The next month and a half took forever to fly by.
All of us are waiting on the porch for Noah to get home.
It's October second, and he should be home any minute now.
I'm so excited.
I'm sitting, waiting.
My phone chimes.
Noah: I haven't even left the city yet.
My heart falters.
"He hasn't even left the city." I frown.
Rose groans.
"Let's go inside."
She gets up, walking inside.
We all follow her, disappointed.
It's already five thirty, so I start making dinner.
I make this thing called Mess.
It's meat and elbow noodles with pieces of salami and a jar of tomato sauce.
I'm mixing it, and the kids are sitting at the bar, disappointed we have to wait another few hours.
I'm stiring the sauce in.
"Ah!" somebody grabs my sides.
I gasp, whipping around, ready to beat one of the kids' asses with my wooden spaghetti spoon.
Noah stands there, grinning from ear to ear.
"You're an ass!" I say, smiling. I put my spoon down, stepping forward to hug him. He reaches down, lifting my straight off the ground I put my arms around his neck, his hands on my ass. He kisses me. I kiss him back. He tastes like candy.
We have no problem showing affection in front of our children. We want them to be disgusted and scarred for life.
They start groaning.
"Ew! Get a room!" Rowan says loudly. Noah laughs pulling away. He sets me down, kissing me again.
"You burnt the food." He says, poking me in the ribs.
"I did not." I say, turning to look in the pot as he goes around the bar to hug the kids.
He's right. I did.
"Dammit. Noah, it's your fault."
"It's not though." He says. "You're just a bad cook, that's all." He reaches over my shoulder, shutting the stove off. He grabs the pan, dumping it in the trash, and the fills it with soak and hot water, leaving it in the sink. "Let's order something."
"Ordering is so unhealthy, and-"
"Actually, let's just go out." He cuts me off.
"Okay, let me change."
Rose gets up, walking out of the room.
All the kids follow her.
Noah turns to me.
"I bought us at least a five minute make out session."
"No you didn't, because I need to change too."
He waggles his eyebrows.
"I'll come with you."
I roll my eyes, going upstairs.
He follows me to the bedroom, shutting the door and locking it.
"Noah, we don't really have time-"
He ignores me and starts kissing me.
I kiss him back. He backs me up to the bed.
"We don't have time." I mumble into his mouth.
He pulls away from my mouth, looking at the clock.
"Hold on." He pecks my lips and walks out into the hall.
"Kids, we're not leaving until 6:30! I need to shower and change."
I hear all of them yell responses, and then he comes back, locking the door again, he walks into the bathroom.
I follow him.
I haven't had sex since April.
Excited is an understatement.
<><>
We did it in the shower and then I put on a black lacy pushup bra, a matching thong, black skinny jeans, and a red skit sweater.
Noah can fuck and be out the door and in the car under five minutes after pulling out.
I take at least twenty minutes.
I have boots on, and I blow dried my hair and brushed it and then curled it and grabbed the hair that used to be my bangs, and I braided them and pulled them back.
I brushed my teeth and put on makeup.
They've been yelling for an hour for me to hurry up.
Finally, I venture downstairs with my purse, keys, and wallet, and my phone.
"Dad, how are you not annoyed?" Caden asks.
"Are you kidding? I've been deadling with this for eighteen years. I know she's always late. She makes me late to everything."
"I do not. We were on time to our wedding."
He pauses, locking the door.
"I was on time. You, however, arrived after the wedding song played three times. I thought you'd stood me up."
I roll my eyes.
"You knew what you were getting yourself into." I say.
"Exactly. Hence the reason I'm so patient." He says.
We drive to the restaurant, sitting down.
It's Sunday night so it's rather slow.
Our waiter walks up.
He's young, with dark blonde, almost brown curly hair and brown eyes.
He looks really sweet as he takes our drinks, and Rose is on her phone as she orders.
I watch the encounter closely.
Her eyes linger on her a second longer than necessary, and he walks away smiling.
"Rose!" I say, slamming my hand down on the table.
"What?" she looks up.
"He likes you!" I say.
"What? No he doesn't." she says.
"Yes he does."
"Too bad for him." Noah speaks up.
"He doesn't like me."
"Well, do you think he's cute?" I ask.
I saw his name tag. His name is Nathaniel. He goes by Nate. That's what he told us to call him.
"No!" she bites her lip though, and her cheeks are turning pink.
"Oh my god!" I clasp my hands together, excited.
He comes back, and this time, the whole table is watching his encounter with Rose.
He gives us our drinks and takes our order.
He looks looking at Rose, even when he's talking to other people.
When he's walking away again, Caden has a shit eating grin on his face.
"Sis, he definitely likes you!"
"Guys, stop." Rose says. "Seriously, you're so embarrassing."
She's shy sometimes.
He comes back a few times to see how we're doing, and then he delivers our food.
"I need to go to the bathroom." Rose says.
She stands up, walking away.
I watch her, and she walks past the kid, grabs his arm, and starts pulling him outside.
The second they get outside, she starts yelling at him.
He argues back.
Noah looks in the direction I'm looking at, and then the kids all turn too, and we watch them fight.
The guy has his fists clenched.
Noah's jaw is clenched.
The kid takes a step towards Rose, and Noah gets up.
"Uh oh." Rowan says.
I don't stop Noah.
He goes outside, and I see him yelling at the kid.
A few seconds later, the kid comes inside, and Noah turns to Rose, who's now crying, and he hugs her.
It's nice to have him back.
"We're leaving. Don't ask your sister any questions, don't even look at her weird while she's crying."
They nod, and I grab my purse and Rose's purse and all her things and Noah's things, and then I leave.
Noah drives, and we stop by Little Caesars, picking up a few pizza's.
We go home.
<><>
Later that night, we're all sitting around the living room.
We're just laying around.
Noah gets up, walking out of the living room.
He's probably gotta pee.
The second h's out of earshot, Caden sits up.
"Are you and Dad divorcing?"
"What?" I ask. "No? Why?"
He hesitates.
"I mean, he's cheating on you."
Silence.
"What?" I ask.
Caden stares at me.
"You didn't know?"
The kids are all silent, watching me.
"Check his messages." He says quietly. "I saw them on the lockscreen. The girl had a pretty nice ass."
Noah and I have been together for eighteen years.
Not once have I ever checked his phone.
I'm sitting on the couch, staring at his phone.
Noah comes back a few minutes later.
He sits down, looking at me.
"What's wrong? You look...sick. Are you sick?"
I take a deep breath slowly.
"Let me see your phone." I whisper.
He looks confused.
Picking it up, he hands it to me.
He doesn't ask any questions, he just hands it to me.
The kids are silent, watching.
"What's your password?" I ask quietly.
"A bunch of zeros." He says slowly. "What's going on?"
I don't answer him, I just unlock his phone and start going through his messenger messages, and his snapchat.
They're mostly to the kids.
I go through everything, and then I click on messages from a girl named Caitlyn.
These are all from today, and they're unopened messages.
He erased everything before that.
Caitlyn: hey
Caitlyn: wanna hangout? ;)
Caitlyn: noahhhhhhhhhhh
Caitlyn: you know where my hotel room is. Come up
Caitlyn: I miss you. Wanna go for a round? :p
She sent an ass pic to him.
There's no messages after this.
I can't move. My eyes burn with unshed tears.
I feel like I'm going to throw up.
"Brecklyn." Noah whispers.
"Shut up." I say. "I can't-who the fuck is she, Noah?" I yell at him.
I toss his phone at him, standing up.
He stands up, knotting his fingers in his hair.
"She's the husband of one of the guys on the team." He says. "We had a dinner with the team and she kept hitting on me, and I kept telling her to stop. She took my phone when I went to the bathroom and texted herself, and she's been harassing me since May. I've tried everything to get her to stop. The only reason I know where her room is, is because I know where her husbands room is. I never went to her. I made it clear I was with you. Nothing happened. I would never cheat on you, Brecklyn. You know that."
I take a deep, shaky breath.
"Okay?" he asks.
"Is she attractive?" I ask.
"No." he says. "Not to me, anyways."
I sit down on the arm of the couch, trying to calm down. I put my head back, shutting my eyes, my hand in a fist over my heart, because it hurts.
Nobody moves or speaks.
I lift my head, opening my eyes.
"Is she still staying in that hotel?" I ask.
"No. I don't know?" he says. "I don't pay any attention to her."
"Give me your phone." I say.
Silently, he hands it to me.
I call the bitch, putting it on speaker.
"Noah!" she says.
"Not Noah." I say.
"Who are you?" she practically growls.
I start laughing.
"Who am I?" I ask. "Who are you, Princess? I'm Noah's wife!"
Silence.
"Oh." She says.
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry this happened to you." She says. "He went home to leave you and his kids for me. We've been lovers since May."
Should I believe her?
Noah runs his hands across his face, and he looks like his world is about to crumble.
I'm going to destroy her.
I nod slowly.
"You know," I start. "If you two are going to end up together, I'd love for the kids to meet you. How about you come for dinner tomorrow?"
Silence.
Noah is looking at me like I'm crazy.
"Okay." She says.
I give her our address, and then I hang up.
"What are you doing?" Noah asks.
"I'm going to destroy her." I shrug.
Ohhhh shit.
What do you think she's going to do?
~Sam