Chapter 3 - Ben
I fucked up.
That was all I could think to myself when I woke up in the morning and saw puffy, red-rimmed eyes on my beautiful wife. I knew I had made her cry the night before, even though the details were fuzzy.
The night before had started out as a dinner with clients, but at some point, the clients took their leave, and then Angela and I went to a club.
She was a lot of fun outside of the office; the icy exterior slipped away as soon as her hair came down and was replaced by laughter, sexy smiles, and lots of dancing.
I had always been careful to keep my extramarital affairs separate from work because that’s how men got caught.
I had a set of strict rules I followed to protect my marriage: nothing serious, three times max, no gifts, no declarations of love, fake names when possible, and always gloved up.
While I had never fucked one of my coworkers, I had flirted with a few over the years.
After meeting my wife, Angela started staying late at work with me, and we had carefully toed the line between flirty and inappropriate.
Until last night, when I stumbled home at two o’clock in the morning.
I knew Melanie hadn’t fallen for my story and that she was going to expect me to kiss her ass for the next few days before she pretended to believe me.
The only thing that had worked out in my favor was that I had thought to switch Angela's contact name to ‘Peter-Work’ so it wouldn’t show as her personal phone, and that she had, without prompting, given me a great cover story.
I hadn’t fucked her last night, but there was definitely some intense making out and fondling in the alley behind the club. She was wild and uninhibited, and I knew I was eventually going to fuck her.
Melanie had an air of melancholy as she sat at the kitchen table drinking her coffee.
She had left my mug next to the pot but hadn’t filled it because I took longer than usual to come downstairs.
I needed the extra few minutes to double-check my chest and neck for any marks and to get the details of my story straight.
With how fuzzy the night was, I was worried that I would contradict something I had said to her before I fell asleep.
“Melanie… baby.” I said softly as I sat down across from her and reached for her hand. She looked up at me slowly and tried to offer me a sad smile. I grimaced.
“I’m so sorry. I’m sure you were worried about me, and I honestly can’t believe that I let myself get that drunk,” I forced a sad pout on my face and looked down like I was upset with myself.
“The clients wanted to go to the new club, Entice, and we took them out. They are going to be one of the largest I’ve landed yet. ”
That part was true.
The family that was interested in retaining our financial services was unbelievably wealthy, and the amount of money they wanted me to invest was over ten times that of my other clients... combined. It was an immense honor, and even larger responsibility, and nerve-wracking as fuck.
“I’m really nervous about it, actually, and I think that’s why I got so drunk…” I figured my best chance at getting my wife to look the other way again was to invoke her sympathy.
She stared at me, not saying anything for a few moments, and then set her cup down.
“First, I’m really proud of you for landing such an important client.
You shouldn’t doubt yourself.” I nodded excitedly.
“Second, I’m not your keeper; you can go out to a club, and that’s okay…
but you’re right; I was worried about you, especially when you stumbled in drunk.
Third, I wasn’t comfortable with Peter’s secretary calling your cell at two o’clock in the morning to make sure you made it home safely.
If she went to the club with you, why did she return to the office? ”
Shit.
That was a good point. Sometimes my wife was too smart for her own good.
Over the years, she had asked to return to school to start a career. I always told her that I liked that she was always waiting for me at home. Which was true, but really, I couldn't risk her ever having the financial means to leave me.
Despite my affairs, I loved my wife. She had been a fixture in my life for as long as I could remember.
Her brother, Kyle, had been my best friend growing up, and Mel hadn’t been like other annoying little siblings.
We both enjoyed when she would grace us with her presence.
It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I realized I wanted her to be mine.
She was a sophomore, and when a junior from the baseball team asked her to go to junior prom with him, I freaked out.
The reality that in just a few months I’d be away at college and wouldn’t be around to chase guys off anymore made me panic.
~Flashback~
I stormed up to her in the hallway and kissed her, right in front of him. She was shocked; her big green eyes looked almost comical with how wide they got; her mouth opened and shut a few times as she tried to wrap her head around her new reality.
“She’s going to Senior Prom with me.” I sneered and tucked her into my side while I glared at the prick that thought he could take what was mine.
“I am?” She still sounded stunned and looked up at me with confusion.
I kissed the tip of her nose and smiled at her.
“Of course.”
Later, after Kyle had punched me in the gut as hard as he could for kissing his sister without talking to him first, Melanie and I finally had a chance to talk about what had happened in the hallway.
From that day on, she was mine, and I was hers… mostly. In the ways that mattered.
I hadn’t started dating Melanie to be unfaithful, but once I got to college, I realized that there was a lot of living I had yet to experience and with Mel still in high school, and still a virgin, I didn’t see any reason to abstain from the normal college experience.
I was a good-looking guy; I wasn’t overly athletic, but I stayed in shape and was smart.
Women could sense that one day I was going to be someone important and wanted to hitch themselves to me.
I always knew Mel was my endgame, but I didn’t mind letting women try to convince me otherwise.
Thankfully, Kyle had gone to a different school than I did and was just as oblivious as Mel to my proclivities.
When her senior year was finally coming to an end, I knew that my college experience was going to change.
Her parents had been trying to convince her to join her brother at a local college, rather than follow me to California, but I foiled that plan by proposing to her after graduation.
Then she revealed that she had applied to the same college as me, and I knew that if she did, all of my dirty secrets, literally, would reveal themselves and destroy our relationship.
So, instead, I convinced her that it would be better if only one of us had student loans and promised to pay for her college outright once I was making money.
We got a studio apartment off campus, although I kept my dorm room since it was already factored into my student loans, and it served as a bachelor pad.
Melanie started working from home for her dad.
He owned a small pharmacy back in North Dakota, and he had Melanie handle all the "paperwork" involved. She said it didn’t even feel like a real job, but it gave her something to do while I was so busy working on our future…
it also paid pretty well, enough where she paid the rent for our little studio apartment.
The sound of her fingers tapping on her mug pulled me back to the conversation we were having. She was still waiting for my answer about why Angela had supposedly returned to the office at 2 in the morning.
“I’m going to sound like an ass for this but honestly, babe, I was so drunk that I don’t even know when Angela left the club last night or how she got back to the office.” I faked a grimace to show her how embarrassed I was to admit that I had left my female coworker to fend for herself.
Which was kind of true because I didn’t drive her home or anything after the club; I just saw her to a cab and went home.
“Ben!” Melanie gasped.
“I know, I know. I’ll call her after we are done talking and make sure that she’s okay.” I paused and mentally kicked myself. “Well, I’ll have to call Peter because I don’t have her number.” I lied.
This was getting messier by the minute.
“I think that’s a good idea.” Melanie, with her kind heart, smiled at me, and then her smile turned into a frown. “The last thing, and most upsetting, was that you were kind of rude to me last night. You were very dismissive and defensive, and it made me feel awful.”
I set my mug down and crouched by her side.
Time to lay it on thick.
“Baby, I don’t remember much, but I’m ashamed of myself for coming home like that and then making you feel bad.
” I dropped my head and tried to conjure up some tears.
“You know that I love you more than anything, and the idea of hurting you is devastating to me.” I looked up and felt a slight tingle of success forming in my eyes.
Perfect.
I watched as her features softened, and she reached out to put a hand on my cheek. She leaned forward and brushed her lips against mine.
“Get up.” She said softly.
She bought it... hook, line, and sinker.
I stood up slowly and tried to make myself appear contrite.
“I don’t want last night to ruin our weekend.”
“I don’t either.” She sighed and gave me a small smile.
“How about we finish breakfast and then I take you out for the day?” I offered.
“That sounds nice.”
· · ─ ·?· ─ · ·
While my wife showered, I finally responded to the text Angela had sent me after she spoke to my wife.
Peter-Work: You’re welcome.
Me: Smart, sexy, and sneaky… my kind of woman.
Peter-Work: Did she buy it?
I glanced at the stairs and could still hear the water running.
My wife was expecting me to give Angela a call after all...
She answered on the third ring.
“Hello?” Her voice was tentative.
“Hello, Angela,” I smirked.
“Benji…” she purred. “How are you this morning?”
“I’m better now.” I flirted.
“That’s good… is there something I can do for you?” she teased.
“I just wanted to call and thank you for last night.”
“It was my pleasure.” She sounded breathless.
“I think that there’s far more pleasure than that in both our futures.” I pulled the phone away from my ear as I heard the shower shut off. “I’ll see you at work on Monday. Thanks again, Miss Reed.” I said quickly and ended the call before she could reply.
Since my wife knew I planned on getting Angela’s number today, I changed the contact to A. Reed and cleared the call history. I then changed the contact information for the office to Peter-Work, just in case my wife ever decided to look through my phone.
I sighed with relief.
This was why I kept things simple; one-night stands didn’t need a contact name in my phone or talk to my wife in the middle of the night.