With her double scoop of mocha chocolate chip ice cream in a waffle cone in hand, she emerged onto the sidewalk. She stood there beneath the glow of a street lamp, ran her tongue over the creamy cold ice cream. Sweet.
She meandered down the street to where she’d parked her car at the curb. Across was a pub she and Derek used to go to with the best strawberry margaritas in the world. They hadn’t been there in a long time.
A man and a woman came out the door of the pub. Krissa stopped.
It was Derek.
Who was he with?
Krissa stepped behind a planter overflowing with red and purple petunias. She watched her husband put his arm around the woman’s waist and lead her down the steps to the sidewalk. Her blonde hair hung straight to her waist. A tight, low-cut top revealed generous cleavage and her high-heeled slides brought her almost to Derek’s height.
On the sidewalk, the woman laughed at something, turned to Derek and kissed him on the mouth. And he kissed her back, his hand sliding around to her ass in a snug pair of bright pink Capri pants.
The ice cream plopped from Krissa’s hand to the brick sidewalk. She ignored it, stared open-mouthed at her husband passionately kissing another woman.
Chapter 29
It would probably take her a year to sort out the confused thoughts and feelings eddying in her head. Maybe it would take forever. She only knew that the few hours between when she’d seen Derek outside The Jolly Frog pub and when he arrived home were not enough to sort out exactly how she felt and what she should do about it.
Maybe she should have confronted him then and there, with that woman, but her first instinct had been to retreat, to run away from the ugliness. Once before she had been in denial about Derek’s fidelity, had let it go, pretended it hadn’t happened, but…not this time.
When Derek quietly entered the house, she was sitting in the living room. She’d finished off a bottle of wine. Never mind ice cream. Wine sounded much better when she’d gotten home. When the thought that she could be pregnant crossed her mind, she pushed it away. After so long, it just wasn’t meant to happen. Wasn’t going to happen. She might as well accept that and move on with things.
Move on with what?
Derek spotted her sitting in the dark, wine glass in her hand, and stopped. “Hi.”
“Hi.” The first thing she wanted to say was,where were you? But she wasn’t going to act like a wronged wife. Because she was still worried that she wasn’t exactly in the right, her feelings for Nate troubling and confusing.
“You’re still up.”
“Yes.”
He walked over to the couch and sat beside her. She could smell alcohol, cigarettes and perfume…a scent she’d smelled before. A fist inside her squeezed tighter.
She lifted the glass to her mouth, tipped it and drained the last mouthful of Chardonnay.
“I saw you.”
He looked at her, blinked. His short blonde hair was imperfect, as if he’d tried to neaten it with his fingers. “You saw me?”
“Outside the Jolly Frog.”
He said nothing.
“Who is she, Derek?”
He looked away, his mouth tight. “Nobody.”
“Clearly, she is. You’ve seen her before. I recognize her perfume.”
“She’s another agent. A new one.”
Krissa nodded. This all felt like a dream. Like it was happening in slow motion. “How long have you been having an affair with her?”
“I’m not!”
She looked at him sadly. “Derek. Don’t lie about this. Enough shit has happened. Let’s not lie anymore. To each other. To ourselves.”
