“You sure?” came a voice from his side, and he looked over and saw Stephanie standing there. The chick had tried to get in his pants on several occasions, but Link was happily married and wasn’t interested. She was one of the women that hung around and slept with any single patch holder that crooked their finger. Not his style.
“Don’t start trouble, Steph.” Mary frowned at her.
“It’s just that I saw his wife meet several men at the hotel downtown in the last couple of weeks. Seems funny that she hastime to spend all day in a hotel with other men and Link works hard all day.”
Link actually laughed. “Probably her clients. And believe me, she makes more money than I do. If it wasn’t for her job, my shop would have closed down a long time ago.”
“What type of clients?” Steph asked as she saddled up to him and rubbed her breasts against his arm and he immediately stepped away. “You must be a strong man to allow your wife to meet strange men in a hotel all day every day.” He didn’t like what she was implying and scowled hard at her.
“Yep. And you know why? Because I know she comes home to me every night,” he said, and stepped away from her. He looked at Mary and rolled his eyes. “Your old man around?”
“Out back with the pig cooker.”
Link grabbed his beer and left them. Steph sat down and sighed. “Why doesn’t he see that his wife’s cheating on him? If I was married to him, I’d scratch anyone’s eyes out for just looking at him. Someone has to have him take his blinders off when it comes to that woman. Bet her clients are there for sex.”
“Stephanie Gibson!” Mary said sternly. “Watch your tongue, if Lincoln hears you talk about his wife like that, he’d ban you from the clubhouse. She’s just at a point in her business that she’s busy. The summer is the busiest time for her.”
“What type of business? Prostitution?” Steph asked snidely.
Lincoln had left the bar, but he stopped in the shadows and wanted to hear what Steph would say about him or his wife behind his back. He trusted his wife with his life. There would be no way she would cheat on him. No way. But a tiny seed of doubt had been planted, as to why would she meet men at a hotel when she had an office? That was the burning question. He put it to the back of his mind and went to find the president of the club. They conducted their meeting while trying to repairthe pig cooker. He enjoyed himself with his brothers and left the clubhouse shortly before one in the morning.
As he approached his house, he slowed, and smiled when he saw a car come from the other direction and beat him to the driveway so that when he pulled in, the garage door was up and he pulled in beside his wife as she parked her car.
Link shut his bike down and watched as his wife exited her car. “You look exhausted,” he said.
“I am. How was your night?”
“Good, we had a problem with the pig cooker, but we got it fixed. Yours?” One thing he loved about his wife, she always asked and wanted to know about his day first.
“How about work? Get your parts?”
“No.” He sighed. “But I made a few calls and put the fear of god in some people.” He grinned when she laughed. “Should have them bright and early Monday morning.”
“Good. Now to answer your question. My day was good. I met with three new clients, and if they get back to me like they said they would, that’s three more things I’ll be working on, and the anniversary was a success.” They made their way into the house and because of the late hour, they each grabbed a bottle of water and headed up to bed. Once they were settled in, Link reached for her and was surprised when she was already asleep. He lay there for a long time trying to get the image that Steph planted in his head out. He finally fell asleep with the notion of checking out that hotel in the days to come.
The next morning, Addy was already up and dressed when he came downstairs. When she saw him, she jumped up and poured him a cup of coffee. “I have a lot to do today before the wedding. First thing is to stop at the bank, do you have anything that needs to be done there?”
“No, I went after work yesterday.” He kissed the top of her head and glanced at the paperwork before her. When he spotteda check he whistled. He reached down and picked it up. “Damn, woman, what kind of services do you provide for your clients?” he asked jokingly as he frowned at the amount. The conversation with Steph instantly came back to his mind.
“I make my clients dreams come true,” Addy said, but she didn’t look at him when she said it. What bothered him the most about her statement was that she said it with a shrug and with not a care in the world. Normally he’d feel the same way, but this time, he began to doubt.
“What kind of dreams?” He refilled their coffee cups and sat down across from her.
“Whatever they want. The couple from last night’s anniversary party wanted to recreate their original wedding. That was hard, since they had been married for sixty years. I was able to work with the couple’s children and through pictures and memories of the guests, I recreated it.” She indicated the check he held. “The clients were so happy, that they gave me a bonus with the final payment.”
“So you meet clients at your office, right?”
“Yes, or wherever they want to meet,” she answered distractedly. Five minutes later she gathered her papers, and after filling a travel mug, gave him a quick kiss and left. Link shook off his funk and saw that he had to get to his own business, and decided to stop on the way to get breakfast. Maybe on Sunday he could sit down with his wife and have a heart to heart. Since her business took off, it seemed like they were like two ships passing in the night. As much as he enjoyed the shower sex, he didn’t want to feel like they only had time for one another as they passed the other.
*****
On Wednesday of the following week, Link found himself downtown towing a vehicle for the police. He looked across the street and frowned. He was across from the Remington Hotel, a posh, slick hotel that he’d never step foot in. He stared as he saw his wife approach, call out to someone, but he couldn’t hear what she said. And she sure as hell didn’t call out to him. What surprised the fuck out of him was when two men met her and actually kissed her while they hugged her and damn if she didn’t kiss them back. Granted it was only on the cheek, but still. He watched as one of the men offered to take her briefcase and then the three of them turned to enter the hotel, and both men had a hand on the small of her back.
He finished loading the car onto his flatbed and because of where they were located, he had to get it off the street, as it was, he was blocking traffic. He decided to come back after he was done and see if he could catch Addy leave the hotel.
He didn’t catch her later that day, but because he was the boss and owner of his shop, he left the others in charge and actually staked out the hotel for a solid week. He came to the conclusion that his wife was having not one, but several affairs with numerous men. He finally woke up and smelled the coffee when he realized that his wife was meeting different men, on different days at a hotel and that was why she was too tired to have sex with him at night.
With that thought in his head, on the following Saturday he was ready to head to the clubhouse for the night. He found his wife in her office and leaned against the door. After what he saw this past week, he actually felt sick to his stomach as he looked at her. “You coming tonight?”
