The Way She Sliced Her Pear

Kane

Kane

I pulled out of Monroe's driveway. Trying not to think what just happened. I got to the first stop light and kept picturing her bouncy curls that laid on her neck. The way her soft olive honey skin tasted. Her lips, lips I've wanted to taste for some time now. I knew I couldn't just walk into my house with a raging hard on, so I pushed my desires aside.

Did I pressure Monroe into doing something she felt guilty in doing? Should I have tried harder to refrain my wants? How will we both act when we all get together again? It'll never be the same between us. The kiss happened, the passion was there. I valued my friendship I had with Dex but could be a real dick to Monroe. He had no idea the kind of women she was or the extent of pain Dex put her through. He was never there to see the deep agony that ran through Monroe like I saw. I always just heard it from Reese when Dex would stay out all night or not call and check in. I never saw that actual hurt it put upon Monroe until tonight.

Putting aside the way he treated Monroe so carelessly I still respected him as a friend and a worker. I knew him before Monroe was in the picture and I needed to put my appetite of Monroe aside and try to figure the present out. The affair Reese had. She and I hadn't spoken a word of it since I found out. It hurt me when I would think about it. The betrayal of our marriage but I feel like I wasn't hurt about it as I should have been. I knew then, I didn't love Reese the way a man should love his wife.

This time last year is when I witnessed my wife cheating on me. I came home early one day. I hadn't felt well and battling with a major chest cold that had me coughing up a lung. I had to go home and rest. So I left the office around one in the afternoon. I'll never forget the autumn crisp day with colored fallen leaves on every street.

Driving through our cold a sack all I wanted was to lay in my warm bed and to get some much needed rest before Sean came home from preschool. To get to the front of our drive way you had to drive past a small alley for local utility workers. When I drove past the alley I happened to look over and saw a black Mercedes Benz parked directly behind our house. I didn't think much about it until I walked in the sliding door from outside and heard a man banging my wife. She was having an affair in our bedroom on our bed in my house. A house I worked hard for, a home that sheltered my wife and son. I should have stormed in. I should have ripped the guy off my wife and knocked his lights out. But that wasn't who I was. That wasn't the man I wanted to be. In the moment the feeling of rage and anger never came over me. Why wasn't I more distraught of my wives infidelity?

I slide the door shut behind me and went back to the office. When I came home again that night I told Reese that I knew what she did. And that I didn't want to talk about it until I was ready. I remember her face becoming white as a ghost and her mouth dropped to the floor. We just continued on with our lives after that, as if nothing happened.

In a weird way, I understood why she did it. In my busy season I wasn't around much. And even when I was I would be working in my office. The weekends we tried doing fun things, from children's museums, hanging with Monroe and Dex to occasionally day dates. I'd always make the effort to help with Sean's homework and play with him after dinner all which took away from Reese. She was lonely but I also felt like she no longer wanted to be with me, which was probably when I started to withdraw myself from Reese years ago.

If she truly loved me and me her we both should have made more of an effort at our marriage. We should have done couples therapy, we should have tried resolving our issues better after fights. Fights that would leave me battered and bruised by Reese.

Her temper and physical abuse was not to be messed with. I saw it vaguely when I dated her in college. On Friday nights she and I would patronize local bars. I was constantly getting gawked at by women and they would be flirtatious with me. Even if I didn't engage back it would infuriate Reese to the extent of her pushing me and punching my chest when we arrived back home. She'd yell and scream at me then also try throwing things at my face. Those reactions of hers were red flags to me but I was a horny college student that was getting regular pussy. So I'd take a few beatings every now and again from Reese. I had to, knowing that Reese was the hottest girl around campus and everyone knew it. Back then I cared way too much about what people thought of me. I never had intentions to date her past junior year let alone marry her the following year. I was dumb, naive, and would have given anything to just break it off then. But I didn't. I married someone who I barely knew, had a kid with her a few years later, and now I had made out with her best friend.