied as she shook his hand.
She took a look around and saw five others in the office around them. The office was big, with several filing cabinets and servers for their systems, but it needed a small team to run it.
"Is there somewhere we can talk in private?" she asked.
When James heard something like this from a woman coming into HR, it usually meant they wanted to talk privately about a harassment issue they were having. He has known some women who just wanted to keep quiet about the situation and hoped to resolve it without causing any problems.
"I understand," he said. "Would you prefer to speak to one of the women here? If this is a personal issue, we find talking to another woman--"
"No, it's not that," she assured him. "I came here specifically for you."
He understood and escorted her to the conference room in the back. He figured someone must've referred him to her for whatever personal issue she wanted to discuss.
The conference room wasn't a big room considering how small his department was, but it worked well for the occasional meetings.
"Please have a seat," he said as he closed the door behind them.
"No thank you; I feel like standing," she said.
"No problem. How can I help you?"
Brandi didn't say anything for several seconds, and she was behaving very nervously.
"I can understand if you're nervous, but I assure you that anything you say to me will be private," he told her. "Are you having a problem with a coworker?"
"No, I don't even work for the company," she revealed.
"Alright," he said, feeling a little surprised.
"I'm not sure if you remember, but we met a little over a year ago at Danny and Susan's wedding. They're coworkers of your wife, Amanda."
"Yes, I remember their wedding," said James, realizing that might be where he remembered her from. "But I'm sorry, I'm having trouble remembering you."
"My husband is Pete Russo; he works with your wife at the accounting firm," she continued.
"Now I remember," James said happily. "You're a college professor. You teach economics, is that right?"
"Yes, that's correct," she said smiling.
"Well, Brandi, how can I help you?"
"I'm sorry, but there's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it," she said before taking a deep breath to help her relax. "Your wife and my husband are having an affair."
James was stunned by this revelation. He could barely think straight; his mind was like a website buffering itself while it tried to get to the next page. He wanted to say something to her, to tell her how wrong she was, but he had trouble saying it out loud.
"I know this comes as a shock to you and it might be hard to believe. But it's true; they're having an affair with each other."
"Are you sure?" James asked.
"I'm positive," she said. "I suspected he was cheating on me for quite some time as I saw some unusual texts and emails that seemed to be written in some kind of code. It's not government spy-level stuff, mind you, but when you look at them closely, they're flirty messages and discussions of when and where to meet."
"Are you absolutely certain? I've seen this type of accusation before in my line of work concerning emails, and often it turned out to be absolutely nothing."
"I also got a confirmation from a former secretary who used to work at their firm until recently," she said. "He made up some things about her to have her fired. And apparently Amanda confirmed those allegations in the report. The secretary says she got fired because she found out about their affair."
"OK, right there, that sounds fishy to me," James said, taking a defensive tone. "She was fired as a result of them, so it's possible she made up some nonsense about them out of revenge."
"I'm also friends with someone they work with; she says the secretary was a sweetheart who never did anything bad, so it was hard to believe any of the accusations against her. When she heard this stuff, she confessed to me that she had been hearing rumors about Pete and Amanda but thought it was just dumb office gossip until I told her what the secretary told me."
James didn't know what else to say. There were still some issues with the story which could be explained away as revenge or office rumors, but he had been an HR person long enough to see that sometimes those types of rumors have some truth behind them. He still didn't want to believe that his wife was cheating on him, but the evidence was getting stronger.
"I know this is a lot to lay on you, but I think I have one more bit of proof," said Brandi. "From what I gathered from his emails they're meeting after work today at a hotel. If we go there now, we can catch them on their way in."
"Amanda did say she was staying at work a little longer," said James, suddenly feeling uneasy about what his wife may be up to behind his back.
"I admit, there is a chance I could be wrong," Brandi continued. "And to be honest, I am hoping I am wrong about all of this and I'm just a crazy, jealous wife who is seeing something that isn't there. But it wouldn't hurt to go there to be absolutely certain. And if they are there, it will be a good chance for us to confront them about it."
He still wasn't sure if he should believe any of this. It was a big accusation about his wife. Brandi had some good evidence, but it was still circumstantial. But at the same time, it wouldn't hurt to go to the hotel and be absolutely sure about it. If they showed up together, then Amanda was cheating on him, and he would have to confront them about it. But if they don't show up, at least he'll know it's not true. He would feel stupid about it, but at least it's proof that his wife was faithful to him.
"Fine, I'll go to the hotel with you to be absolutely certain about all of his," said James. "But I really hope none of this is true."
"Me too," she replied.
It was almost 4:30 p.m. by then. Brandi left first, and then ten minutes later James said he was leaving early for the day. He didn't want his coworkers to question why he was leaving early with Brandi, so he left a little bit after her.
She gave him information about the hotel and recommended a good parking spot where his car would not be seen. That part seemed a little peculiar to bring up, but he went along with it.
He met up with her inside the hotel. She took him to a lounge area where she said they could keep an eye on the front door and front desk without being noticed. She even had a couple of newspapers ready for them to cover their faces as they kept a lookout for their spouses. This also felt like a peculiar thing to do, and he made a mental note of it in case he had to come back to it later.
As they sat there, holding up those newspapers, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't held up a newspaper in years. He looked around and didn't see anywhere in the lobby where one could buy a newspaper. There was a small gift shop and a small café in the hotel, but neither of them looked like the type to sell newspapers.
"Where did you get these newspapers?" he asked.
"I bought them just in case we needed them for this stakeout," she replied.
This made him wonder when she might have bought them. Was it on her way over to the hotel? If that was the case, he didn't think she had much time to buy them, given how long it had been since he last saw her at his office and the time it took to meet her at the hotel. Or was it long before she came to see him? That seemed more likely.
"This is a nice hotel," said James. "Not an overly expensive one, but it must still cost a lot of money to pay for one day and night. How did they pay for it? I didn't notice any unusual credit card transactions from my wife. Did you notice anything like that from any of your bank or credit card statements?"
"I noticed some cash withdrawals," said Brandi. "He could be paying all this in cash. Maybe you should check your bank for unusual cash withdrawals too."
"But aren't you supposed to give the hotel a debit or credit card for check-ins as well? They take a small security deposit and then return it if nothing happens to the room. There should be a record in the statements indicating where the payments were going."
"I happen to know that a few employees here have a side hustle where they keep a few rooms off the books for people who want a little privacy without leaving a record about it. You don't even have to put down a card for security deposit, just cash. The managers don't even know about this."
"That is some scam they're pulling," said James. It was a sketchy operation, but he was kind of impressed by how the employees were pulling it off.
"If it comes down to it, I know an employee I could bribe to let us into the room to catch them in the act. But hopefully all we'll need to do is to catch them coming into the hotel. It will be hard to explain what they're doing here together."
