The Letter...
She found the typed letter on the table, it read;
'My Darling,
Meet me today at the café on Stirling street. I want to see your beautiful face while we eat a wonderful lunch together.
I love you dearly, you will be the sole thought on my mind today. See you at 12pm sharp.'
xxx
Her heart skipped a beat, and she was immediately excited. It was already 11:30, so she would need to hurry. She had never been to this café before, but this was not unusual, for her husband was always full of mystery and surprise.
She quickly swept her hair back, and put on a plain white skirt, along with a light brown top. Slipping on her sandals, she left in search of the mysterious café.
She was late finding the café, but her husband was a very patient man, and she knew he would not mind waiting for her. She was still as madly in love with him as she was the first day she met him.
Finally, she found the cosy café, and turned into the entrance. Though nothing could have prepared her for the sight that sat before her eyes.
Her husband, the father of their two young children that had both been conceived out of pure love, was lovingly cuddling and tenderly stroking the face of another man!
Out of shock, she dropped her bag on the floor. The contents spilled out and clattered loudly onto the stone floor. Her husband looked up and immediately pulled his hand away from the other mans face, as though he had been severely burnt. The other man looked from the woman, to his partner, and then bowed his head in shame.
The room spun around the woman, and somewhere in the distance, she heard someone say her name over and over, and then felt her body slam into the floor.
When she awoke, her husband was kneeling over her, stroking her face the same way she had seen him stroke his lover's face when she walked in.
She sat up and pushed his hand away, she was immediately aware of the sickening churning in her stomach. She felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. She had to get out. She shakily got to her feet and walked out onto the footway. She didn’t even realise she had left all her belongings inside.
Soon after, her husband came out after her. He tried to grab her by her shoulders, but she shook herself angrily out of his grasp.
“Please…” he began, but she would not hear it. The mere thought was making her increasingly nauseous.
“No!,” she yelled. “I don’t want to hear it. You make me sick. You’re my husband, and after ten years of commitment from me, I find you cheating, not with another woman, but with a freaking man!”
She was so upset; her voice shook as she spoke. Big, thick tears rolled down her face and onto her top.
She made to walk away, and he grabbed her arm. She furiously spun around, and looking him straight in the eye.
“How long?” She asked.
“Please, don’t do this…” he begged.
“I said, how long?” she repeated, but this time, it was in the tone of an order.
He bowed his head, and mumbled something incoherent.
“What?” she pressed.
“Five years.” Was all he said. She felt the bile begin to rise up in her throat again.
She bit her lip in attempt to stifle a sob. She looked down at the ground and with that, she walked to her car and left him standing alone.
He watched his wife walk to her car. He had destroyed her forever. He had let his feelings rule his head. He walked back inside where he saw his partner gathering the contents of his wife’s bag.
He walked over to him and crouched down, helping to pick up the spilled contents. He could not stand the prying eyes any longer. “C’mon” he muttered, “Lets get out of here.”
The two left the café, and headed to his car. How could she have known about the café? He had never in his life taken her there. Just then, a sickening feeling came over him. He searched his pockets frantically for the note he had received the day before from his partner.
“Oh God, the note, she must’ve read the note.” He groaned.
“Are you sure? It may have been a horrible coincidence.” His partner suggested, as he took his arms and rubbed then sympathetically.
“No, it was in my pocket this morning, it must have fallen out before I left. What am I going to do? Look what I’ve done.” Tears stung his eyes, but he didn’t try to stop them. He let them roll down his face and onto his lap. His partner held him tightly, and the two stayed that way for the rest of the afternoon.
She watched from the window as her husband got out of his lover’s car, and slowly walked up to the front door. She had his bags packed and waiting in the entrance of the lounge, where she waited next to the fire with a mug of coffee enclosed in her hands. The children were at her sister’s house, she didn’t want for them to be exposed to this.
She heard the door close and his footsteps come towards the lounge. He stood there, facing her with red-rimmed eyes.
“I never meant for this to happen.” He said, his voice quavering with emotion.
“No, what you didn’t mean for is to be found out.” She said, her voice flat and cold, with no hint of emotion.
“Here are your bags, now get out. I do not ever want to see you again, and if you even try to go near the children, I will personally hunt you down like an animal and kill you.”
He bowed his head down in submission. He would have preferred a blow to the head, rather than have such words of hate spoken to him by his wife.
"Please, can we talk about this like adults? I want to sort this out. I can't live with you hating me. Please?" he begged her, as tears ran down his face.
"You can't live with me hating you, yet you could live with decieving me for all those years, sleeping with me and him, probably in the same day?"
"It's not like that, it's complicated..." He started.
"Okay, I'll make it a little more easier for you then. Do you love me?"
"With all my heart. I have never stopped loving you. Not ever." He said.
"Then you have to tell me, do you love him?" she asked, accidently letting her voice fill with emotion as the tears stung her eyes.
He looked at her, then looked at the floor. How could he tell his wife that he did love him, he carried feelings for him that he never thought existed. It tore him apart to hurt his wife, but at the same time, he also knew he didn't want to loose him either.
Eventually, he looked up at her, and they both knew what was going to come out of his mouth.
"I do, but-"
"Then go. You have no business being here.
It's over." She said as she looked at him straight in his eyes. They both knew that the words she spoke were real, and final.
He stooped down, and picked up the suit-cases she had packed for him. One last time he looked at her, then turned and walked out the door.
As he walked down the street, and into the rain and darkness, she watched him from window, until his image became blurred from the rain.
Or perhaps it was her tears.
