PWOMP

MaryAnne was filled with guilt. When she had called her husband at his work, her lover had just left the house, minutes before her children were due home from elementary school.
She was new to the life of leading a double life. She had been feeling rather neglected by her husband, expecially since school started and he had gone back to work. She was a stay at home mother, taking care of the house and the children when they were there. But, their youngest had started kindergarten this year, and she had been feeling a bit bored- the loneliness seeping into her bones once the house was empty.
So, she had turned to Erik. He was a college student who had moved here from New Mexico to complete his internship at the local hospital. Her husband had sometimes hired him to mow the lawn for them. He was not a man who would get up and do things, and MaryAnne was a dainty sort of woman who wouldn't be caught dead doing something as manly as mowing the lawn. Working in the garden, yes. Mowing the lawn, no.
MaryAnne heard her husband's car pulling into the garage and pulled on her pink bathrobe as she walked downstairs to greet him. The children were watching some cartoon in the den, the sound on low, as per her request. MaryAnne passed the mirror hanging in the hallway, right outside the doorway to the den. She spared a glance at her reflection. Her roots were showing and looked pretty messy. She'd have to put off a meeting with Erik to go to the saloon to have them touched up.
But, now was not the time to be thinking about Erik. She had to put on her "loving wife" role once again, if only for a few hours.
Her husband walked in the door and she pasted on the brightest smile that she could, tightening her robe around her.
"Evening, Mary." He greeted her with the barest of pecks on her cheek, shoving a white bag into her hands and walking into the den to greet his children. MaryAnne sighed- they had had so much love in their marriage and now, she was reduced to a peck on the cheek and "Evening, Mary." She growled as she pulled open the bag, the staple holding it closed popping off and vanishing into the carpet, to be picked up later by a vacuum.
She had lied when she had told her husband that he would be picking up Sarah's medication at the pharmacy. She had already picked Sarah's medication up yesterday. These were her birth control pills. She had lied because her husband would freak out if he found out that she was on birth control because he hadn't touched her in months.
"Mary, what's for dinner?" Her husband demanded from in front of the TV with his children.
"Whatever you want." She spoke calmly, still standing near the doorway to the den. Oh, how she wanted to scream and curse at him. "I have a book club meeting tonight."
"Alright. Hey, kids! How does pizza sound?!" MaryAnne slipped back upstairs, stashing her pills in her night stand before she pulled out a shimmery, sexy dress. She had bought it thinking of Erik. It was all she thought about whenever she thought about sexy. She used to be sexy to her husband. But, now, she was sexy to Erik. And Erik liked her, liked to fuck her until it was so late, it was early.
The dress was too low-cut for a bra, so she just slipped on a hot-pink thong and slipped on the stockings and heels that she would be wearing for her date with Erik tonight. MaryAnne sighed. She used to get dressed up sexy for her husband. Now, the only person that she dresses sexy for is Erik.
She picked up the dress, in a brown bag, and placed it onto the bed while she pulled on her "mom clothes".
"I'm leaving now." MaryAnne announced, walking downstairs with the bag in her hands.
"Alright. Have fun at your book club." Her husband spoke, not even looking in her direction as he placed the order for their dinner tonight. Another pang of guilt grabbed her chest- she hadn't had a chance to so much as look a book since Sarah, their eldest, had been born. She had been born sick, and required twelve different medications three times a day, every day.
MaryAnne said nothing, just slipped out the garage door, got into her car and drove the short distance to Erik's apartment.
Once she had pulled into a parking space, MaryAnne quickly changed into the sultry dress right in the car- an art that she had perfected since she had started seeing Erik. Once she no longer looked the part of a dotting mother and wife, she got out of the car and walked up to Erik's apartment.
"Bad news, baby." Erik spoke when he opened the door. He held up the pager that had been the dismay of many of their sexual encounters. "But you look great, though." He offered her his arm and they walked back down to the parking lot so that he could driver her to the fancy restaurant.
"What's wrong, babe? You seem quieter than usual." Erik pressed her as they rode along.
"Well, I know that the spark had already gone out of my marriage, but I started to worry about my husband today. He was an hour late coming home today, and that's not at all like him. So, after you left this afternoon, I called him to see what was up. He said that he was giving detention to some students. Erik, do you think that by students he meant a beautiful, young female student and by detention he meant fucking her?"
"And your asking my opinion?" Erik spoke in all seriousness. "Wasn't he the reason why you started having an affair? With me, none the less? And your going to ask me my opinion if I think that your husband is having an affair of some sort."
"........." MaryAnne hesitated for a minute. "Yes."
"Never mind then." Erik sighed as they pulled into the parking lot for the restaurant. They didn't speak a word as they were seated and placed their orders.
"So, what do you think?"
"Believe whatever you want, MaryAnne. If it turns out that he is having an affair, you're no more innocent in this whole mess than he is."
"Do you think that what I'm doing is wrong, Erik?" Mary pressed him, reaching across the table to hold his hand.
"I-" He broke off, his pager vibrating against his hip. "I'm sorry, babe. I have to go now." He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "We will continue this conversation later." He got up, leaving more than enough bills on the table to cover whatever MaryAnne would order. Alone.
It was always alone with her, it seemed.