The Missunderstanding. A Lesbian Short Story

The Missunderstanding

Authors Note: I would love some constructive criticism on this work. It is my first and I can only go up from here. If you like it please leave a comment telling me why, if you didn't like it because of something other than "this isn't your kind of story" than please tell me why. I am working on another piece right now and any feedback from this will help me work on that one. I am open to any advice you have to offer 

        When I walked up to the house it looked like it hadn’t changed at all from the time I had left for my work trip three months ago, to this time now walking back up the pavement stepping stones. The same white front door. The same shiny gold knocker. The shutters were still white and clean, the siding still bright blue. The only difference was that the flowers had started to bloom in the hedges now that the winter frost had fully subsided. But the house was quiet, the kids were both off at school and my wife off at work, just the fish tank filter trickling the water made any sound when I finally sat to relax.

            She came in and smiled at me happily, the kids right behind her. Nothing seemed amiss as the kids hugged me and welcomed me back and she went to start dinner like it was any other night. I went over and wrapped my arms around her waist when the kids ran off to their rooms to do whatever, I liked to think they were doing homework but I know that probably wasn’t the whole truth. I kissed her shoulder gently.

            “What’s for dinner?” I asked as I peaked around her at the pot boiling on the stove and smiling, missing a nice home cooked meal when I had been gone.

            “Pasta with chicken and zucchini. Donny says hi, he came and spent some time with the kids when you were gone. Brought them to school in the mornings so I could work” I nuzzled her shoulder blades and smiled softly “that was nice of him”

She nodded and stayed focused on her cooking as I stayed leaning against her for a moment “I’m goanna go take a bath ok?” I kissed her shoulder again before going back up to our bathroom and taking a bath. Dinner fell into its old pattern of the family eating in the living room and watching a TV show, constituting for our family bonding time and after that our lives where back to normal with Donny visiting from time to time for barbeques and movie nights.

The only thing that has been off now since I got home is that my wife doesn’t want to have anything to do with my in the bedroom, and I’ve tried everything. I tried romancing her; flowers, and not those cliché roses but her favorite--sunflowers. I tried cooking her dinner, cleaning the house, making sure the kids were both off at friends for the night, candles, a bubble bath.
            As I worked on the massage “Baby… You know the kids are out tonight…. We have the house to ourselves”
            “mhhh…” She mumbled, but softly like she was falling asleep
            “I was hoping we could enjoy our time together and revisit some of our favorite pastimes” with a little whisper and nibble on her ear for good measure.
            No answer.
            I stopped what I was doing and looked down at my wife, she had been looking more radiant lately, almost glowing, and when she sat up I just knew.
            “I have to tell you something… I…. When you went on your work trip, Donny came over… And we…”

            I stopped her, not wanting to hear it. From the start she had always been the one to carry our children, I couldn’t do that because of medical reasons. Our first was an accident, completely unplanned. He came before I was even in her picture. The second was decided but it took a lot out of us both to get her here.

            She was supposed to be mine, that’s when we got the bad news that I couldn’t carry. She had never wanted more children after her son, he was her everything and we both loved him dearly but then when he was five we decided that we wanted another, that I wanted another, and that we would try. She agreed to try, that if I was the one to carry that she would help me through everything.

            When I couldn’t it took a lot out of us, there was a lot of crying and a lot of strain put on us that was starting to come back with her sitting in front of me, telling me that once again she was pregnant but this time it wasn’t at all planned. I looked her over, taking in her beauty and let my eyes flood with emotions. I clenched and unclenched my fists over and over, when I couldn’t look at her anymore and let my eyes drift around the room, landing on the family picture next to our bed of us and the two kids, laughing and looking happy in the park and the flood gates opened, tears flowing freely now.

            She was just watching me, looking for some kind of reaction that I might have and looking to see if I was going to get up and leave. But I didn’t. I looked at her and tried to calm myself with my panic was rising as the fact that she had cheated on me sank in. I started shaking and closed my eyes, gasping for breath as the room around me spun in my panic and I curled up, trying to calm myself to be able to talk.

            “It’s ok… It’s ok…” I managed to choke out. I had always wanted another child but I had never thought that it would happen this way, we hadn’t even discussed it yet. Donny. That sleaze bag, grease ball Donny. Never trust someone with that name, they’ll sleep with your wife when you’re gone making money to support your now growing family. That bastard was in our fucking wedding. We had been friends with him since we went to high school together. Where did he think it was ok getting off on my wife? Where does he think it’s ok to go and sleep with your best friend’s wife, apparently more than once, and get her fucking pregnant?! This would have been a totally different situation if we had been planning on having another baby, if we had been talking about it and agreed that our greasy friend would be the sperm donor. But that’s not the case. The case is, here is my wife. The woman that I love unconditionally, the woman I have agreed to spend the rest of my life with and have this family with. The woman that I would tare myself apart for if it made her happy. And I’m doing just that. I’m ripping myself apart on the inside in my panic that she betrayed my trust and slept with our mutual best friend.

            “I don’t want him here anymore… I don’t want him to know. I want this baby to be ours and I don’t want the kids to know that this baby is his” I took a breath and looked up at her, whipping my face. She looked down and then over at me, playing with her hands in her anxiety of the whole situation. I knew she was thinking that it wasn’t fair that he wouldn’t get to know his own child and that he wouldn’t be allowed around at all anymore. But right now I didn’t care. Right now I had to do what I thought would be best for my family. For my kids. For my own wellbeing because I wouldn’t be very useful to my family locked up for killing someone.

            She looked at me and took a deep breath before starting “I understand” was all she said. And I knew she was mad, that she wasn’t ok with anything that had happened, but I just kept thinking that she did this to herself, that she had done this to us. And I knew why too, but I just had to ask. “Why…?”

            “Because you were gone. You know how I get. Long distance doesn’t work for me at all. I debated getting rid of it…” She left it at that. Because I knew it was because of me that she hadn’t done anything about it. We used to talk when we were younger about where we stood with abortion and she knew that getting one would land her with divorce papers instantly. The idea that she even thought about it made me a little sick.

            “I’m glad you didn’t…” I got up and blew out the candles, turning the light on and then walking to the door. I didn’t look at her again as I stood in the doorway a moment “I’m goanna make dinner… something good for the baby. We’re goanna get through this. We will… I wanted another baby anyways…” I took another breath and a shaky step into the hall to go make something for dinner. I cried the whole time, shaking but managing somehow not to hurt myself in the process. Was I crazy? I kept imagining the knife I was using would be the one I would have used to kill the bastard if he had been at my house when I had found anything out. And that seemed to calm me down a little, pretending that the zucchini I was cutting was a certain part of his body that he would never be able to use again for anything after I was done with him. But of course I wasn’t going to go out in search of this man that had severed a lifelong friendship for however many nights of fantasy with an untrustworthy, amazing woman. I made chicken with the zucchini over pasta and called for her when it was plated on the table. Eating was quiet. We didn’t look at each other.