It was late fall now, and Emily and Ted had managed to find ways to see each other on a regular basis. No one had taken notice as far as either of them could tell.
Neither of Emily's parents was big on attending church, so offering her a ride to and from rehearsals for the praise band seemed perfectly natural, and gave them regular opportunities to have private conversations to plan their secret meetings.
On average, they were having "secret dates" about once a week. Ted always waited until his wife had left for work before he left the house, and Emily never went out until both her parents were gone. They didn't bother with the sidewalk pickup after the second time, as they decided if anyone noticed and mentioned it to her parents, she would say Ted had picked her up to go to the church and work on music.
Ted had appointed Emily as his librarian, which meant she was often in his office, making photocopies, sorting and distributing music, and doing general filing. Again, no one seemed to notice that Ted used to do all this on his own, in much less time.
So far, Ted had taken Emily back to his favorite park three more times. As much as he wanted to keep exploring the territory under Emily's clothes, he had restrained himself to some light petting and kissing. This satisfied Emily just fine, as she was as much into the romantic infatuation as the physical sensations. Her young emotions were expanding exponentially, and she was quite sure she was as much in love with Ted as he said he was with her.
Their conversations were seldom sexual, although they did sometimes enjoy some flirty talk and innuendo. Primarily they talked like any dating pair would, and they both were happy with that. It bothered Ted that he couldn't be a "real" boyfriend to Emily yet, as far as taking her places like a proper suitor would, but she assured him that she didn't mind waiting.
Ted had thought out his agenda very carefully, and had shared with Emily his plans to gradually distance himself emotionally from his wife, and then ask for a separation, followed by a divorce. It wouldn't seem rushed, and Emily and Ted both hoped it wouldn't appear to have been planned.
Then, over time, Ted and Emily would let the outside world gradually see them become closer, and it would appear that a friendship was growing into the next natural step.
They had long talks about many subjects, and covered things like how people would react at first to their having a relationship. They discussed how this might affect their relationships with friends and other family members on both sides, but they were so emotionally invested in each other that they were blind to the obvious problems that would arise.
The first red flag anyone saw was a text Emily received from Kayla one evening:
"Hey, not judging, but is there something going on between you and Mister Ted? Y'all seem awfully tight lately."
Emily replied by laughing it off and saying they were just finding out they had a lot in common so she felt really comfortable around him.
She shared the text with Ted, and they redoubled their efforts to be stealthy.
Ted had managed to "behave" for what he considered to be a reasonable time, but parts of him that had lain dormant for years were coming to the surface, encouraged by Emily's teasing and flirting. Ted was remembering what it was like to be young, and to have carnal desires. This weekend, his desires would boil over.
One of Ted's new ideas that brought growth (and revenue) to Sea Coast Baptist Church was the annual talent show. Hosted by the youth group, the fundraiser had filled the fellowship hall with people the first two years since its inception, and ticket sales for this third installment broke all previous records. Ted had the youth do almost all the planning and direction, including advertising, ticket sales, arranging food, auditioning acts, and emceeing the show.
The show was to go on at 7 PM Saturday night, and the church had been buzzing all day with youth group members going in and out. This had required Ted to be at church since 8 AM that morning, as he was the only person there with keys and the alarm code. Emily had accompanied him and stayed all day as well, doing odd jobs in Ted's office as well as going into the fellowship hall to help out.
The last people left around 4 that afternoon. Ted went into his office, where Emily was happily re-organizing his filing system. She had deemed it "atrocious" and had been working on it for a few days now. Ted was perfectly happy with his usual "put it in there and hope you can find it later" system, but was happy to have yet another reason to have Emily nearby.
Ted walked over to the couch in his office that he used as an informal counseling area when he worked with the youth. He flopped onto it with an exaggerated sigh to show he was glad the last person had gone, and it made Emily laugh.
"C'mere, you," he gestured to Emily with a beckoning finger.
"Has everyone gone?" she asked him, and when she got close, he responded by grabbing her arm and playfully pulling her down to sit on his lap.
"If they weren't, would I be doing this?" and he kissed her long and deep.
