5. Homewrecking Skank

HOMEWRECKING SKANK

I sat in the breakroom at lunch, waiting for him to come join me, but he was nowhere in sight. I checked my watch again and it was already ten minutes since lunch started. I know he still feels a way about us being public here, but it's been a while, and everybody knows already.

I'm no longer the dirty little secret, and there's no need to hide it anymore, but still, he gets all bent out of shape each time one of these nosy bitches looks at him side-eye. I don't really care about their judgment. Some of them act more butt hurt than Rachel, who I'm sure played victim, and that's why they're all like that.

I even tried talking to the ones who had been friendly before the affair came to light, but they've been giving me the cold shoulder ever since. It's very isolating, for sure, but it doesn't really matter because I got what I wanted. Doug!

I don't know why people are acting as if we're so wrong for finding each other. Why do people prefer others to be unhappy? Should he have stayed in a loveless marriage just to satisfy society's fucked up norms?

I'm the one he chose. Long before she learned about us, each time he came to me for sex or just to feel human again, he was choosing me. Now, everyone is acting like we committed a crime. Nothing about us as people has changed, we're still the same driven individuals we've always been who get our jobs done and pay our bills and taxes just like everyone else.

Why should we be ostracized and looked down upon just because we fell in love? I tried calling his phone, but it went straight to voicemail, so I figured he'd been called into a last-minute meeting or something. So I went ahead and ate my lunch alone while everyone else in the room tried to pretend that I wasn't there.

I think it's high time I did something about this behavior. I refuse to be bullied at work for my personal choices. If this keeps up, HR will be my next step. No one can prove that we fucked on the job because we were always careful, so it's none of their business what we do in our own free time. There's no morality clause in our contracts, and I'm willing to bet there's more than one love triangle going on in this place.

I passed by Doug's office, but he was still not back, and I had to get back to my office. I've been finding it hard to concentrate for the last couple of days since the feeling of restlessness overcame me. I'm not sure what, but something about those pictures Rachel had posted of the baby's birthday party has been rubbing me the wrong way.

As the child's bonus mother, I should've been involved, and I know for damn sure Doug should've been. Instead, he'd been sidelined and she did everything herself with their families and friends. All she'd asked him to do was show up if he had the time.

She'd said that knowing that it would make him feel bad, just laying on the guilt like she usually does with her passive-aggressive bullshit. That's why I want him to go for full custody or at least fifty-fifty. Not only will it lessen her influence on the kids' lives, but he may not have to pay as much in child support, and maybe that bitch could get a job, even though Doug has to pay alimony for the next twenty years even if she gets married again, because of the stupid laws.

It's as if men have to be punished financially for falling out of love or something. Between child support and alimony, I'm not sure how much he is paying but I know it's a lot because he's making bank. Now she gets to enjoy half of his hard-earned money while sitting on her ass doing nothing.

Sometimes, when I think about that, it makes me mad as hell. I have to work my butt off, and now we're living worse than when we were just sneaking around. Back then, she didn't have her hands in his pockets so deep, and there was no child support.

I find it strange that after the man no longer resides in the home, he ends up spending more on the ex-family than when he was there. It's an outdated custom that needs to be taken off the books. Doug hasn't been very receptive to my thoughts the few times I've brought it up, but I think it's time we revisited the subject.

DOUG

I was surprised to see my mom's car when I drove by my old home on my way to see Jacob. I decided to stop off because I didn't see Rachel's car parked in its usual spot on the driveway.

Mom was inside reading something on her tablet when I rang the doorbell. I could see her through the glass that ran along the side of the door. She looked up and saw me and hurried to answer the door.

"Shh, the kids are asleep. What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"Yeah, I was on my way to see Jacob, and I saw your car. What are you doing here?"

"Oh. You won't find Jacob at home."

"Where is he?"

"He and Rachel went somewhere for lunch; I'm watching the kiddos until she gets back." I felt a kick to the stomach and lost my breath for a second.

"What do you mean he took her to lunch?"

"That's what I said, what's wrong with you?"

"Are those two dating?" The words burned a hole in my tongue.

"You'll have to ask them that. All I know is that Jacob asked me to babysit so that he could surprise her."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Why are you so interested? They're both adults."

"I just want to know how often she leaves my kids alone to go running around with some other man."

"Other man? Did you fall and hit your head? You two are divorced, remember? And besides, I'm not some stranger off the street; I'm their grandma. It's totally acceptable. And even if she was hiring someone else to watch them, what is it to you?"

I can't believe my own mother is saying this. I wanted to hang around until they returned, but I needed to get back to work. I drove back to the office with a mix of emotions. I'm not sure how to feel about Jacob hanging around my family this much.

He and Rachel were never that close, not outside of his and my relationship. I never got the impression that he was into her in that way and vice versa. Jacob wouldn't be caught dead with a mother of two anyway; that is totally not his style. He's more the supermodel starlet type, and though my ex is gorgeous, she's nowhere near there.

Aesthetically, Rachel is more attractive than Wendy, but Wendy has this effervescence about her that's just enticing and was one of the things that first drew me to her. What she lacks in looks between the two, she more than made up for with her exuberance for life and her wild adventures in the bedroom.

Though things had calmed down a little since the divorce, and we'd become more like a married couple than the hot lovers we were when we were running around behind my wife's back. I kinda missed those days when I had the best of both worlds.

I'll admit I miss my wife and kids. I miss the home we made together and the dreams we'd had for each other. How did I get here? A few months ago, I was ready to embark on a new life with Wendy. At the time, it felt like the perfect thing.

I had all these ideas in my head about how things were going to be, but now I realize that was just limerence which seems to be fading fast. I never realized how annoying Wendy was or how obsessed she'd become with my ex. She talks about Rachel more than I do.

All our conversations these days seem to be about my life before her, the things I used to like doing with my wife. She spends hours looking at my wife's social media pages which I wouldn't have known if I hadn't used her laptop one day and noticed her cache was full of them.

At first, I didn't think much of it. I figured it was natural she'd want to know. So, I told her everything. Rachel and I had met at a bar one night. She was there with friends, and so was I. In fact, Jacob was there that night and it was he who had pointed her out.

I'd joked about her not being his type and he'd laughed it off and went back to drinking his beer and talking to another one of our friends. I'd gone over and introduced myself to her and her friends and we'd hit it off, talking about our budding careers in finance.

Why was I remembering that night so vividly? Anyway, one thing led to another, and we exchanged numbers and let's just say we were together from then until our divorce. We'd done everything together in our mid-twenties. Traveled together and with each other's families spent holidays together, all before tying the knot three years later.

She's the most beautiful woman I've ever been with. Not that I mentioned that to Wendy. Our first few years of wedded bliss were just that. But then she got pregnant. Something we both wanted and worked to make possible.

But it started falling apart from the beginning. She was always too tired for sex or anything else. Then she was sick all the time, and then after Kevin was born, she seemed to only care about him, putting me on the back burner.

I started to feel left out and unappreciated, and that's when I met Wendy. It never entered my mind that I'd ever cheat. I didn't realize that I was unhappy until I started talking to Wendy, which soon led to flirting, which turned into texting, and then that first kiss.

I remember we'd been on a business trip out of town and had stayed at the hotel bar a little later than usual that second to last night. We'd finished up way earlier than expected and had a whole free day, so we were tying one on before heading up to our respective rooms.

And then she kissed me out of the blue. I could've stopped her, not gonna lie, because I saw it coming; in fact, if I'm being honest, I kind of wanted it to happen that night. But that first kiss was electrifying.

One kiss became two, and then another and another, and before you knew it, we were in her room, and I was balls-deep in a woman for the first time in way too long.

The sex was hot. Like off the Richter scale scorching hot. The passion, the chemistry it was all there. We stayed in that room all night and all the next day. When I finally came up for air, the guilt was crushing. I felt ashamed.

I just knew that as soon as I walked through the door, Rachel would notice, but she hadn't. She'd been too busy looking after the kid, though she remembered to kiss me hello and ask me about my trip.

That night, when she came to be, we made love and it was the best it had been in a long while. For the next few weeks, I tried to stay true to my marriage, but Wendy would always find a way to get me to want her.

I even went so far after our third or fourth time together to call it off, and she'd agreed without a fight. But she never stopped flirting or making herself available and I caved time and time again.

She wanted me to leave my wife and child, but I wasn't ready for that. I hadn't planned that far ahead. And then Rachel turned up pregnant, and Wendy almost went off the rails. I had never seen her like that before, but I got her to calm down and promised to tell her once the baby was born.

After Sarah was born, I tried putting it off time and time again until Wendy threatened to expose us, and I had no choice because I knew she would do it. The first person I told was Jacob because I needed his support.

I thought he would understand because he'd always been a lady's man, but he'd been so furiously disappointed that I'd been taken back. He'd threatened that if I didn't tell Rachel he would tell her himself and gave me a week.

So, instead of the support I came to him for, I found myself being kicked out of his house with the door slammed in my face. I'd had no choice then. And maybe subconsciously, that's why I'd done it. I needed that push from someone who cared, I guess, someone who was invested in my life.

As I walked into the building I saw Wendy watching me from the doorway of her office but pretended not to see her as I headed for the bank of elevators. This was all her fault. If she hadn't given me that ultimatum none of this would be happening now.

RACHEL

"You're kidding. Don't be silly." I laughed nervously because I had some idea what kind of place this was.

"I'm very serious, come on. This always works for me."

"You? You don't strike me as the type who'd need someplace like this. How long have you been coming here?"

"How long were you and Doug together?"

"About ten years, give or take."

"There's your answer." My mouth fell open to my chin. I didn't know what to say to that, and it was obvious he wasn't kidding because he had his serious face on.

"I don't quite know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. That has been the truth all these years, and I'm still the same guy I was before you knew. No need to become uncomfortable. Right now, I'm your friend and the Godfather of your children."

"Yes, but how can I go back to…" We'd reached the door by then and he kind of crowded me in between him and the little wall next to the door. "Rachel, let me put your mind at ease so there are no misunderstandings. That night in the bar, I was the one who saw you first. But Doug reminded me that you weren't my type."

"I thought about the truth in his words and knew that I wasn't in the right head space for anything permanent, so I thought enough of that jolt you gave me to leave you alone."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because Doug is out of the picture, and I'm in the right head space this time."

Why did that, coupled with the look in his eyes, make my knees weak and a sweet kernel of warmth unfurl in my tummy and take a slow ride down between my thighs?

"And you're gonna want to stop looking at me like that right about now."

"How am I looking at you?" Was that my voice sounding breathy and hoarse?"

"Like you want me to do exactly what I'm imagining doing to you. Not yet, though. Let's start with this for now. Then I'll show you how to really blow off steam."