April Showers [Unfaithful Rewritten]

4 | actors & shadows

4
actors & shadows

Mommy and Daddy in love — a role that I never thought I would have to play.

It came easily; too easily, like I'd been waiting all my life for this moment. The fact that it did bothered me.

The weekend went by smoothly. Nate didn't question my decision anymore, nor did he try to persuade me to change my mind. He kept his distance, except when we had to perform our roles. He too had been born ready for it.

Mommy and Daddy were just the same, and Celia and Joseph continued about their lives without a single clue.

On Sunday though, I'd lost myself a little. We all sat at the dinner table, but it had been interrupted when Nate got a phone call. He'd excused himself apologetically, hurrying from the room. I'd never given much attention to his phone calls — he worked as a professor at the nearby Westchester University — so it was expected. This time, Georgina slipped into my mind.

Celia looked at me curiously with her big green eyes. "Mommy?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Why are you holding your knife so tightly?"

It was a devastating but necessary wake up call.

Nate had tried to stop me from going to work the next morning under the pretense that I needed time to mull things over, but the chilling fear in his eyes gave him away. He didn't trust me, and had Celia and Joseph not run out to the bus stop at that very moment, I would've said that he had a good reason not to.

Alas, they did, and I had left the house shortly thereafter. Each moment made me feel relieved, yet guilty for finding relief in my escape. But I couldn't deny that eight hours of doing what I loved — it was paradise.

After only one hour in that paradise, I was approached by Mr. Irving. He was dressed smartly as usual in a velvet tuxedo that was far too fashionable to lurk around the cubicles on the design floors. As was his signature, he knocked on my cubicle and greeted me with a warm smile.

"How are things coming along, Mrs. Adams?"

"Very nicely, actually." I murmured, looking up from my current design to smile back at him. It's then that I notice that he isn't alone; a small trail of men and women — all of whom couldn't have been older than twenty-five — follow him, their eyes darting around the office with childlike excitement and wonder. Intern season. I'd forgotten all about that. But why were they here?

"Good, good," He nodded back. He glanced at the interns for a second before turning back, almost looking sheepish. "I have an assignment for you."

My grin faded as he pointed randomly at one of the interns and beckoned them to come closer. It was a young man who came forward, with impeccably slicked-back caramel hair, and dark brown, mischievous eyes. Mr. Irving wrapped an arm around the young man's shoulders before saying, "This is Carter Green, and he's going to be working with you over the next few weeks."

A myriad of thoughts flew through my mind, the first being What the hell? Mr. Irving noticed, and his smile drooped a bit before being replaced by an even bigger one. Carter, meanwhile, didn't look bothered in the slightest.