by RM Johnson
“If that’s the case, why did you come back?”
“To say good-bye.” Monica turned around, about to step back into the bedroom.
“Monica,” Lewis called.
She turned.
Lewis walked up to her. “I’ve never met anyone like you before. You believe me when I tell you that?”
Monica nodded her head.
“I thought we were really good together, and I guess it was stupid of me to think it, but I thought there could’ve been some kind of a future for us.”
Monica looked in Lewis’s eyes, appearing on the verge of tears. “If things were different, then maybe there would’ve been.” She leaned in and gave him a hug. “Good-bye, Lewis.”
45
When Nate stumbled in from the bar he had gone to after seeing his wife with Lewis, Monica was sound asleep, as he figured she would be. She was on her back, the blankets pushed off her. Her nightgown was slightly raised, showing the smooth skin of her thighs.
An image flashed in his mind from earlier, and he wanted his wife that moment. He wanted her to scream for him the way she had for that bastard Lewis.
He stood there, over the bed, in semidarkness.
His head was spinning softly from the few more shots he had at the bar, and he focused closer on his wife’s body. Nate dropped his hand down into his trousers, grabbed himself, and started stroking. How he wanted her at that moment, and he would’ve taken her, but nothing was happening. He pulled harder, stroked faster, but there was no response. He knew it was those damn pills, but something always told him that if he really wanted to have sex, he would be able to override the effects. He found out he could not.
He tried another twenty seconds or so, then disappeared into the bathroom, flipped open the medicine cabinet, grabbed the prescription bottle that was still half full with pills, and poured them down the toilet.
He raised his face, looked himself in the mirror, and asked himself, had he made the biggest mistake of his life?
The next day, after work, Nate walked in his house at what used to be his normal time, sometime after 6 P.M.
Earlier at work, Tori was replaced with a temporary secretary. There was no way the woman could adequately fill Tori’s shoes, but it was enough that she answered the phones and directed the important calls to Nate.
“Phone call for you, Mr. Kenny,” the temp secretary told him over his intercom.
“Who is it?” Nate asked.
“It’s a Tori Thomas.”
Nate was about to tell the new woman that he wouldn’t take her call.
“She says it’s urgent.”
“Put her through, then,” Nate finally said.
When her call was put through, the first thing Nate said was, “I don’t want to hear anything about us, or you getting your job back, because it’s not going to happen.”
Tori didn’t speak for a moment, then she said, “We need to meet.”
“No we don’t.”
“Yes we do,” Tori insisted.
“For what? Everything I’ve wanted to tell you, I’ve said. There’s nothing more.”
“We still need to meet. And just because I haven’t, don’t think I can’t make things really difficult for you. Your wife doesn’t know about the game you’ve been playing with her, but I can fill her in on everything, including me and you,” Tori threatened.
“I’m not worried about that. You have no proof. It’ll be your word against mine, and just who do you think she’ll believe?”
“I don’t know. You wanna find out?”
Nate conceded, and told her he would get back to her when he was able to find time.
Now, he walked through the living room of his house, checked the fridge, but he wasn’t hungry. He stopped in front of the TV, thought of turning it on, but decided not to.
He pulled the knot out of his necktie, and thought a long hot shower would do him good. It was still early, and he figured his wife was still out with Lewis, so he might as well find something to do with himself.
Nate mounted the stairs and started up, thinking about just what he should do with the situation now. The deed had been done, and he had witnessed it with his very eyes.
There really was no longer a need to hire a PI, for Tori had done that work for him. Nate had the photos locked tight in his office safe.
He hadn’t spoken to Lewis yet because he just wasn’t sure how he was going to proceed, but also because he didn’t know how to speak to him without feeling an anger so deep that made him want to literally kill the man.
Nate climbed the final stair, putting him on the second floor, and decided that he would call him, thank him for his services, and try his best not to strangle him. At that time, he would start filing for divorce.
Nate walked past the nursery, thinking of walking in there, for it’d been weeks, but told himself it was still sloppily painted black, and going in there would do nothing but depress him more.
He continued past that room, to his bedroom door. As he walked in, he was surprised to hear the shower running in his bathroom. Stepping just inside the doorway, through the lightly frosted shower glass, he saw his wife’s naked body. He watched her fuzzy image lather, scrub herself, smooth her hands all over her body, her behind, her breasts, in between her legs, and Nate felt himself growing in his pants.
The sensation was almost alien to him, for it had been so long since he had experienced it, and he almost forgot that he had stopped taking the pills, flushed them all down the toilet.
Nate pulled the untied necktie out from his collar, dropped it on the floor at his feet, and slid off his suit jacket. He didn’t know just what he was doing, or why. His movements weren’t inspired or dictated by thought, but the throbbing in between his legs. He wanted his wife right now, and as he pulled his T-shirt over his head, undid his belt buckle, and let his pants fall to the floor, along with his underwear, he told himself he was going to have her.
He stepped out of his shoes, pulled off his socks, was right in front of the shower, about to pull back the shower door.
His wife’s back was to him, so she hadn’t seen him approach, and she all but screamed when the door was opened behind her. She whipped around, holding her scrub pad up to her chest as if she was trying to hide her entire body behind it.
“Nate!” she practically screamed. “You scared me.”
Nate didn’t say anything. Just stepped into the shower, then looked at his wife up and down, lust heavy in his eyes.
Monica must’ve read that look, dropped her eyes down to the massive erection jutting out before him, and said, “You can have the shower. I’m finished.”
She made a move for the shower door, but Nate threw his arm across it.
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am, Nate. I’m going to turn into a prune in a minute.”
“Then you’ll just be a prune.”
Monica looked at him, smiling sheepishly. “Stop playing, and let me out of here,” she said, trying for the door again.
Nate blocked her attempt again, and said, “I’m not playing.” He reached out, grabbed her with heavy hands, and spun her around in the shower, the water crashing down on both their heads.
“Nate!” Monica cried out, trying to pull away from him. “What are you doing!”
Nate didn’t hear her, was overtaken by his lust for her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, still trying to spin her while not slipping on the slick, wet shower floor.
He managed to get behind her, and even though she was still fighting him, he had managed to press her against the shower door. Her entire front half, the side of her face, her full breasts, was pressed to the glass.
She was slick with soap and water, but Nate had a grip around her hips, pulling her ass into him. He grabbed himself, stiff as he could ever remember being.
“Nate!” he heard Monica cry. “What are you doing?”
He slid himself into his wife.
She continued to struggle as he
sunk himself as deep into her as he could go. The pleasure was so intense that he no longer paid attention to her cries or her struggling. He focused on the feeling, on how long it’d been since he had felt her like this, how good it was to him that very moment.
Nate let out a moan, as he grabbed tighter on to her soft behind, and then, surprised, he heard his wife moan with him.
He felt her push herself further back into him, felt her open up for him.
She looked over her shoulder at him. “Does it feel good?” she asked.
“Yes,” Nate could barely say. “It feels good.”
Half an hour later, Nate lay in bed with his arms around Monica. He felt close to her, felt her warmth, could feel her faint heartbeat through her back. He breathed in the scent of her hair, kissing her on the neck.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you in there,” he whispered in her ear.
“You didn’t. It felt good. You just surprised me. It’s been so long, I didn’t think you wanted me anymore.”
That moment, Nate felt compelled to tell her everything that had been happening, everything that he had done.
“No. I could never stop wanting you,” he said, and pulled her closer.
Later, after Monica had fallen asleep, Nate lifted up his head, looked over at the clock, and then down at his wife. It was 11:25 P.M.
He leaned in over her, pushed her hair away from her face, and kissed her gently on her cheek.
Nate quietly pulled himself from bed, grabbed his bathrobe off the hook on the back of the bathroom door, and left the bedroom, looking back over his shoulder at his wife before leaving.
Downstairs in the living room, Nate pulled the cords on the blinds, parting them to look out on the city. He stood there, inches away from the glass, thinking about what just happened, and how he truly felt about his wife. He loved her. He had always loved her, even after she told him their child had died; even after he had caught her in that lie, and found out that she would never be able to give him children, he had loved her.
He was angry as hell, bitter, and resentful. Those negative emotions must’ve masked his true feelings for his wife, had him thinking differently about her, but the true feelings had always been there, as they were right now.
So what did that mean to him? he asked himself. Was he just to scrap all the work he put forth to place his wife in a position where he could divorce her and not be penalized? Yes, he thought, smiling a little, feeling happy that he wouldn’t have to go through hurting her like he thought he would. And now, that meant that he could call up Lewis, tell him his services were no longer needed, because he was claiming his wife again. He would also tell him to hand back over the Cadillac, the other belongings, and get his ass out of his town house.
Yeah, Nate thought to himself, smiling wider, feeling content. It would be a nice moment for him.
He would do all those things, and everything would work out just fine between him and his wife, Nate thought.
But what about children? The issue that started all of this, what about that? It would have to be resolved, he knew, and regardless of what he did, or how deeply he felt about his wife, he knew that that issue would have to be taken care of in order for them to make it.
The next morning, Nate came downstairs, dressed for work, and found Monica wearing an apron, and setting the table for breakfast.
“Have a seat, Mr. Kenny,” Monica said, cheerfully, pulling his chair out.
Nate took his seat, and received the kiss Monica leaned over to give him on his lips. She grabbed the morning paper off the chair on the other side of him, opened it up, and placed it in his lap.
“There you are, sir,” Monica said. “Breakfast will be ready in a jiffy.”
“Someone’s feeling good this morning,” Nate said.
“That’s because I had a wonderful time last night,” Monica said, spooning eggs onto a plate for her husband.
“And I had a wonderful time, too.” Nate smiled.
Monica brought Nate’s plate over, set it before him, and sat on the opposite side of the table, staring at him, a content smile on her face.
Nate lifted some of the food on his fork to his mouth and was about to eat it when he stopped, noticing Monica. “What?” he said.
“I love you, Nate.”
“Well, I love you too, baby,” Nate said. “But I know you’re just saying that because I gave you some good sex last night.”
“Okay, yeah. It was the sex. How about we do it again tonight? Do you have to work late?”
And there it was. Normally, Nate knew, his wife would’ve been with Lewis. But he realized now, that had to be only because Nate was making himself unavailable, rendered himself incapable of fulfilling his wife’s needs. But now that he was back, her need to see Lewis was obviously gone. If there ever truly was one.
“No,” Nate said, looking forward to putting the huge mess behind him. “I don’t have to work late again.”
46
All during the first couple of hours at work, Monica couldn’t stop smiling.
“All right,” Tabatha finally said, walking over, carrying half a dozen suits. “What’s going on with you?”
“What are you talking about?” Monica said, still smiling.
“You had that stupid grin on your face since you walked in here this morning. Is your face stuck like that, or what?”
“You aren’t glad to see me happy?”
“Yes. Very glad, but if you’d like to see me happy too, you’d tell me why you keep on smiling.”
Monica quickly glanced around to make sure no customers could overhear her, and then she said, “Tabatha, last night was wonderful!”
“I told you, you need to stop seeing that man. It’s just bad—”
“It wasn’t Lewis. I was with Nate. We made love last night, and it was fantastic.”
“What happened?” Tabatha said. “I thought you said he couldn’t.”
“I don’t know what happened. I was taking a shower, and he surprised me, came in with me, and…” Monica shook her head, smiling more and blushing a little. “This morning, I made him breakfast. He told me how much he loved me. It was like having the old Nate back again. I don’t know what happened.”
“Wow,” Tabatha said, trying to figure it out herself. “Maybe he had been abducted by aliens.”
“After last night and this morning, it’s almost like I can’t even remember what that new Nate was like. All the times he ignored me, and treated me badly, it’s like it’s all been erased, and that made me feel guilty as hell. I felt like confessing to everything at breakfast this morning.”
“Tell me you didn’t, girl. Please tell me you didn’t do that.”
Monica thought about this morning, after they had both finished eating, and were just staring across the table at each other.
“Monica, you all right?” Nate asked her.
“There’s something I really feel I should tell you.”
“What is it?”
“Over the past few weeks, you’ve been treating me differently. You wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t touch me, and you were hardly ever home.” Monica looked away from Nate, down at her plate, swallowed hard, then looked up at him again. “I was lonely and—”
“Monica!” Nate stopped her. “Whatever you’re about to say, I don’t want to hear it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I did treat you badly, I admit that, and whatever you did in retaliation to that, or to get you through that, you did because you needed to. But as long as that’s done, as long as it’s over, then I don’t need to hear about it. Okay?”
“Okay,” Monica said.
Tabatha looked at her with shock in her eyes. “Do you think he knew what you were talking about?”
“I don’t know.”
“It sounded like he did.”
“He couldn’t have,” Monica said, thinking back. “No. He doesn’t know. His reaction would’ve been a lot different. He wouldn’t have been that calm abo
ut it.”
“Then everything is fine with Nate,” Tabatha said. “But what are you going to with Lewis?”
“I ended it with him the other night.”
“Then that’s that. Everything really is cool.”
“Not really,” Monica said, looking concerned. “He’s been calling my cell phone nonstop, saying how much he misses me, that there’s still a chance for us.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m just going to try to ignore him from now on. Hope he gives up.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Tabatha said, sounding grave.
“Then I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
47
Lewis held the phone to his ear as it continued to ring. After Monica’s recorded message started playing, Lewis angrily hung up the phone.
He had been calling her for the last day and half, leaving messages, and she had not returned any of them. He had to assume that she was seeing his number on her caller ID, and simply ignoring it. But why would she do that?
He knew Monica was having second thoughts about him when she felt she was almost found out. But when he mentioned the chance of the two of them being together, Lewis could’ve sworn he saw her give the proposal a moment of thought before telling him there was no chance.
He picked up the phone again, dialed her number, then quickly hung it up before it had a chance to ring through.
She probably thinks I’m stalking her or something, Lewis thought to himself. If the situation were reversed, and there was some woman that had called him a zillion times over the course of a couple of days, after he had ended it with her, he would probably think the same thing.
That had Lewis thinking, asking himself, just why was he behaving the way he was? Why was he trying to get hold of her, after she had told him that she was done with him?
It was the job. He would miss the money, his new lifestyle, he tried to convince himself, but Lewis knew that wasn’t the real reason.
