A Not So Merry Christmas

Chapter One

Office sex. It was the remedy to her sexless marriage. That was what the YouTube lady said. Men loved such surprises, and what better surprise could she give her hard-working husband twenty-five days to Christmas? Adam was the breadwinner. Without his endless time in the office, they wouldn’t have anything on their table. But it wasn’t always so.

In the early years of their marriage, he convinced her to quit her job. Now, she was twelve years into the marriage and regretted it every day. Maybe he wouldn’t have to spend much time working – so much so that he barely had time for her or their two boys. But would a woman sit and complain? She would give him relief. Moreover, it was a means to take back charge in their marriage. Samantha Ofor loved her family and didn’t want her two boys to spend another Christmas without their father.

She wouldn’t wallow in self-pity. She would surprise him by spicing things up. She’d never done something oddly exciting and quite adventurous like office sex, and it bothered her that she could count the number of times they had sex after she gave birth to Louis, then Shawn. She stripped, wore a red thong set, and a lacy pink body-con dress, pulled a stiletto, and applied makeup.

She spun in the mirror. Though she was clocking thirty-two, with two sons, she was still in shape. Her light skin shone without blemish, and the only sign of stress were the lines beneath her eyes that she managed to conceal. For the first time in years, she felt young and wanted. She was convinced he would like it. Adam pretended to be conventional, but the times when she’d pulled something spontaneous, he didn’t seem to be less turned on.

She picked up her keys, locked up, and drove to the office.
Gazing around her husband’s firm, she couldn’t deny the hard work put into it. She strode past his staff, greeting and politely nodding.

‘Good afternoon ma’am.’

‘Good afternoon, Simon,’ she greeted Adam’s secretary. He was a lanky man, dressed out of place as he nervously adjusted his glasses.

‘Does he know you’re coming?’ A faint blush coloured his cheek.

‘It’s a surprise.’ She smiled with pride. ‘I am his wife.’ With those words, she walked past Simon, heading to her husband’s office.

She exhaled at the outer office, straightening her gown. She was stalling. It wasn’t nervousness, but anxiety, like she had no right to be in his office. Like she was trespassing. The thudding of her heart seemed to be warning her to turn back around and return home, and then thoughts started churning in her head. Maybe he had company, which wasn’t exactly true since his meetings were held in the outer office. But still…maybe. She shook her head and sighed. She had to do this. Samantha took a few steps further and reached the door, and that was when she heard it: the jerking of furniture, the moans, the guttural grunts. She stood shocked, almost frozen, and confusion ruffled her thoughts.

The first assumption wasn’t always true. Adam would never cheat on her. The only explanation was that he was stressed, found himself on a porn site, and decided to relieve himself. It wounded her pride that he would rather masturbate than come home to her, but a man had to do what he had to do. It was better than cheating. She would go in and relieve him of the stress of pleasuring himself alone. That was what she’d come to do. So why weren’t her feet moving forward? Maybe she had best leave him and return home. She turned to leave but paused again.

She was no delusional coward. She knew, but she didn’t want to see it, because what if he wasn’t really masturbating? To see it would mean that she’d have to believe it, to give life to the fear in her heart. Her body trembled, and her hands hovered around the doorknob. The moans grew louder. If she didn’t see it, perhaps she could convince herself that he was only masturbating, and then the hurt would go away. Adam couldn’t cheat on her. He wouldn’t.

Her mind was lying, her ears deluding, she would prove them wrong. She trusted her husband. Her husband loved her. Her husband cared. She yanked the door open.
The image before her was laughable, like an illusion, because it couldn’t be her husband positioned between the thighs of another woman. It couldn’t be his head buried between her breasts.

She pinched herself as the first tears dropped, and her heart shattered to thousands of pieces. Did Adam not love her? What about the vows they made? What about the promise to love until death do them part? Because how could he love and hurt her this way?

‘Not real, not real, not real.’ She shut her eyes. If she could close her eyes, maybe she could make it go away. Perhaps the pain would flee, and her heart would be whole again. And if she opened them, she’d see Adam busy with work. When she opened her eyes, it was him, still there, lost in her body, too consumed with pleasure to notice that she was standing right there. She wouldn’t cry, she wouldn’t beg. Adam had taken her heart and used it as a plaything. 

‘I see how busy you are, Adam Ofor.’
They jerked apart. Adam hurriedly reached to cover himself, clattering things, while the woman whom Samantha recognised as his P. A glared at her like she was interrupting. 

‘And Juliet, our dear personal assistant, sorry, what was in your resume? Assisting married men with their sexual lives?’

Juliet opened her mouth to speak.

‘Shut up,’ Samantha said then faced her husband, clapping her hands.

‘Two hardworking citizens of Nigeria.’

‘Sam, it’s not what you think.’ He struggled into his trousers, pushed Juliet out of his way and reached for Samantha. She stepped back.

‘Don’t you dare touch me. Of course, it’s not what I think. Do you know what I thought?’

His head fell in shame.

‘I thought you were working your butts off for me and your children.’ Samantha laughed. ‘My husband is the hardest working man in Nigeria. That’s why he barely comes home. Not for the holiday.’

‘Sam… I—’

‘And when I heard your not-so-pleasant sound, I wanted to believe that you were watching pornography and masturbating. That was how delusional I wanted to be because I trusted you.’

He winced and lowered his head.

‘The thoughts of you masturbating in your office wounded my pride, but this—’ Samantha’s gaze shifted from him to Juliet, to the files on the floor.

‘Was I a bad wife that you found someone else? What did I do to deserve this? What did your children do to deserve your absence and infidelity?’

‘It’s not like that. I…’ He pointed at Juliet. ‘She—’

‘Nothing.’ Samantha silenced him, pulled off her ring, and handed it to him. ‘This is yours.’ 

‘I’m sorry, Sam. It won’t happen again.’

‘It won’t,’ she replied and turned to Juliet, stared at her from head to toe, then to Adam in disgust. ‘He’s all yours,’ she told Juliet. ‘Consider him my early Christmas gift to you.’

As she strode off, she heard Adam say,
‘Aren’t you overreacting?’