Vodka Espresso

12. talking

July, 2017

Rough and unrepentant, Edgar poured his pained soul into his savage lovemaking. It wore him out and Ingrid cuddled at his chest when he collapsed on the bed beside her. His arms wrapped around her and their heavy breaths synchronised within seconds, calming each other down.

His phone rang in one of the pockets of his sweat shorts on the floor. He let it die, but it rang again.

"Fuck," he grunted and made an effort to roll over and pick it up.

It was his wife.

"What was that text all about?" she demanded to know.

He sat up on the edge of the bed. "Well, what do you think?" Silence. "Take a wild guess."

"There's no need to be condescending," his wife bit back. "Do you really expect me to believe you've been such a good choir boy all these years on all those business trips so far away from home?"

Her venom hurt him. Before Ingrid, although he'd considered it many times, he'd never dared to cheat on the mother of his children. He felt it would be too demeaning for all parties involved. But that night at that bar in Berlin, he'd reached a record-breaking low – the thought of being alone and unconsoled a moment longer had sickened him.

"Whatever I did or didn't do, I was always discreet about it. You seem to have lost your grasp on discretion."

Still more silence.

"It's not possible."

"It is, really. To be fair, you've always been a screamer."

She hung up and he laughed.

"No way," Ingrid exclaimed, sliding over to him, "your wife's having an affair?"

"I guess so."

"Karma is a bitch, huh?" She straddled his lap and held onto his neck.

He snaked his arms around her torso. "Not sure about karma, but my wife definitely is."

Ingrid quirked an eyebrow. "That's not quite fair, is it?"

He hardly heard her. "My whole life I've tried to do right by her and how does she repay me? The first chance she gets, she...she throws it to the wolves. In plain sight. And who knows how long this has been going on for? I thought that despite everything, we still had respect for each other."

"It's funny to hear you say that when you're in bed with me."

"I'm no hypocrite, the only thing that bothers me is that our son found out."

"I'm sure she didn't mean to."

He frowned at her. "Whose side are you on?"

"Yours." She disentangled herself from him and sat beside him. "There's no use beating yourself up over it. And you don't get to judge her for having an affair."

"No, of course not. I can't know what's going through her mind and what she sought solace for. I, for one, when I met you at that bar...I was feeling so alone, like never before. For twenty years, I was never alone. Hell, for my whole life. I had my parents and my siblings. Then my wife and my children. There was always someone I had to look after. I never had time to feel alone."

Edgar took her hand.

"You filled a gap that was growing inside of me."

"This isn't about me, Edgar. It's about you and your wife."

Her words made him ponder on what it was all about. His thoughts eventually travelled to the shabby foundation his marriage had been built on.

"It was a shotgun wedding," he said. "She'd got pregnant and we didn't have much time to think about it. I knew I'd have to step up and I was so scared, but when our daughter was born...it was love at first sight. This tiny gurgling creature..."