A Husband's Reckoning (The Brent Trilogy 2)

Chapter 8

My heart started pounding in my chest like a hammer. "Where?"

"Philadelphia," said George. "We leave on Friday and we come back Sunday. What do you say?"

"Yes," I said. I couldn't believe it. This was going to be the first time that we were actually going to be alone together, where we didn't have to sneak around and just be ourselves. I couldn't contain my excitement.

"It's settled then," he said. "I think I might have a gap between three and three-thirty today, so if I do, I will call for you."

"Alright," I said.

"Alright, now see you later," said George.

That was my cue to stand up and leave, but my heart was beating even harder in my chest now than it was before.

When I returned to my office, Marcus just looked at me and he didn't say anything. We continued on with our day, and I kept glancing at the clock, waiting for three o'clock to arrive and George to send for me – but three came and passed and so did three thirty and George was showing no signs of trying to reach me. I was beginning to get antsy because I really needed it today, and I couldn't wait until Friday and going to Philadelphia.

"Are you okay, Brent?" asked Marcus, obviously sensing my nervousness.

"Yeah, yeah," I said and I realized how dry my mouth was. "I'm just... never mind."

Marcus looked at me. "Brent," he said slowly, "may I ask you a personal question?"

My mouth went even dryer and I took a sip of water as I looked cautiously at Marcus. "Depends on what the question is," I said as I swallowed.

"It's..." Marcus started and then stopped. "Never mind, it's all good," he said.

"No, I won't mind," I said.

"Well, there's a rumor going around the office about... well, about Mr. Warren and Josh, that intern. Dave from Marketing says that he came back earlier from lunch the other day, and apparently Mr. Warren and Josh were going at it in the photocopying room on Mr. Warrens floor. I was wondering if you knew anything about it? Because I heard that Beth from HR has been asking people around about this."

My blood boiled in seconds, and I knew that I couldn't do anything when my face went bright red. So, George was still fucking Josh? I mean – we weren't exclusive or anything like that, and he had a wife, but still. I wish he would've told me. But, he never made any promises to me, so why should he tell me anything like that? And it's not like I didn't know that George and Josh were fucking. I fucked Josh as well. But that still made me feel hurt.

"Um, no," I said. "I don't know anything about it. But just so you know, Mr. Warren is married and I know his wife and he would be crazy to be cheating on her."

"You'd be surprised how many straight married guys I sleep with," said Marcus. "They're a lot more fun."

I looked at Marcus, and I wanted to ask him some questions, but then I thought that the sort of questions I had to ask wouldn't be appropriate for a work environment. But then again, what we and George did wasn't appropriate for a work environment either, and that didn't stop us from doing it.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Brent," said Marcus. "I didn't mean it like that."

Apparently, my indecisiveness to ask what I wanted to know showed on my face and it was interpreted by Marcus as me being uncomfortable. He didn't know that at that moment I would've wanted nothing more than both of us to take our clothes off and for him to show me exactly what he did with all those straight married men. I shook my head. I couldn't think along lines like that about Marcus. He was the only cool face I knew and I felt comfortable around at work and I wouldn't like to mess things up even more. I wasn't even that attracted to him – but I wanted to do something to hurt George. Why should he be the only one allowed to sleep with other men?