Her Secret Affair

Chapter 16

Two weeks later, Joseph asked his mother to watch over Nicky. It was Saturday and he wanted to take Brie out for lunch at the pier. Brianna left with no excuse, reluctantly got dressed. Wearing a simple sunflower sundress and white sandals, she grabbed her macrame shoulder bag.

Joseph had seemed to be in a good mood lately. She was too caught up in her own sorrows about Frankie to even notice all the times he sat watching her. He had seen the change in her, that faraway look she got in her eyes sometimes, but he didn't care. For him, it meant that whatever she had, was really all over.

The pier was crowded. They breathed a sigh of relief as they were seated down at their table in the small restaurant. They ate as they talked and drank wine.

"Your birthday is coming up, what would you like to do?" he asked her.

"Nothing really, just stay home I guess. I'm not really in the mood to celebrate."

"How come? You love birthdays."

"I'm getting old, it's depressing," she forced a laugh.

"Ok, we can just do something quiet at home. We can order some food and invite some friends over. What do you say?"

"Which friends? I don't have that many outside of the office, and the ones I have are all in a different city," she said. It was true. Ever since she had had Nicholas, her circle seemed to have gotten smaller. The ones that she still talked to often all lived in another part of the country. She got along with her colleagues, but being in human resources, they were not that close for her to consider them friends. Joseph smiled, mistaking her unwillingness to invite her colleagues as a final confirmation of her recently terminated affair.

He paid the bill, and took her hands in his to steer her through the tables and the crowd of people that had gathered at the restaurant's bar. Her eyes focused on the floor, making sure she didn't step on anyone's foot. As they walked out the door, the sun glaring in the sky, Joseph stopped.

"Hey, fancy seeing you here. How have you been?" she heard him ask.

As she looked up to see who he was talking to, she quickly pulled her hand from his, pretending to look for her phone in her bag. She saw him smiling as he walked towards them, a blonde woman by his side. Jealousy eating at her, she plastered a smile on her face.

"Hi Joseph, this is Melanie. Mel, Joseph and Brianna, old university friends."

"Hi, nice to meet you," she smiled sweetly at Joseph, shaking his hand, before turning to Brianna.

"Hi," Brianna choked. "Who is this woman and why is he so familiar with her?" she thought.

"What have you been up to? You disappeared again after we last bumped into each other."

"Been handling some business and personal matters. We are on our way for lunch now. Would you like to join us?"

"Actually, we just came from lunch. But Brie's birthday is coming up in next week. Why don't you both come over for dinner?"

Her face blanched when she heard Frankie accept the invitation. He is coming to her house on her birthday with this bimbo? Why does Joe have to keep inviting him over?

"By the way, we need to exchange numbers, that way we can keep in touch instead of just bumping into each other like this," Joseph continued. Throughout these exchanges, Brianna just stood there, her face pale in spite of the heat of the afternoon sun.

As they walked towards the car, Joseph was quiet. His mind racing. "It cannot be him," he thought. Although he didn't say anything to her, he saw how fast she dropped his hand when she saw Frankie. She had pretended to look for her phone, and for a moment Joseph had thought he was being irrational. Maybe she was going to call and see how Nicky was. But she had stood there, phone in her hand, not once checking it, her face as pale as if she had seen a ghost.

"Could it be?" he wondered as he drove, seething with anger, hands clutching the steering wheel. Brianna, quietly sitting next to him her mind stuck on the image of Frankie with another woman, completely unaware of the raging storm brewing inside the man next to her.

"It cannot be him," he kept repeating to himself. Thinking back to when he invited Frankie over for drinks, and it hit him. Brie was unusually quiet that day. He hadn't thought much about it, but now it made perfect sense. The truth right in front of him. She's been fucking him. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, his foot pressing the pedal a little harder.

"Joseph," she heard Brie screaming at him as the car screeched to a stop in the middle of a junction. "What the hell is wrong with you!!!" panic in her voice.

"Sorry, I hadn't realised that ...."

A loud crash erupted as another vehicle smashed right in the passenger side of the rear bumper, spinning the car around. The windows shattering with the brutal force of the hit. Brianna found herself being flung towards Joseph, her head hitting against the steering wheel. She felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder as her seat belt jolted her back into place. Being in the driver's seat, the hit had minimal impact on Joseph, only causing him to pass out as he smashed his head against the car door.