The Affair (The Relationship Quo Series Book 5)

by Nicole Strycharz

  “Addio.”

  LYDIA

  On the following Saturday, I found myself at a seven-year-old’s birthday party dressed as Cinderella, while Noah was dressed as Prince Charming.

  Clara, from Sunday school, had begged us to do this for her daughter Erica, and when I agreed back in Summer, I had no idea how much I would abhor the task.

  “You both look perfect,” Clara gushed as soon as we walked into her living room. “Oh, my goodness, Erica will simply scream. She loves Cinderella. Honestly, Lydia, the blonde wig looks good on you, sweetie. And oh, Noah, you shaved!”

  “Have to look the part,” he stroked his bare cheeks.

  “What do you think, as the wife?” Clara asked me with glee. “Yay or nay on the beard?”

  I looked up at Noah. “I think he’s handsome either way.”

  Noah bent and kissed my forehead, squeezing my hip over the abundance of blue tulle and satin.

  “Awe,” Clara held her hands in prayer fashion and blushed. “You two are a true testament to the beauty of marriage. God wrote a special love story just for you. I seriously have goosebumps about it. How ironic that you would be dressed this way for my daughter?”

  I stifled the need to vomit again.

  “She’s the queen of my heart,” Noah lifted my hand and kissed the back. “I really am lucky.”

  I gave a fake smile instead of talking because I can’t trust my mouth.

  And you are my king David, regularly visiting the roof of your Bathsheba.

  “Okay, stop,” Clara waved us off. “You’ll make me cry. Stop. Go out in the backyard. The party started about ten minutes ago. Just be warned, my sons brought out their Nerf guns and that’s keeping them occupied on the other side of the house. The newer ones can hurt.”

  Noah and I walked side by side to the back where a big, glass, sliding door separated us from the outside.

  “Oh,” he stopped us and faced me. “Listen, my mom and dad want to come for Thanksgiving, I don’t know why this slipped my mind.”

  I know why. Because his mind is filled with sugar plums and adultery.

  “That’s fine,” I smoothed his blue sash. Why does he have to be handsome? Why? Dressed as a prince, it’s worse. He was my prince. Was. “I’ll plan for it.”

  He took my hands and entwined our fingers. “You look beautiful.”

  I felt my cheeks warm. “Thank you.”

  “No, I mean it. You outdo Cinderella. I love you,” he held both sides of my face and bent to kiss me. I let him, feeling a sense of false comfort again.

  “I love you too,” I tightened my hands on his wrists. “I’ll always love you,” I felt this was my opportunity to put it out there. “No matter what. I promised myself to you, and no matter… what… I would love you. I love you, Noah.”

  He caught the weakness in how I said his name, making the moment less sentimental, more unusual. “Are you alright?”

  I pulled my shoulders back. “I’m fine, I just wanted you to know that… my love is forever.”

  Guilt. I would recognize it anywhere. It washed over his features, pressing his shoulders down, drawing away his eyes. He held me, as though I was the one at risk for straying.

  “I haven’t been around lately,” he laid his cheek on the top of my head.

  I waited with bated breath for a confession. Even a ‘we need to talk later’. None ever came.

  “Maybe we should plan a weekend,” I moved back to look up and see him. “Just you and me. We could go do something fun. Remember that rented cabin we had? Or we could go to Buffalo! The Mansion on Delaware Avenue! We always said that would be fun.” I desperately thought up better bait. “I could even… buy something special. Something pretty for when we are alone,” I wrapped my arms around his neck.

  “That’s right, we still have baby making to do,” he pretended it was forgotten, making me laugh even as this depresses me. “That all sounds fabulous.” He felt up the sides of my body, heating my blood. “Let’s do it.”

  “Really?”

  “Absolutely. I’ll put in my time and we can plan it out.”

  My heart inflated. “Okay, I’ll start shopping and looking up locations.”

  He kissed me, a lengthy, sweet kiss. “Now, let’s go be fictional characters,” he teased, escorting me out into the back yard.

  Erica almost cried with excitement. She didn’t seem to realize we were Lydia and Noah from church. In her mind, we were just Cinderella and the Prince. We took pictures with her and sat on either side of her as she opened gifts.

  She made me ache for children. I want this. I want this with Noah. He is a model father, doting on Erica, making her laugh. He would be great with a daughter. We are ready made parents. We just need the baby.

  As another three hours go by, I stand behind Noah’s chair caressing the back of his neck while the men talk in a circle. They discuss many topics, all church-related. I spaced out for a time, used to the hum of men’s voices. Until…

  “What we really need is a marriage counseling program,” Stan said. Stan is Noah’s second up with Youth stuff. I’m surprised he even mentioned something outside the Youth. “Couples counseling couples. For instance, you and Lydia have been married for five years. You could counsel newlyweds or engaged couples, knowing the trials of that first year. I feel there shouldn’t be too big a gap,” Stan ran his hand over his head, brushing over his bald spot. “Cynthia and I have been married twenty years, we go through things newlyweds wouldn’t understand and we aren’t close enough to it to remember it all that well,” the men laughed.

  I went still as Noah drank from his water bottle.

  “Would you consider it?” Reverend Hammond asked.

  “Consider counseling?” Noah echoed. “Well…”

  “Think about it, pray on it,” Stan put in. “But you and Lydia are a great example of waiting for the right person, courtship over dating, and saving one’s self for marriage.”

  I interjected. “We are definitely devoted,” I said the rest carefully. “But I don’t think we are qualified to council. We have faults in our marriage like everyone does and even after five years, we… we’re still learning.”

  Noah was nodding and I was glad he agreed.

  “Lydia,” Reverend Hammond said my name the way he would if I was two and about to touch an electric outlet. “Let Noah, as your head covering, pray on this a while. Be ready to support him no matter what he decides. That’s why God gave women as such a precious gift. You are our support, our helpmates. Try not to override him.”

  I shut my mouth and froze.

  Noah sat forward, away from my touch and dangled his hands between his knees. “I don’t know… Lydia has a point; we have places we work on daily; it would feel a little hypocritical for us to deal out marital advice. Plus, that sounds like something senior couples would be better at.”

  Stan put his own water bottle down beside his folding chair. It was cold but everyone had coats, Noah and I had thick capes.

  Stan leveled. “Alright, let’s go about this another way. You come home, Lydia is exhausted, and just made dinner. She says her back hurts… what should you do, as a caring husband to help out?”

  Noah answered without hesitation. “The dishes, tell her to go lay down…”

  “And if the two of you fight, and I mean a bad argument where tempers flare, what’s the answer to that?”

  “Sitting down together, talking it out once we had time to calm down… communication, I guess.”

  Stan then said, “Pretty woman at the office is flirting with you, what should you do?”

  “Make it clear that I’m married and put a respectable distance between myself and the woman at my office.”

  “There,” Stan points at him. “All right answers. You know what it takes to build a lasting and loving marriage and helping other couples could help you two as well.”

  My blood feels cold hearing Noah deal advice he can’t take. He must be thinking about Ruby; about how muc
h it would hurt me. He doesn’t know that I know, so he should be thinking about the horrible pain he will inflict on me when the truth comes out.

  He must tell them no because he’s not worthy of teaching some newlywed man not to give in to sexual temptation. He is lying and cheating on me weekly. He can’t possibly agree to—

  “That’s true,” I heard Noah say. He looked behind himself to see me. “It could bring you and me even closer. We could at least consider it, right?”

  How do I object without a genuine cause?

  “We could talk about it,” I tried to say.

  “Noah,” The Reverend Hammond interrupts our silent communication. “You pray on it,” he stung.

  Noah stroked where his beard should be, giving the elders of our congregation his full attention. “I accept…”

  My mouth fell open, making my feelings obvious behind him, but they are all looking at Noah, not me.

  “Good,” Stan clapped his hands. “Very good!”

  “I think it would be a way for Lydia and me to strengthen our relationship and give back at the same time.” Noah puts his hand out for mine, and when I take it, he leads me around his chair so he can hold my hip again. The look of utter astonishment still ripe on my face. “I want us to do this.”

  “I can’t be prouder of your choice,” Reverend Hammond lowered his voice drastically, meaning some private issue is about to be revealed. “One of the reasons we are approaching you on this is because of Jason Kessens… you remember Jason? He just graduated from college.”

  Noah nods.

  “Well,” Hammond went on. “He wants to ask his girlfriend of two years to marry him. They haven’t exactly been in a chaste relationship, but the trouble is, he admitted he sometimes gets his head turned by other women. I want him to understand the sanctity of marriage. If he isn’t ready to commit himself to one bride, he needs to wait. God should be the central focus of his life and his future marriage. Just like you and Lydia.”

  I feel like I’m in some freak universe or that I might be going crazy, as Noah, with a concerned posture, listens.

  “No one should enter a holy union with a weak constitution… toward fidelity,” Noah stated, pressing his palms down his Prince Charming tights.

  “Exactly,” Stan agrees. “He needs guidance. He’s comfortable with you, I think that you and Lydia should coach them.”

  Clara comes to stand by me and grins. “This sounds exciting,” she whispered.

  I can’t find my tongue.

  “Noah is such a strong man, such faith, so much direction in life,” she puts her arm around me, and we both look down at my husband while he talks more in depth about counseling. “He really is a perfect Prince Charming, isn’t he?” Clara finished.

  And that was when I felt it.

  The snap.

  It was like a rubber band in the back of my skull. The same one Lorenzo described.

  All my sadness and suffering from the past few weeks after discovering his lies turned to fury. White-hot anger that fumed.

  The only thing that distracted me from it was a sharp pain to the rib.

  “Gus!” Clara screamed. “Do not shoot at Mrs. Spencer!”

  Gus laughed, not giving two cents.

  My mild discomfort from the nerf gun bullet faded away when I saw the opportunity I had.

  “Gus!” Clara yelled again when three of his friends came running, the same big plastic guns in hand.

  I laughed. “It’s okay, Clara, they’re just being boys.” I held up the hem of my Cinderella dress and met Gus in the lawn. “Hey, honey, can I borrow that?”

  Gus frowned at me, handing over the gun.

  “How do I—” I asked.

  He showed me where the trigger was and directly after being told, I took it fully from him and aimed it.

  Noah was bringing his water bottle to his lips for a drink, when the bullet slammed into the side of the bottle, shooting it out of his hand.

  When he looked up at me, I saw a flicker of real fear, and it made me giddy with hate. Now I know why evil villains laugh in movies.

  “Whoa!” Stan laughed. “Your wife is a good shot.”

  “Caught me off guard,” Hammond held his chest, surprised.

  “Honey, that was a little close to my face,” Noah teased nervously.

  I lifted the gun again while Gus and his friends went into hysterics behind me. “It’s just a little harmless fun,” I said.

  “Just be careful,” Clara warned. “The new ones can hurt if—”

  I shot at Noah again and clipped him in the ear.

  “Ah! Darn! Lydia, that hurts like—" he yelped.

  I widened my eyes. “You are such a joker! They can’t hurt that bad, it’s a children’s toy!”

  “Shoot him again!” one of Gus’ friends yelled.

  I aimed my weapon.

  Noah stood from his chair. “Lydia, I’m serious. My ear is swelling, those things hurt.”

  “Nah,” I shot from the hip, getting him in the groin.

  He let out a squeaky yelp and bent over, grabbing where the bullet connected. Maybe in jeans, it would have been a light flick, but in Charming tights…

  “Oops,” I touched my throat.

  Gus ran to the porch, grabbed another less powerful nerf gun and came running back. “Shoot him!” he commanded the others.

  There was a blaze of nerf bullets and they all hit Noah.

  The elders sitting around him jumped up and fled.

  While I was possessed by this vengeful demon, Gus taught me in a frenzy how to load more bullets and then the group of us chased Noah around the yard. The elders and the other parents seemed to think it was funny. It looked like a couple and a bunch of children playing around, but I think Noah knew. I don’t think he knows why or if he knows I’m getting pleasure from it, but he’s running for real.

  And it was all so healing for me, until…

  Chapter Eight

  LORENZO

  “You shot him in the eye?” I repeated over the phone.

  “It was an accident.”

  “Bull shit.”

  “Don’t curse!”

  I put the phone to my other ear while I walked my kitchen at the restaurant, dictating with hand gestures to my crew. “You shot your husband in the eye,” I accused.

  “He turned around at the last minute,” she huffed. “I feel bad.”

  “Why?”

  “His eye is still swollen shut. We had to go to a doctor, and his ears, yes I shot both, are twice they’re usual size.”

  “Then Ruby will have handlebars to steer him when he’s muff diving,” I said once I was further from the staff, retreated into a corner to oversee.

  “What is muff diving?” she asked.

  I took the phone away to look down at it. What rock was she under? “Muff diving…” I said with the phone to my ear again. “Going down, head, eat out…” I waited for a bell to ring in her head.

  “Going down to eat out where? You aren’t making sense…”

  “Hold on,” I muted the call and went up behind Liam, making him jump when he saw where I was. “Man the kitchen,” was all I said before going out the back door. I took my time getting out a cigarette and lighting it. I’ll need one for this conversation. When I unmute the phone, I blow a steady stream of smoke before answering. “Oral sex.”

  Her long “oh,” has me shaking my head.

  “Noah wouldn’t do that,” she announced like I’m silly. “He doesn’t like new stuff with sex.”

  I can’t believe the reality of what she’s saying. “Oral sex is not new.”

  “Whatever, he’s not into kinky things.”

  “Oral is kinky?”

  “It’s not the way God intended it. You can’t make a baby that way.”

  I have never wanted to laugh so much in my life. But I also know that laughing at her will only close her up. “Have you ever had oral sex?”

  Her long pause answers that.

  “No man has
ever gone down on you?” I ask.

  Quieter, still. “Noah is the only man I was ever with…”

  “Jesus.”

  “Don’t.”

  “No wonder you’re wrapped up tighter than airport security.”

  “Lorenzo, don’t mock the way I am. I was raised to wait for one man, not to just give myself to every Tom, Dick, or Harry.”

  “You would have benefited from more Dick.”

  “I asked you not to go there.”

  “Lydia,” I put my foot to the wall behind me, leaning back. “Your husband takes advantage of your innocence, so he doesn’t have to work hard to please you. I guarantee that Ruby and him do it. It’s a slightly important part of sex that most normal adults practice. Any man that doesn’t go down on his woman is just selfish and inept.”

  I took another drag, waiting for her response.

  “I…I have to go,” she lost the light tilt to her voice. “I think… I’m burning something.”

  “Lydia—”

  “I have to go— bye.”

  As soon as she hung up, I felt a hole in my chest. It was unexpected.

  I pushed her too far.

  I don’t fully understand the glass bubble that she was reared in. I don’t see the benefit of any girl being raised to be an object for someone else. I have no doubt that Noah gets his rocks off with Lydia, but was he even aware of whether she got hers?

  Was she aware?

  It seems unfair to me— simple math, but to Lydia, it’s a taboo topic.

  After work, I went home and then to bed.

  In the morning, I made my way to the restaurant before dawn. I made the coffee, and I sat by the window.

  But Lydia didn’t come.

  It had turned into our ritual for a week straight. She would walk past the window, waving, and I would go unlock the doors. She would come to sit, and for some strange reason, while I poured her coffee and we sat, we didn’t speak. It was the way it was with my father and me. No words. Private thoughts. Shared space.

  But Lydia didn’t come.

  As the day went on I found myself to be short with everyone. Even Giada.

  “Why the fuck, do the menus look like shit?”

  “Because we had a crazy lunch hour,” said Giada.