Three is a crowd: Has Julie bitten off more than she can chew?

(Continued from last issue)

David and Diane have been married for years; then there is Julie, the young secretary whose axis collides with the couple’s in ways none of them saw coming.

DAVID

It was more than a little ironic that after the evening of love and romance I had had planned, I wound up spending the night alone in the guest room, Diane having locked the bedroom door behind her when she went upstairs.

I could not believe she had figured out that I had been thinking about Julie the previous night; probably something to do with women’s intuition, I thought to myself wryly. Whatever the case was, the result had been the same – a frustrating night, devoid of the kind of action I had been hoping for, and lots of the kind I regretted.

My remorse only grew, and my night went from bad to worse when I heard Diane crying in the middle of the night. I could tell she was trying to stifle the sound of her sobs, as they were muffled, like she was crying into a pillow, or stuffing her mouth with the blanket, but I heard them anyway, and the sound cut me to the core.

I had not meant to hurt her; especially not physically, but I suspected she was not crying over me hitting her but, rather, my relationship with Julie. I, however, was not ready to give that up, especially not with Junior in the picture; but while Diane understood my stand on Junior, I would clearly have to do a better job of shielding her from my relationship with Julie.

Speaking of Julie, I had not planned to see her the next morning, especially since it was a workday, but having been locked out of our bedroom, after I had gotten all my testosterone flowing, I was left with an uncomfortable, unfulfilled sexual energy that I knew I had to get rid of if I was going to get any work done that day, and Julie was the perfect solution.

DIANE

I did not want to cry in front of David, but once I was alone in our room, with the door locked between us, I let it all out and cried my heart out. I cried for what our marriage had once been, and what it had turned into.

I cried because I had vested so much of myself into creating the perfect marriage, family and home, and after it had all started falling apart, I had fought so hard to keep it together, but now all my efforts appeared to have been in vain and I felt like such a failure.

I cried because I had always had a plan to overcome any obstacle that might be thrown at me, but right now I did not know what the future looked like, and I was so tired of fighting to protect what was rightfully mine and, therefore, what I should not have to fight for in the first place.

I eventually cried myself to sleep, and when I woke up, my eyes were sore, my head felt heavy, and there was nothing I wanted to do more than burrow deeper in the covers and hide away from the world. But the alarm had gone, there were the children to get ready for school, and I knew from past experience that no matter how tempting it was, hiding had never solved anything.

David came out of the guest room at the same time I got out of our bedroom to wake up the children.

“Good morning,” he greeted me coolly, clearly not thrilled at having been locked out of our room last night.
“Good morning,” I answered icily.

“Are you taking the kids to school, or would you like me to do it?”
“I’ll do it.”
“Fine,” he nodded, and then went on into our room to get ready for work.

Neither of us mentioned the fiasco that last night had been, and I knew that neither one of us would; like so many couples, we were going to brush the unpleasantness under the rug and move on, and maybe that was the best way to deal with it – to pretend it had never happened.

JULIE

Barely ten minutes after I had kissed Kenneth goodbye, there was a knock at the front door; thinking he must have forgotten his wallet or something, I opened it, fully expecting to see Kenneth looking sheepish and embarrassed at his forgetfulness, and froze in shocked horror, when like a bad dream, I found David standing there instead.

“David! I…..I …I wasn’t expecting you,” I stammered, in nervous surprise.

“Clearly; you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he answered wryly, while brushing past me as he walked in.

My heart was racing as I slowly closed the door behind him; surely it could not just be a bad coincidence that David was showing up only minutes after Kenneth had left? Had he seen him leaving?

The morning traffic was already pretty heavy; what if Kenneth had still been stuck in the area when David drove in?

“Where’s Junior?” he asked, already heading for the bedroom.

Thinking of the disheveled sheets on our bed, my panic levels shot up even higher, as I hurried after him; would he notice that both sides of the bed had been used, or could I explain it away by saying I had tossed and turned in my sleep?

And how about the scent of Kenneth and our lovemaking in the room; surely he would be able to pick up on that? I still could.

I stopped at the doorway to the room, a safe distance from David, who had gone on in, and was standing by Junior’s crib, gently stroking his cheek with his finger, a look of such tender love on his face as he looked down at his sleeping son that I immediately relaxed and my heart rate started to slow down.

Totally enthralled by his son, he had not even glanced at the rest of the room. However, when he did, it was at me, and the look in his eyes had my heart racing even faster than it was before.

It wasn’t a look of anger or suspicion, it was one of desire. And that was worse – far, far worse.

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