Sugar Street by M.J. Pullen

Author:M.J. Pullen [Pullen, M.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: M.J. Pullen

25

Jess

Jess was going to end things with Parker. In the two weeks since the Mexican restaurant, she had privately decided that while she wanted the spark back in her marriage, she didn’t want it on these terms.

Fine. She’d like to have sex more often. What married person wouldn’t? Maybe Tom didn’t fawn over her the way he had in college; maybe she didn’t wake up every morning feeling like a sex goddess. But there was plenty she no longer did for Tom either, probably without realizing. When was the last time she’d left a love note in his suitcase when he left town? Or gotten a Brazilian wax for their anniversary? (She knew the answer to that one: post-Mina, pre-Dash.)

Yes, things had changed. But on the whole, their life together was pretty damn good.

She was trying to decide what to do with the five hours that remained with Parker this month—book real tennis lessons, maybe, or take the loss?—when Parker texted.

Hey. You around?

She stared at the screen. She was around, Tom was in St. Louis, the kids were at school. Was there any reason not to tell Parker that? She thought of all the stories she’d heard, spouses divorcing after one of them found incriminating text messages on the other’s phone. Parker was supposed to be discreet. As she typed what she hoped was an innocuous reply, she imagined Tom reading over her shoulder. I’m around. What’s up?

Can we talk? In person?

Panic set in as Jess watched the three little dots bounce at the bottom of her chat screen, Parker still typing. This was not the innocent exchange she would want Tom to see. The next message made it worse: I need to see you.

What could she do? Ignore him? Pretend she didn’t understand? Sorry, wrong number?

Is everything okay?

The pause before his reply stretched for what felt like hours, with Jess perched anxiously at her breakfast bar, unable to walk away from the phone.

Yes. Just need to see your face.

She was trying to figure out how to tell him (a) no way in hell he could come to her house right now and (b) he couldn’t text her things like that, when her phone buzzed again.

10:00? Tennis court?

Ok. That was an hour from now, and she hoped her short reply would shut down the texts in the meantime. At least the tennis courts were public, and she could tell Parker in person not to text her anymore. And—she was sure of this now—that she wanted out. End of story, keep the change, have a nice day.

With a creeping sense of shame, Jess deleted the conversation and Parker’s number, and cleared her phone’s chat history. She was a person who did this now. She hid money from her husband and covered her digital tracks. Could she ever go back?

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