Page 35 of The Regrettable Mistake

Caleb had apologized to me later that night. He said they met at the venue and if he had known what she was going to wear, there was no way he would have brought her as his plus one, but turning her away at the door would have resulted in her making a bigger scene.

I was so blissfully happy that day that I hadn’t even cared. Apparently, I hadn’t even cared to notice that my husband never said anything about love in his vows. We wrote our own. His were plain, simple, and only spoke of how it was meant to be, his family was now whole, and then he promised to take care of me – actually he promised to take care of his family. He used the word cherish, but never love. Never honor. Now that I thought about it, there was never even a vow to be faithful, so I suppose he didn’t actually break the wedding vows he made to me, since ours were very different.

Ollie spoke as the video started again. “None of that matters. I’m still married. This isn’t right.” I couldn’t even cheer him on because I knew where this video was headed and it certainly wasn’t with him remaining faithful to those words.

Jia’s fingers walked up the tailored legs of Ollie’s newest suit. He had been proud of that one because it was his first bespoke suit that was made just for him. “You know we have unfinished business. We were always meant to be together again, baby.” Her nails, painted a wicked purple, caught the light as they trailed up his thighs and met at the center where she lightly scraped them over the growing bulge there.

I felt sick seeing his instant reaction to her teasing touch.

“You think you have the right to touch me like that?” Ollie snarled at her as he grabbed her hand.

“I know I do. You’re mine. You always have been. Don’t mistake what happened as me being done with you all those years ago. I was never done with you. We’re not done. That little bitch is easily disposed of, or fuck it, she can stick it out as the nanny, so long as you never stick this,” she grabbed his genitals, “in her again. It’s mine, Ollie.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are? You don’t get to come back and lay claim to me. I’ve been with my wife for four years, married for three of those. You think it’s that easy? You can just walk back into my life, fall on my dick, and we’re supposed to play happy families?”

“We could always just start with happy fuck buddies,” She taunted him and leaned in to nip his earlobe. “Or…” She panted. “You could punish me for walking out on you. Make it hurt the way you know we both like.”

Ollie reached behind her and gripped her hair. The way he snatched her head back and then looked down into her eyes made me think he would put an end to this. Maybe it had all been a lie. A cruel joke. But no. The words that left his mouth next put me well and truly in my place.

“You’re right. I didn’t love Steph when I married her, but someone had to be here to take care of the son you left behind.”

“You took advantage of having her take care of you too, though didn’t you.”

“Don’t act like you haven’t been out in California fucking every man who could get you a leg up in the business.”

That same laughter peeled out through the speakers. “You know it meant nothing. Just like I know that wife of yours means absolutely nothing.”

“You think so?” He growled at her.

“I know so.” She grabbed his cock again, only that time she managed to undo his suit and pull him free. She pumped her hand up and down his length. “This tells me all I need to know.”

“That’s a biological response, not evidence of shit except that you’ve been teasing my dick since we got here.”

She shook her head as if to argue and then thought better of it. She crawled off the end of the bed and situated herself between his thighs. I watched as her head bobbed up and down in his lap. He kept a fistful of her hair wrapped around his fingers as he helped guide her.

“At least you’ve always known how to suck a cock,” he spat at her. I didn’t miss the insinuation that she was the only one who did and neither did Jia.

She pulled her mouth off his length and laughed again. “What’s the matter? The prim and proper nanny didn’t know how to suck dick when you met her? You mean to tell me that you’ve gone four years, maybe longer, without a proper blow job? Poor baby. Let me fix that for you.”

He yanked her head back before her lips could touch his penis. I felt as though my whole world had crumbled all over again, but for some reason or other I couldn’t make myself stop the video.

He picked her up, yanked the slip of dress she wore from her body. There was nothing else to rip off of her. She had been naked underneath. “You always were ready for anything.” Ollie stood up then and pushed her back toward the bed. “Hands and knees, now!” He demanded.

As Jia assumed the position, Ollie took the time to pull a condom out of his pants pocket before he shed them and his shirt and tie. That was the most damning thing of all. He had come prepared. We had only used condoms for a week or two after I was on some medication and the last time we’d been together, just two days before the date stamped on the video, we hadn’t bothered using one. I thought it was just because he surprised me when I’d already been asleep, but in the morning, when I brought it up, he told me that we had run out.

That meant the condom he rolled on himself was something he had to go out and purchase. It meant that he had prepared for the eventual outcome of fucking his ex-girlfriend when he met up with her. He wasn’t having sex with her on the spur of the moment, because she seduced him and nostalgia took hold. He had gone to her prepared for the eventuality.

The minute he was suited up, he slammed into her without any preparation. Not that she needed it. Apparently she got off on tearing me down in front of him. Got off on teasing him too, no doubt. He fucked her, and I watched for the next ten minutes until he finally thrust hard one more time and threw his head back to groan out his release. Condom or no, he had just fucked and come while still buried inside a woman who was not his wife.

It was my turn to laugh as the video came to a close. Having a wife didn’t mean anything to Ollie. He had said as much. I had been so ridiculously stupid. So very, very blinded by my own delusional love that I hadn’t noticed the man I shared a bed, a house, a son, and a life with for years could be so cold and calculating. I didn’t know who my husband was anymore, but it had become very clear that I never did know him.

My stomach knotted and clenched in agony. How could I be so fucking stupid? How did I miss everything? Even my own brother had warned me, but whenever Ollie had taken me out, back when we were dating, he had been so sweet. He’d talked about how much he respected my job and passion for teaching small children. Flattering words were never in short supply. Small touches, quick smiles, and bullshit lies fell from his lips as easily as he breathed. I’d fallen for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

Every one of my cherished memories since meeting Ollie and Denmark flitted through my mind, overlapped by the truth I now knew for sure. Each one was another brutal stab to my heart.

The day last winter when we took Denmark to build a snowman in the yard and I smacked Ollie in the head with a snowball. At first, he seemed angry, but it had been a front. He didn’t bother making his own snowball. Instead, he ran for me and I took off to get away from him while Denmark howled in laughter. Then Ollie finally caught me when I slipped on a slick patch in the yard and he made sure that my weight came down on top of him instead of the cold hard snow. The smile he graced me with had reached his eyes, hadn’t it? It seemed so genuine, especially when he rolled us so that he was on top and he kissed me until Denmark hit us both with a snowball and told us to stop being gross.

Our laughter and the happiness that swelled my heart full of love that day, now had the image of him gripping Jia’s hair tightly in his fist as he told her that she was right about me, superimposed over top the beautiful memory.

---