The unexpected

CADE

February 15th 2019
Devon - Torquay

"Alesha?"

Walking through the door of our home, I shouted to see if Alesha was home. She worked as a receptionist at the doctors surgery down the road so she usually wouldn't be home till six; it was seven now. I had to stay a few hours longer at my last clients house. I was a decorator, and there wasn't much left to do so I offered to stay to get it finished.

"Honey?" I yelled a little louder as I searched through the lounge and kitchen.

She was always home at six on the dot, so this was a little strange.

Before I jumped to conclusions, I made my way upstairs to check she wasn't in the bathroom or getting changed. To my surprise, she wasn't anywhere in sight.

Placing my hands on my hips, and twisting my mouth to side, I considered my options. I could call her, but then what if she was stuck at work with a crisis? That happened sometimes. Or I could just sit on my lonesome and wait.

The latter didn't sound so great, so I decided to call her. What harm could it be?

I perched on the end of our double oak bed, letting my body sink into the comfy mattress, and pressed her contact to call. I let it ring till it hit voicemail, then tried again. After three times I'd had no hope.

Starting to panic, I chose to call the surgery. Maybe they would be able to answer and let me know. Unfortunately they didn't answer either, in fact it went straight through to the automated message 'The surgery is now closed. We open at eight am Monday to Friday'.

Letting out an exasperated breath, I got up to start dinner. She was most likely just held up and hadn't had chance to contact me yet.

I was about to emerge into the kitchen when the front door creaked open. I turned my head slightly to see Alesha sneaking through the door, she was trying to close the door slowly as well as walking on her tiptoes.

"Al?" I said, in a confused tone.

She jumped, dropping her coat and bag, followed by almost falling into the table at the bottom of the stairs.

"Jesus! You almost gave me a heart attack!" She scolded me, sucking a sharp breath between her teeth, with her hand over her heart.

"Sorry it's just, you looked like you were trying to be quiet?" It was a statement, but I said it more as a question. Maybe she could clarify why she was sneaking through the door.

"What?" She stuttered, pretending she didn't have a clue what I was on about.

"You closed the door extra slowly, it was as if you didn't want me to know you were back"

What was I saying? I practically starting at an argument with her, she would definitely get defensive over this.

"Oh I just Erm, I hate that freaking noise it makes" she rushed her words, but her expression told me she was trying to rack her brain for an answer.

"Right"

Sounding completely pissed, and not believing her, I turned to carry on making dinner. I didn't want an argument with her, but she was definitely lying.

"So how was your day?" She changed the subject, speaking in a high pitch. I could hear the nerves in her voice. She was up to something.

She also looked flushed, her hair wasn't in its tidy, neat, bun like usual, instead there were wisps of hair falling down the sides of her face, and her outfit looked like she had just chucked it on in a rush to get to work; only it was seven in the evening, not the morning. I've never had reason to doubt her loyalty, or break my trust for her, but right now she was making me question it. That scared me the most. How could I jump to something like that when I've never had reason to, just because of one little thing that was out of routine?