The Woman She Was (A Naughty Wife Short) by Kenny Wright

Author:Kenny Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KW Publishing
Published: 2015-06-11T04:00:00+00:00

5.

Avery was going to meet up with Bryce Friday night. There were too many facts to come to any other conclusion. She definitely dated him back in college. Every confession about her college experience confirmed the crazy things Bryce said she’d done. And she was going out to a bar the same night that he’d said he was meeting her.

I should have said something to her. Anything. I should have stopped this huge mistake before it could be made. But if she’d already made plans with him, hadn’t the mistake already happened? If she didn’t go through with it Friday, wouldn’t it be just a matter of time?

Yes, it would! I could never trust her after that, confrontation or no. I’d always wonder if she actually was working her late shift, or if she’d traded with someone else. I’d always wonder if she’d snuck out to meet up with her ex, who was now living in town.

It was toxic. In a way, asking the question was worse than not. I could feel it pulling us apart, even before it happened. I couldn’t confront her. I wouldn’t. If she did what she felt like she had to do, I’d deal with it then. Until that moment, though, I was going to let it go.

And in that freedom, I found something else—excitement. Excitement so sharp it cut to the bone.

Excitement so profound I wondered if I’d go mad from it. I felt high. I felt crushed, and even higher for it. I watched Avery go through her week, as sweet and comfortable as ever, and saw this vixen.

This sexual being that no man could contain.

Thing was, I didn’t want Avery to know that I knew about Bryce. I didn’t want her to change her plans, for one, but my reasoning for secrecy went deeper than that. Darker than that. It turned me on.

Some fucked up part of me wanted her to do it. Wanted her to cheat.

Did that mean I could forgive her? What if it was only the one time? How could I ever know that it was?

“Everything okay?” Avery asked Wednesday night.

“Yeah, why?”

“Nothing. I just miss you is all. I should have switched my shifts.”

She’d worked a late night shift last night. I hadn’t been able to sleep, tossing and turning as I wondered if she really was working. I almost called the hospital to check, but was proud that I hadn’t.

Wednesday, I’d worked late to catch up on all the things I should have been doing Monday and Tuesday but couldn’t as I grappled with the Bryce situation. Or so I told myself. I was still grappling, and working late was easier than facing Avery. In fact, I even stopped by the local watering hole for a drink, just so I could use the excuse that I was out at an impromptu happy hour with coworkers.

“I’ve been exhausted, too,” I said, helping her out. “Trying to get caught up after being out last week.”

That was the truth—especially the trying part. That wasn’t going so well.

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” she said.

*

I was more careful after that. Avery was sharp, and she knew how to read me. I worked late again Thursday night—the final night before the big, fateful day.

When I got home, she was out on the back patio, enjoying the warm summer evening with a glass of wine. “Hey, honey,” I said, kissing her just as I always did.

She looked tired, but happy to see me. “You’re home. Yay. Go change and join me out here.”

When I got back downstairs, Avery was still out on the patio, checking something on her phone

—confirming her plans with Bryce?

She laughed at whatever she read, her golden bangs obscuring her face before she pushed them back. God, I loved that smile. It brought out her cheeks like the sun breaking through the clouds.

Standing there in the wide-open floor plan of our town home, bathed in shadow, I realized just how much I was willing to sacrifice not to lose her light.

Avery thumbed through her phone, browsing, I realized, not texting or writing an email. She reached for her glass, finishing off the last swallow of white. I grabbed another glass and the half-full bottle of Chardonnay, and went out to join her.

“Refill?” I asked.

Avery darkened her phone and set it face down on the table. A small part of me squirmed at that.

“Please.”

I gave her a healthy pour. “So how was work?”

“You read about the big accident this morning?” she asked.

“Closed all lanes of 95. Something about an overturned tractor trailer?”

“Yeah. Four other cars were also involved. We were the closest hospital.”

Avery rarely spoke of the ER horrors. She compartmentalized well, although sometimes if something was really troubling her, she’d share. I sat down, knowing that I was here to listen, not console.

“It was ugly, Chris. One of the cars was a van. A family. Two boys.”

I inhaled sharply, holding my breath, waiting for the inevitable blow.

“We had to perform emergency surgery on the youngest one. The children’s hospital was too far away, and he was in critical condition.”

She took a sip of her wine, held it in her mouth to savor it, then swallowed.

“We saved him. We saved all of them. No deaths.” She broke out into a smile. “Today was a good day.”

I released that breath, and all the tension that was bottled up behind it. I reached out and touched her hand. She moved easily into my lap.

“You never know what life will throw at you,” I said.

Avery smiled, breaking the introspective seriousness of the moment. “Yolo,” she said with a laugh.

“What?”

“Oh, come on, old man. You only live once? It’s days like this that make me realize that we only have one life to live, and that even though we don’t realize it, we’re fighting for each and every one.”

I tried to parse what she was saying with the Friday situation. Was she deciding not to meet Bryce? Or was she using her carpe diem outlook on life to have the affair? The second possibility resonated more between my legs, but didn’t make sense based on the sequence of events.

“I’m glad that you’re going out tomorrow,” I found myself saying.

“I should stay. We haven’t had many nights together since you’ve been back.”

I laughed, and it almost sounded natural. “I just told you I was glad you were going out. Yolo, right? I’ll be here when you get back.”

She nodded, picking up her wine. Our view from the back patio wasn’t much—the backs of other town homes where people hung their laundry out to dry. In the dark, though, it felt magical. At last, she said, “I will be, too, you know. Whenever you go away, I’ll be here.”

She would be. I knew that. She wasn’t going to leave me. She wasn’t looking to have some prolonged affair with another man. I remembered that point in my conversation with Bryce so distinctly:

“Cheating?” Saying it tasted like sawdust in my mouth.

“A fling. Nothing is quite as exciting.”

A fling, then. I could handle a fling. I’d be there for her when it was over.

“So has Nicki picked a bar yet?”

“Mackenzie’s.”

“Dinner?”

She nodded. “So I probably won’t see you until after you come back.”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s stop wasting time and go upstairs. Yola, right?”

Avery smiled. “Yo- lo, old man. Come on.”

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