Chapter 4 - Melanie
After Ben’s drunken night, things went back to normal, even better than normal in some ways.
He started coming home on time, and for the first week, his appetite in the bedroom was off the charts.
He even snuck home for a lunchtime quickie one of the days and then surprised me with a romantic dinner at our favorite restaurant.
I knew he was trying to apologize with endless orgasms for having hurt my feelings.
Even after his libido slowed down, he stayed attentive and had several 'thinking of you' gifts delivered to our home while he was at work.
They were never extravagant, as he knew I didn't like wasting money, but one day it was flowers, the next it was cookies from my favorite bakery, and then another time an actual masseuse showed up on our doorstep.
Two weeks later, our blissful bubble popped.
It was late Sunday morning, and I was switching a load of laundry while Ben played golf with some of his buddies when my phone rang.
The phone calls that change your life always come during mundane moments. Moments that, when you look back, you think, if only I knew that nothing would ever be the same again…
“Hey Dad, how are you?” I answered with a smile.
We didn’t usually talk on the weekends. My dad and I spoke several times a week, mostly about the patient record keeping I did for the pharmacy; despite Ben telling me I didn’t need to work and asking me to quit, I hadn’t felt comfortable leaving my father stranded.
Besides, I was good at my job, and over the years, we had expanded from one small family pharmacy into a small chain.
We were even in the process of opening a pharmacy in California because my father wanted to move closer to me.
All those years of helping Ben with his schoolwork had taught me enough about investing that I had been able to help my father make some very lucrative moves a few years ago.
I had tried to include Ben in the conversations, but he was always too busy to discuss the finances of a little pharmacy when he was working with oil tycoons and casino owners.
“Mel…” his voice was rough and gravely. It was so different from his usual affectionate tone that I froze.
“Dad?”
“Mellie, we need you to come home.” His voice broke with emotion.
“What happened? Is it Mom?”
“Grandma passed away last night.” He said quietly.
“What?!” I gasped. “What happened?” I was pretty sure I was in shock.
My grandmother was one of the strongest women I’d ever known, and it had only been a few weeks since our last phone call.
“Last night she collapsed, and this morning when she didn’t show up to church..." his voice sounded shaky, "one of her friends went out to the house to check on her,” his words trailed off, and we sat in silence for a moment. “It seems like she had been sick for a while and hiding it from us all.”
“Sick how?”
“We don’t have the full details yet.”
Again, we went silent for a few long moments while I processed what he had said.
“How is Mom?” I finally asked. If Grandma had been sick and no one noticed, I’m sure my mother was beating herself up.
“She’s at her house with your brother.”
“I’ll book a flight for tonight.” I started moving quickly towards our home office to look up flights.
“Call me back and let me know the details. We will pick you up at the airport.”
After we hung up, I tried calling Ben while I searched for flights on my laptop.
I scowled at my phone when he didn’t answer and tried calling again.
I grimaced at the price of two last-minute flights tonight. Not only would they need to be first class, but they were a few hundred dollars more than the normal first-class price.
“You’d think that if the tickets are still available, then they should be cheaper.” I muttered to myself.
My call went to voicemail a third time.
“You’ve reached Benjamin Landon, leave a message with your name and number and I’ll return your call.”
“Ben, I need you to call me back. Right away.” I hung up and opened our messages.
Me: I need you to call me.
Me: We need to fly home tonight.
I waited a minute to see if he would open my texts, but when he didn’t, I felt my anger rising.
Maybe he left his phone in his bag.
Who did he say he was going with?
Peter?
I pulled up the contact information for Peter and gave him a call.
“Melanie?” Peter asked, sounding surprised.
“Hello Peter, I’m sorry to bother you but I’ve been trying to get ahold of Ben, it’s urgent.”
There was a long pause.
“Uh, I’m not sure… did Ben say he was with me?” Peter cleared his throat.
“Oh, um…” I tried to remember his exact words from that morning: “he said he was going golfing with his work team.” I grimaced, “I thought that you were all on the same team.”
Oh no, I hope that they weren’t purposely excluding Peter, and I just outed Ben…
“Sorry Melanie, I’m not golfing this weekend. I can try to call one of the other guys and check if you’d like.”
“Thank you, I’m really sorry. My family just called and told me that my grandmother passed away, and we are needed in North Dakota tonight,” I explained, embarrassed by my mistake.
“I’m so sorry to hear that. I will have Angela talk to Sydney about his schedule for the next few days to see what we can do to help. Let me make some calls to see if I can track Ben down for you.” Peter said.
I looked at my messages with Ben again, and they still hadn’t been opened.
I called my father back and let him know what time our flight was due to land, and he assured me that my brother would be there to pick us up.
About twenty minutes later, Ben finally called me back.
“Hello.” I said quietly.
“Melanie, why is Peter calling me saying my wife is looking for me?” Ben sounded frustrated.
His tone finally broke me out of my shocked state, and I started to cry.
“Gram died.” I sobbed.
“Shit.” He mumbled, and there was rustling, and then it went silent on his end. I blinked through the tears and pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t ended.
“I’m on my way. It’s going to be okay.” He said. He sounded breathless, and I heard the sound of his car unlocking.
“Why did you mute?” I asked through the sniffles.
“I had to tell the guys I needed to leave. I’ll be home in about twenty minutes, babe.”
“Ok…” I sniffled loudly, “I booked us two tickets back home tonight.”
“What?!” Ben sounded alarmed.
“They need us to come home.”
“I-I don’t think I can just leave right now…” Ben stuttered.
“Peter said he’d make it work.” I snapped. I was starting to get very angry about how unsupportive Ben was being. “This is the same woman who helped pay for our wedding, who paid for a whole semester of your schooling…of course we have to fly home!”
“We will talk about it when I get home. I’ll make some calls and see what I can do.” Ben said in a soothing tone.
“You do that.” I hissed and hung up.
What the fuck is his problem?
I retrieved our luggage from the office closet and went to my room to pack. I tossed Ben’s luggage on the bed but didn’t bother filling it for him.
He can pack his own shit this time if he manages to “see what he can do”.
I decided to pack for a week. I wasn’t sure how long making arrangements took, but I knew I wasn’t coming home until Grandma was laid to rest. When I went into the bathroom to pack my toiletries, I realized that I was still crying.
While I had been making mental lists and filling my suitcase, my tears had kept flowing.
I had just finished putting together my toiletry bag when Ben came running into the bedroom looking disheveled and with tears running down his own face.
“Baby…” he whispered and wrapped his arms around me.
We both stood there and sobbed together.
· · ─ ·?· ─ · ·
I should have known that Ben was lying when he told me that an important client was coming to town and that he couldn’t reschedule them.
I should’ve known because the man I THOUGHT I was married to would’ve been sitting beside me on the plane no matter what. If it had actually been just a client, he would’ve told them to reschedule or find someone else.
I had been too angry and too heartbroken to dissect his lies.
All I had cared about was getting to my family.
So, when he gave his flimsy excuses and begged for my understanding, I had simply nodded and canceled his ticket.
When he cried while he drove me to the airport, I comforted him.
When he kissed me goodbye and told me he loved me, I believed him.
· · ─ ·?· ─ · ·
The week had flown by, between staying strong for my mother, dealing with extended family, feeling sick every day, and barely hearing from Ben, I was ready to fall apart by the time the last guest had left.
I had planned on staying until the reading, but all day there’d been a feeling, like bugs crawling under my skin, that told me I needed to get home.
I promised my mother I would return soon and frantically packed a carry on.
She had been understandably shocked when I told her that I was leaving the same day that we buried my grandmother, but she also understood that I really needed to be with my husband.
What she didn’t understand was why my husband hadn’t been by my side for the last four days. She was too polite to say it out loud, but I could see the questions in her eyes.
Unfortunately, it was something that I too hadn’t understood, until I found myself standing on my back deck watching him screw another woman on a Thursday night in MY fucking hot tub.
· · ─ ·?· ─ · ·
I stood frozen for several moments, unable to tear my eyes away as their kissing turned to heavy petting.
I felt my heart crumble into dust when his hand disappeared under the water; she let out a porn-worthy moan.
He groaned and mumbled something I couldn't hear as she reached into the water to grab him as well.
I continued to watch as he tore his lips from hers, lifted her above him, and slammed her down onto his lap with a feral growl I thought belonged to me. I cataloged the moment when her eyes rolled back at the rough invasion, a new core memory filed away amongst the wreckage.
I watched as her eyes opened, as realization dawned on her when she saw me—his wife, standing in the doorway between our home and the backyard, tears streaming down my face.
She shrieked, "Benji!" and tried to cover her breasts. The smug look on her face was all the confirmation I needed that she knew exactly who I was. My husband twisted his head to look over his shoulder at what had caused her feigned horror.
Unlike the bouncing bimbo on his lap, my husbands horror was sincere. His mouth dropped open in shock, his eyes widened, and his face paled as his body tried to pump his blood back to his brain.
Everything froze; thump-thump—one heartbeat—thump-thump—two heartbeats—thump-thump—three heartbeats.
He came to his senses with a choked roar and shoved her off his lap.
He rose at the same moment my own senses returned to me, and the sight of his slowly deflating erection sent a wave of nausea through me.
I turned and raced for the nearest bathroom, ignoring him as he yelled my name.
I could hear her calling after him as his feet pounded across the floors.
I slid into the bathroom and barely made it to the toilet before my meager lunch came back up. For the last few days, I hadn’t been able to keep more than a few crackers down, but I had hoped that the soup and grilled cheese I had on the plane would break the puking streak.
"Melanie..." his voice came from the doorway, quiet and unsure.
"Go." I croaked out before heaving again.
"Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay?" I snapped.
"Benji..." Her voice joined the chaos, musical and annoyed.
"Not now, Angela." He hissed.
"Of fucking course her name is Angel—Lucifer was one too." I muttered to myself. I knew I wasn’t making any sense, but my head was spinning, and my life was falling─had fallen apart before my eyes.
"Baby..." he sounded pained as he inched into the bathroom.
"NO!" I cried out. I raised my head to look at him. He had pulled on a pair of pants but hadn't finished buttoning them. His shirt was missing, which revealed the hickeys on his chest.
How had he planned on hiding those?
"Please let me explain," he pleaded, "let me help you."
"Benji!" Angela's voice was sharper this time, heavy with her unspoken demands. She stepped into my line of sight, her naked body covered only by his wrinkled button-up shirt.
Found his shirt.
"Angela, go home!" he commanded and spun to glare at her.
"You said..." she started, her eyes flashing with rage.
"Not now."
"No, please... let her finish." I sat up and flushed the toilet. My stomach was finally empty. I rose to my feet slowly and lowered the lid to sit on it. "I'd love to know what my husband said."
Angela licked her lips nervously, and her eyes flitted back and forth between us.
"Um, he said that he was leaving you as soon as you returned from your spa trip." She squeaked out.
I started laughing, and Ben winced.
"Oh really? So, Benji," I emphasized the nickname she had given him, "told you I was at the spa for the last four days, huh?
" I tilted my head and watched as his mind tried desperately to find an escape.
"That's interesting, cause I thought I was burying my grandmother.
.. a trip that you said you couldn't join me on, despite having been a member of our family for the past two decades.
.. because an important client was coming to town.
" I glanced at Angela; "Tell me, Angel, what is it you do for work? "
"I'm the secretary for Benji's boss..." she mumbled.
"Ah, so not an important client then." The memory of meeting her briefly in my husband's office about a month ago assaulted me, and I rolled my eyes.
Such a fucking cliché.