The Affair

Chapter 4

Chloe's POV

Having avoided Thomas for the rest of the evening I was sat playing on my phone when the doorbell rang, I had completely spaced that this guy was coming

I went to the door, not sure where Thomas actually was, and answered it

I stood before a man Thomas' age, tall, a little taller than Thomas, he was cute, wait what? Nah, Thomas is definitely better....right?

He was wearing dark jeans and a shirt with a jumper over it, I swear all the guys in the city dress so fancily

"Hi, you must be Thomas' friend?" I question and the guy nodded with a smile

"Yeah, I'm Ryan, you must be Chloe?" He asks and I nod

"That's me" I reply as I step out of the way to help let him in

"Nice outfit" he mocks with a friendly smirk

I looked down and realised I was in my pyjamas....crap

"Shit sorry, I completely forgot, like everything" I apologise with a laugh

"Ha it's cool, you actually look nice" he tells me as we bring his bags in

"Yeah, Archie had a little bit of an incident so I got changed, Thomas only told me you were coming a few days ago so I forgot" I explain with a chuckle and he chuckles too

"Who's Archie?" He asks after a moment

"My son, I thought Thomas told you about him" I looked at him confused and watched as he figured it out

"Oh, yeah, Thomas told me you two had a baby, he just never said a name so I didn't put it together" he explains and I just had to stop and think for a second

He didn't even use our sons name?

"Ah" I reply, trying cover up my slight annoyance at Thomas' lack of acknowledgement of our son, yet again

"So where is Thomas?" He asks and then I make the realisation that he still hasn't shown up

"That's a really good question" I reply as I look around trying to figure out where he might be

I head over to the stairs and go up a few before calling out his name and getting no reply

"Didn't he tell you where he was going?" Ryan asks me and I roll my eyes, not at him but at my husband

"He didn't even tell me he was leaving let alone where" I reply, not really thinking about what I'm saying

"Really?" He asks me, shocked

"Eh, it's not the first time, he does it sometimes, it doesn't mater" I tell him, in hindsight that was a stupid thing to admit, no one want to hear about the faults in my marriage, they're nothing really

"He just leaves without telling you?" He asks like it's a big deal, it's really not

"Yeah" I reply, trying to make it sound as casual as possible

"That's awful, how can he just leave you alone with the baby without even telling you he's going?" He spoke in a way I hadn't heard anyone speak in my defence before, he actually had some passion about something

He barely knows me and he seems to be more interested in how I feel than my husband has been in months

"I'm used to it, he's just not the type to be able to stay pinned down all the time, he isn't as much of a family man as I'd have hoped but that's just how it is" I ramble, I shouldn't say this to him, he's Thomas' friend and Thomas is my husband, I'm loyal to him, I love him, he's a good man

"That sucks" he replies, he's really sweet, he kinda seems to be the polar opposite of Thomas, are we sure they were friends? He seems so different from all of the other people I've met who Thomas calls his 'friends'

Just then Thomas came back from what looked to be the gym judging by his outfit and the fact he had his gym bag

"Hey babe, I'm back" he greets before noticing I'm not alone "Ryan! Hey man, glad you're here!" He greets with much more interest, I roll my eyes while they do some sort of handshake/bro hug thing

"You didn't tell me you were leaving" I point out to him angrily as his attention comes back to me

"Crap, sorry honey, I must've spaced" he replies but he's giving shit-all empathy in it, he's clearly only saying it because he thinks that's what he's supposed to do

"Mhmm" I reply, sometimes I think I should just give up, I could never do that though, he's not that bad

"Okay I need to go change, Chlo, can you show Ryan where the spare room is?" He asks in such a nonchalant way, I swear to god I want to throttle him some days

"Whatever" I reply and gesture for Ryan to follow me before taking one of his bags to help him and then walking off

I'm so done with today

---------------------------------------------

And Ryan's joined the party, what do you think of him so far? Is he what he seems? Or could he be much more like his 'friend' than he appears? You'll just have to wait and see won't you? Xoxo