Do You Take This Woman?

1 Last night, after walking into her house from work, Carla Barnes found her husband, Pete, bent over in a chair, his face buried in his hands. She stood in the doorway, afraid to go in. She was worried that he might have found out some way. She ventured in, stepped beside him, placed a hand on his shoulder. "Pete," she said, her voice soft. He did not look up, did not take his face from his hands. "Pete," Carla said again, shaking him a little. "Are you okay?" Pete raised his face. He looked anguished. Carla's heart started to beat faster, something inside telling herself that he did know. "Just tell me what's going on," Pete said. "With what?" "With us." "What are you talking about?" Carla said, feigning ignorance. She knew he was referring to Carla walking in late every evening, some times after 9 P.M. when she got off work at 4:30 P.M. He was talking about the distance that had been between them, her reluctance to talk to him, show him affection, touch him, make love to him. "I don't know what you're talking about," Carla repeated, turning away. Her husband got out of his chair and stood there behind her. "Is it someone else?" he asked. "I don't believe you'd do that to me, but I have to ask you. Is it?" Carla breathed a short sigh of relief. He really did not know. He was guessing, and although he was close to the truth, he wasn't certain of anything. "No," Carla said, turning to him. "I'm not seeing anyone else. It's work, like I told you. Things have been just a little crazy, that's all." She was lying. She wasn't seeing anyone in the way that Pete was thinking. She wasn't sleeping with another man, wasn't meeting in hotel rooms, wasn't supplementing the sex life she and her husband shared, although there was someone that she had been talking to. He was an ex-friend, an ex-lover, an ex-fiance. When Wayne had pulled Carla aside two months ago, at a barbecue her husband was throwing, and whispered to her that he wanted to see her again, Carla could not deny that she was interested. But that was as far as she wanted it to go. She knew that she could not be alone with Wayne because of how much she had loved him those two years ago, and how much she feared that she might still feel for him. "I can't do that," Carla had said to him then, pouring herself some punch, staring directly at her husband standing across the lawn. He was smiling back at her as he grilled hotdogs and hamburgers for the twenty or so people that stood about the yard. "I'm not asking you to cheat on him," Wayne said. "I just want to see you, talk to you, spend time with you. I miss you. It'll be innocent. I promise." Carla turned to look at Wayne, and she knew that it could not be that. The man was beautiful. His chiseled facial features, square jaw, breadcrust complexion, and that dimpled smile, always made her just want to lean over and kiss him. She felt that urge then, but she suppressed it when her husband smiled again and waved at her. Carla smiled and waved back, blew a kiss at him. Wayne waved as well. "You'd do that to him, your best friend?" Carla asked. "I wouldn't be doing anything. I would be just talking to you, like I said. That wouldn't be nearly as bad as what he did tJohnson, R. M. is the author of 'Do You Take This Woman?', published 2006 under ISBN 9780743285193 and ISBN 0743285190.