When class was dismissed, I grabbed my broken bag and carefully placed my belongings inside. I wrapped two arms around the tote and held it like a package. It was the only way I’d get it back to the dorm.
Outside, I saw him standing by the exit where I’d left him. I braced myself, and my broken bag, and started across the quad. By bracing myself, I mean I put my head down and tried to make it across unnoticed. Unsuccessfully.
“Hey!” he called out. “Let me help you with that.”
I stopped in my tracks. Was he talking to me? Oh God, he is.
“No, it’s okay. I got this.” I held my bag tighter and tried not to look back.
I was halfway across the quad when his long legs strode fast behind me. “Wait,” he called out. “Can I least know your name?”
Oh man. The beautiful blue-eyed boy wanted to know my name. This guy had heartbreak written all over his face.
“No.” The word rushed out of my mouth and my feet rushed faster. My lips, however, couldn’t stop smiling.
By the time the dishes are loaded and the counters are clean, my mind has wandered far away with thoughts of extramarital affairs.
“You are uncharacteristically quiet tonight.” Gabriel comes up behind me and places his arms around my waist. I lean back into the comfort of his body.
“Just thinking.” I turn to my iPod on the counter and lower the volume.
“Thinking about what?” he breathes into my hair. “You only play Sia when you’re melancholy.” His voice is smooth with concern.
I rest the back of my head in the crook of his neck, and let out a breath that makes my lips vibrate. “Why do you think people cheat?”
Gabriel smiles into my hair and shakes his head. “I’m not answering that.”
I lean my face toward his. “Guilty?”
“Absolutely not,” he says, placing a soft kiss on the back of my head. “But I don’t want you getting any ideas.”
“I promise I won’t accuse you of cheating on me if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Gabriel exhales and releases me. I spin around and prop my back against the sink.
“Why do people cheat?” He crosses his arms and runs his index finger across his lips, pondering the question. “Why do people cheat?” he repeats. “Well, I can’t speak for myself because I’ve never cheated…”
I toss a dishrag at him, which he dodges, and lets out a small laugh. “Yes, we’ve established that, smartass.”
Gabriel makes his way around the center island toward the refrigerator. “Well, there’s this one guy in my office…”
“Who?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“Why not?”
Opening the refrigerator door, Gabriel grabs a beer and twists off the top. “Because you’ll start eyeing up everyone I work with because you know their personal lives. And some of these people I work with are good people. I don’t need you hating them because of a story I told you.” He looks at me with that you know I’m right look.
“Fine.” I roll my eyes.
“Okay, as I was saying…” Gabriel waits for me to interrupt, but I don’t. “There is this guy at my office who has been having a long-standing relationship with another woman who works in our building because, as he says, his wife hasn’t had sex with him since his kids were born.”
“How old are his kids?”
Gabriel pauses to think. “The youngest is… seven?” He’s clearly guessing.
No sex in seven years? I can’t imagine not being intimate with someone you love for that long. “That still doesn’t give him cause to cheat.”
Putting a hand in his pocket, Gabriel leans against the refrigerator and takes a swig of his beer. “I can see how a lack of intimacy can cause someone to stray. How would you feel if I stopped having sex with you?”
“I doubt that would ever happen.”
Gabriel flashes his Robert Redford grin. “Well, I could just close up shop one day. You never know.”
I hate that he’s being so offhanded. Doesn’t he know I’m very sensitive on the topic? Perhaps he doesn’t since we’ve never discussed it before. We’re just coming out of the honeymoon years of our marriage. Before this, everything was fun and exciting. Now, as my mother has said, marriage takes work. Whatever that means.
And let’s be honest. Gabriel would never close up shop. I could burst out laughing just thinking about it. He sees my reaction and raises his eyebrow, confused by why I would find that comical.
“And then there’s the case of a woman I work with who—”
“A woman!” I can’t contain my surprise.
“Yes, Kat, even women cheat.” He patronizes.
I scrunch my face at him. “I know. I just wasn’t expecting you to know a woman who cheats on her husband.” I lean onto the kitchen island and gaze at my wedding ring. “What is her reasoning?”
“Apparently, her husband let himself go. He won’t go dancing anymore or even to dinner. She refuses to divorce because of the kids. And I only know this because she has slept with a good friend of mine at the office on more than one occasion. And he told me her reasons.”
“And what are his reasons for sleeping with her? Is he married too?” Either Gabriel works with a bunch of heathens or the law profession is full of more sinners than saints.
“No, he’s single. Not everyone is having an affair.” When I look up, Gabriel is leaning over the other side of the island, toward me. He grabs my hand and gives my palm a warm kiss. “You know what we need?”
“What?”
“Date night,” he says into my skin. “Why don’t we go to that exhibit you want to see? Just me and you.”
My chest feels like it has been lightened from a thousand worries. “I’d love that.”
He places my hand on top of his and draws tiny circles on the inside of my wrist. “You know you have nothing to worry about with me, right?”
“I know.” And I do. In the years we’ve been together, I never took Gabriel to be a philanderer. It’s just not his style.
And just for validation, after Gwen has retired for the night and Jackson is sound asleep, I plan to take my husband to bed and make sure he doesn’t ever feel the need to stray. But after I change Jackson and rock him to sleep, I enter the room to see Gabriel passed out on our bed.
Maybe tomorrow.
The room is dark except for dim lighting coming from the credenza and the lights of the skyline beaming in the small space. I stand in my office, facing the windowed wall, looking out onto the Empire State Building.
A body approaches me from behind, tall and strong, the presence overwhelming. His hands start on my shoulders and glide down my arms, down to my fingertips. He takes my hands in his as he uses his mouth to tilt my head and brushes my neck with his lips, slowly caressing it with his tongue.
His left hand travels down my arm, taking the spaghetti strap of my dress along for the ride. His right arm follows suit with the other strap. My dress pools to the floor. I’m wearing nothing underneath. He is naked behind me and I can feel his form against my skin. The ridges of his chest, the strength of his thighs, and his rock-hard erection. His solid body presses against mine as his mouth continues to caress my neck. His hands circle around my waist and drift south to my thighs, stroking the inside up and down, making me wet from just the proximity. His fingertips get dangerously close without touching yet make a promise to be back.
I moan in pleasure. I want more.
Does he know how wet he makes me?
He will soon.