A note to readers: I know the last chapter (3) said "Part 1" in the description and I intended to write a Part II. The story moved in another direction, seemingly on its own.
2nd note: I try to proofread and edit my stories before I post them. I still miss errors (misspellings, punctuation, incorrect words) from time to time, but I did a particularly poor job on this one. I have re-edited and hopefully it is an improvement.
*****
I stepped out of the car and grabbed my bag from the back seat. She walked around the car and joined me on the sidewalk.
"This has been an amazing time with you. I'm very sad to see it end."
I could see some tears in her eyes but she was maintaining a game face for my benefit. She reached up and tugged on my shirt without looking at me.
"Send me a text when you land, and tell Stephanie a call would be nice. Thank you for everything. It was wonderful spending this week with you."
"Thank you. It's all due to you that I was even here. I could not have had a better time."
I bent down to kiss her and she offered me her cheek just as she had done so many times before this week. I gave her a peck but couldn't resist trailing my hand tenderly across her cheek and chin. I turned and grabbed the handle of my suitcase.
"Tom!"
I hadn't taken two steps when I heard her plaintively call my name. As I turned to her she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. It was a full, deep, passionate kiss. The kind you never want to end.
Janet broke away from me and this time she looked at me. There were tears running down both cheeks.
"We'll see each other, you know," I teased, trying to keep it light.
"I know, but what kind of woman would I be if I allowed my 'husband for a week' to set off on a journey without a proper good bye?"
She forced a smile again as the tears fell silently down her face.
"See you soon," I managed to say as I turned before my own eyes filled.
Before the plane had finished its roll down the runway I had my cell phone out and texted Janet
In response I received a kissy face emoji.
I felt tired, very tired as I waited for my bag at the luggage carousel. I wasn't feeling like a guy returning from an awesome week's vacation. Stephanie had offered to pick me up but knowing the airport would be jammed I told her I'd just take an Uber home.
Slipping my key into the lock of the front door I walked in and called, "I'm home." Steph came bounding out of the den and gave me a kiss.
"Welcome home, and how was your week?" she asked with a suggestion in her voice and a glint in her eye.
"Good, very good."
"Oh, so you won't kiss and tell, either, eh?" she teased.
"Huh?" I was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Well after practically gushing over you the first time you two, shall we say, had relations, my mother became rather terse in her responses to ,my questions about what was happening."
I paused a moment, then said, "Probably best for everyone to let the details pass. We had a nice time together. We went to the beach, out for nice dinners and generally kicked back."
"It's okay, Tom, I don't need to know the particulars. I am the one who set this up, you remember," she playfully teased.
We had dinner, I unpacked my stuff. The 'welcome home sex' was rather uninspired. Not as measured against what Janet and I had done this past week, but measured against what Stephanie and I were capable of and typical achieved. It felt as though neither of us were really into it.
Over the following weeks Steph was working late more often and we were having sex less frequently. One morning while she was in the shower her phone pinged with a text. Since I was nearby I looked at the screen.
was all it said.
Throughout the day at my office I tried to reassure myself that my plan for later that day was just reaffirm that all was well. Like the way the cops in a movie or TV show ask a person for their alibi just so they can 'eliminate them as a suspect'.
Leaning against the column of a building across the street from Stephanie's office I admitted to myself that is suspected something and I wasn't here to cross her name off a list. After an hour and fifty minutes of waiting I saw her exit the revolving door of her building in stream of people, probably those who had been on her elevator.
Trying my best to be stealthy I jaywalked across the street dodging traffic. I reached the opposite sidewalk in time to see Steph turn the corner of her building. The shortest route home was in the opposite direction. As I cleared the corner of the building I spotted her ahead of me. A person behind me bumped into me when I stopped dead in my tracks from shock.
I watched my wife rise up on her toes to meet the kiss from her boss, Kevin whose arm was circling behind her to draw her tight to him. They laughed at each other. I snapped a few shots with my cell. I followed them to a downtown hotel where they went to the desk and after a few minutes stepped away and headed for the elevators. A few more memories for my collection as I snapped a few pics of them entering the hotel, at the desk and waiting for the elevator.
I called a buddy of mine to see if he was interested in grabbing a beer. He replied that he and his wife were just sitting down for dinner. I asked if he might be free for a few minutes after. He read between the lines and told me to come over now, I could eat with them.
I babbled out the story of what I had witnessed, sounding like a court reporter reading back a witness statement. Cal looked at his wife Theresa. Theresa looked at her husband Cal. In near perfect unison they said, "We know."
Apparently at a dinner party we hosted a few months ago Theresa overheard Steph talking to one of her best friends about the guy she was seeing. It had been going on for several months by that time. I sat, looking from one to the other, my mind blank.
Finally, Cal spoke, "We're sorry, Tom. We just didn't know what to do. We just knew it would suck if we told you, it would suck if you found out and maybe there was a slight chance t would all go away."
I neatly arranged three of the photos from my phone into a collage like arrangement with some photo software. I left a yellow stick note with one word on it attached. "DONE," it read.
I packed a bunch of stuff in the same suitcase I last used on the trip to visit Janet at the beach, put a bunch of stuff in the car, drove to a local hotel and was ensconced in a third floor, extended stay room in forty minutes. My phone didn't start pinging with calls, voice mails and texts, all from Stephanie until almost 11, over four and a half hours after I checked in.
Three days after beginning my undetermined stay at the extended stay room, there was a knock on the door and I assumed either the staff was checking to see if I needed anything or somebody had the wrong room. I didn't use the peep hole, I just opened the door. When I looked I was too stunned to say anything.
