Page 32 of A Different Husband

He gave me a look that could be defined as the embodiment of sarcasm before he rolled his eyes at me. “That much was obvious from the sheer obliviousness you exhibited with Kylie just now. I’m not the one you need to convince though.”

Jeff was right. I had some serious work to do to make my wife understand she hadn’t walked in on what she most likely thought she had. I ran back to my office and pulled up the security feed. I emailed the clip of Kylie and me in my office as well as what just went down at the front desk to myself, so I would have it to show Courtney. Then, I went back and watched the video of my wife as she walked off the elevator and came down the hallway. She stood there and watched us for a few minutes before she finally turned to leave with a hurt look on her face.

Dammit, she had been smiling as she approached my office. She was obviously at a turning point, and had come to a decision about things, only for my visit from Kylie to mess it all up before I even knew my wife was there.

I left the office and headed home to go explain things, but when I got there, Courtney wasn’t there. I called, texted, and got no response. The only recourse I had was to suck up my pride and call the people closest to her. I dialed Hadley first,considering that was who my wife ran to last time. As soon as she picked up, she screamed into the phone.

“Fuck you, Robeson. I was on your side but now you can go choke on a disease infected dick!”

“Please, Hadley it wasn’t…” I didn’t get to finish because she hung up on me. I tried to call Reed after that.

“Let me guess,” My father-in-law sighed into the phone. “You lost my daughter again.”

“I know it seems like a habit, but I promise it’s not.”

“See that it doesn’t become one. Two times in as many weeks isn’t a great track record though, Flynn.”

“I understand that. Do you know-”

He cut me off. “Hadley.”

“That was my first call. She told me to choke on a disease infected dick and then hung up.”

Reed whistled down the line. “I don’t know what you did, but good luck with that.” It sounded like he was about to hang up on me too, and then he came back with, “And Flynn, if my daughter needs help to bury a body, it’s nothing personal.” Once that message was delivered, he hung up on me too.

“Fuck!”

I knew, without a doubt, that my wife was with her best friend. As much as I wanted to run to her, apologize, and explain the situation, it felt like the right thing to do was to give her a little time to calm down first. At the very least, I needed enough time to figure out how to get around her bulldog of a best friend because there was no way Hadley would open her door to me if she thought I had been cheating on Courtney.

By the timemidnight rolled around, I knew my wife didn’t have any plans to come home. I sent her one more text, just in case she decided to look at it.

Flynn: I’m sorry. As cliche as this sounds, it wasn’t what it looked like. I have video of the office before and after you left, if it makes a difference.I promise you there was nothing going on between me and Kylie. She was there for a work a lunch- at least on my end anyway. Please, come home so I can explain.

Not that I thought I would get one, but after thirty minutes, my text still went unanswered.

Forty-five minutes later, after I’d finally hung Courtney’s canvases in my living room, my cell started to ring. I dove for it and just barely hit the button on the fourth ring.

“Hello?”

At first, I didn’t hear anything other than the din of a bunch of voices and music in the background.

“Hello?” I questioned again. “Courtney?”

“My hubby-and…” I heard her say, but it didn’t sound like she was speaking to me.

“Hey man,” a man’s voice came over the line. “I think I have your wife here. She’s pretty fucked up and lost her friend in the crowd.” My heart pounded erratically in my chest at the thought of how dangerous Courtney’s situation was. She was relying on a strange man for her safety, and didn’t even realize.

“Where are you?” He rattled off a bar name and the relative location. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

“No worries, man. If it was my sister or wife, I would hope that someone else would look out for her. I’ll be here and makesure she doesn’t wander.” He chuckled. “Not that it would be possible, she’s practically asleep standing up.”

“Fucking hell,” I murmured into the phone as I grabbed my wallet and keys and headed for my car.

“I’ll stay on the line with you, if it will make you feel better.”

“Yeah, it would. Thanks again for doing this.”

“Like I said, no worries. Happy to help.”

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