Chapter Three
Caleb’s POV
Being a light sleeper had a hell of a lot of drawbacks, like waking up a few times a night whenever a neighbor was moving about, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have its benefits.
Usually I heard Devin when she would come home if I had fallen asleep early, that way I could wake up to spend a little time with her before going back to bed.
Tonight though, I woke up when I heard mumbling coming from somewhere in our apartment.
I had thought I’d heard the shower earlier in the evening but I was also dreaming of having sex in the shower, so I couldn’t be sure about that one.
Looking around our room, I didn’t see my wife, and upon further inspection, I didn’t see her pillow either.
I blinked a few times, wiping the gunk from my eyes, trying to shake the sleep off as I stumbled my way out of bed to the bathroom.
I looked around, turning on the light and noticed her slippers were gone from the bathroom too.
Where is she? Is she sleeping on the couch?
I grabbed my phone and checked the time.
It was late, after-midnight late. I didn’t see any notifications on my lock screen that she would have seen, and I hadn’t pissed her off that I knew about today or yesterday, so I was feeling pretty confused.
I wasn’t entirely sure where her being on the couch was coming from.
I had hidden all the raunchy shit in a text app buried on my homescreen.
She wasn’t technologically inclined, so I knew it was somewhere she’d never find it.
There was no way she’d seen anything of that nature.
Maybe she was talking to her friends?
I wandered back into our room, still groggy as hell after taking a leak.
I looked around the bathroom and it was obvious that she’d taken a shower.
Her scrubs were in the hamper, the puff thing she scrubs her delicious body with was still sudsy and dripping.
Exactly how I hoped she would have woken me up.
The shower had water droplets on the glass door, and I knew she hadn’t been home too long.
Thoughts of my shower sex dream came rushing back to me.
I was quickly stiffening in my pajama pants as I walked down the hallway towards the kitchen.
I was rubbing my hands together, excited at the thought of rubbing them over her soft body when I heard her more clearly.
I was licking my lips, already tasting her on them, when I heard my wife say, ‘At best, it’s an emotional affair. At worst? He’s already fucking her. And in the earlier messages, she mentions me. So does he. Even in more recent messages, asking if I’ve caught on yet.’
I fucking froze in place.
She knew. My face paled as my stomach rolled and I wanted to throw up so bad, but was completely frozen in place from shock and the feeling of impending dread.
Fuck.
I was caught red handed, there was no way I was talking my way out of this situation, but fuck if I wasn’t going to try!
I was pissed she violated my privacy like that, going through my phone.
I never would have done that to her. I would have liked to have talked to her about it before she ran to her fucking friends at the very least!
I had to do something to try to salvage this disastrous mess of a situation.
I hadn’t cheated on Devin. Not physically and I think that could be my saving grace. I’ll just distance myself from Becky.
Problem solved.
“Hang up the phone, Devin. We’re going to talk about what I just heard you say,” I demanded, coming into the kitchen so she could see me from where she sat on the couch. I was sure my face was red, pissed as hell that I’d been stupid enough to get caught flirting with another woman by my wife.
Eventually, every cat gets out of the bag, her grandma used to say.
I used to think she was a bit nutty, but now?
Felt like the old bird was giving a premonition.
The full weight of that statement was hitting me now, seeing her looking at me like that.
Hurt, angry, guarded. Her grip on those walls she was erecting around herself tightened.
This mother fucker, I could see how she was cursing me in that head of hers, exactly what she was thinking.
My fiery, feisty little redhead. I loved how deeply she blushed red, her skin and hair practically the same shade, when she was mad, or turned on.
I knew she was pissed, but she was so beautiful I couldn’t look away.
She let out a dark and humorless chuckle before pinning me with a glare and coldly asking me a few questions.
“Why?” Her eyebrows and nostrils flared, her cheeks heating in anger. “Afraid to tarnish that squeaky clean image you have? Or are you going to tell me I didn’t find an emotional affair, at best, going on with one of your coworkers?”
“I want to be able to talk about this like adults,” I took a breath.
She wasn’t going to listen to me explain what was going on if she was pissed.
I didn’t even know what to say to her at this point, to make what I’d done to her even remotely okay.
I just had to keep from putting my foot in my mouth and I think I’ll be alright.
“Caleb. I don’t think you understand the gravity of this situation we find ourselves in.
I’ve told you before, that I do not like any woman I do not know trying to sell you this version of ‘friendship’.
You asked me not to get close to men who don’t respect our relationship and you promised me the same thing!
” She said, making the air quotes for ‘friendship’.
I knew she was right, but I still had to try to explain.
“I can explain–” I started before she ripped into me again.
But you can’t! When you started mentioning her name more, that you guys were working close together, I told you that I was uncomfortable with it.
You promised you would cut her off. You said she knew you were married.
How is flirting with a married man alright?
” I wanted to say something. But I didn’t know what.
She was right.
“You ‘swore’ to me that she was ‘just a coworker’. Remember that? We had a fight in our bedroom because we were cuddling, post-sex, and you started talking about work the next day and how you guys had a work dinner the next night to celebrate finishing the project? You went on and on about how good things were going at work even with all the late nights.” I dropped my head, completely ashamed at that reminder that I did, indeed, try to defend my ‘friendship’ with this woman.
After having sex with my wife. What she abso-fuckin’-lutely did not need to know, was that Becky had gotten me so worked up, and that’s why I needed her right then.
She continued to rip into me, letting me know what she thought of my indiscretions with someone other than her.
I hated that she found out like this.
“Then, you missed our date night last week! How did you not notice? You went out with coworkers. Again.” I opened my mouth, ready to apologize, to tell her all my wrongs, but she powered on as if I weren’t worth listening to.
“To clarify. What I’m pissed about is that it feels like you dipped out on our date night” she paused, “to go out with her. Again. Because this is the second time you’ve gone out with the coworkers since we got married, and the second time that she has gone too. ”
I should have hidden it better. I didn’t say anything when she finished talking.
I stood there, knowing there was nothing that could make this better right now.
I was fucking up left and right with my wife.
And she was right, like always. We’d only been married six months.
We should still be in the honeymoon phase, where I couldn’t get enough of her.
Not that I could now, but…Becky was just so… tempting.
And it was just flirting. Teasing really. Harmless. Nothing physical or emotional had happened. She was wrong about the emotional affair.
“I love you both. I’ll see you bright and early, Eddie.” She hung up the phone with whom I can only assume was one or both of her best friends. I already knew I was screwed. There was no way she’d forgive me.
“Can I please have a chance to say something?” I practically begged, as she stuck me with a glare, as cold and frigid as Antarctica.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and thought of what to say.
I knew I could do this. I could pitch it so I had a chance to call off the affair before it went further.
I was trying to think of everything I wanted to tell her, and the things I shouldn’t.
Like the kissing at the office, and when we were out with colleagues.
I’ve never taken it further, but she doesn’t need to know any of that.
I heard rustling and opened my eyes to see that she was cocooning herself in blankets.
“She is a colleague. One of whom, I did not realize I was going into murky waters with–” I was trying my best to plead my case with her. That was clearly the wrong thing as she rose from the blankets like a vampire coming out of the coffin. Venom spit from her mouth as she questioned me.
“You didn’t realize?!” She interrupted, looking as if she’d been personally offended while simultaneously like she just smelt something foul.
Which, with her being a doctor? That was definitely saying something.
She had laid back down, turning into the couch cushions to sleep, giving me her back.
I knew this was her telling me she was done with the conversation.
That she might not listen, but I had to try something.
I felt like I was a dead man walking here.