A Husband's Reckoning (The Brent Trilogy 2)

Chapter 1

"Brent, I got this, don't worry about it."

"No, it's okay Whit, I can do it."

"But, you don't have to..."

"I know I don't have to, sweetheart, but I want to."

"And why's that?"

"Because I love you."

Whitney smiles and comes closer to me. I'm rinsing the dishes before putting them into the dishwasher and gives me a kiss, as I say the lie that I've gotten so good at saying, that I don't even feel uncomfortable. It's not completely a lie, because I do love her and I care for her in my own way, but it's not the romantic way that she thinks I do. But, I am her husband and the father of her children, so I have a role to play and I've been playing it very good.

Whitney walks away from me, and goes to the living room where Justin and Isabelle are watching their cartoon before having to get ready for bed. I almost left my wife and my children a year ago, before I woke up and realized what would've happened if I did so. But, they say that people lose their minds when they fall in love, and I fell in love with the person that couldn't have been more wrong for me to fall in love with: my wife's brother, William. I was ready to tell Whitney that I didn't feel the same way for her as I did when I married her, that something fundamental had changed in me, but then William went ahead and broke my heart, and after I gathered my wits and promised myself that I wasn't going to let anyone did to me what William did – I realized that I wasn't that changed after all, not really.

You see, the desire for men that William woke up inside me had always been there – but unconsciously I had buried it so deep down that I wasn't even aware of it. Growing up in a strict patriarchal family like mine – you kinda stick to the good things inside you and you don't stray too much. And when I first started having thoughts about men, I wasn't even aware of it, because they were too subtle.

It started when I was a teenager, after football practice in the locker room, playing with the boys and smacking each other with wet towels on our asses. I always told myself I was just admiring my classmates' and friends' physiques because I aspired to look like them – which was true. But there was another, darker truth buried deep underneath all that, truth that I wasn't ready to face until William showed me the possibility and I took it.

I wasn't disgusted by women, and I rather enjoyed having sex with them. But I also enjoyed having sex with men, something that took a very long time for me to admit.

Now I knew who I really was, so balancing the double life I was leading was much easier. As I was putting the last dirty dish in the dishwasher and getting ready to turn it on, I heard Whitney telling the kids that they had to go upstairs and wash their teeth before going to bed. I pulled the phone out of my pocket. It was fifteen minutes until nine. I unlocked the phone and I went to my Messages.

You wanna meet up? I wrote and I send it. Two minutes later, as I was grabbing a glass of apple juice from the fridge, the response came back.

Sure. I'm going to be headed over there in about thirty, was the response I got.

See you soon, I texted and I went upstairs, to grab my gym bag. As I was packing clean tee shirt and a fresh pair of underwear, Whitney came in the room.

"You're going to the gym again?" she asked me.

"I haven't been in three days, honey," I responded.

"Yeah, but I thought you were going to stay home tonight. Being Friday and all."

Friday was our sex night, but I had totally forgotten. But I didn't feel super bad about it, because we missed the past two Fridays as well, and I've been getting plenty so I couldn't complain.