The Affair (Fiction)

I was waiting for her for three hours before she finally arrived back in the apartment. I smoked a cigarette till it burned my fingers, then another, and another, and another… Poured myself a stiff gin and walked around our home, looking at the detritus of our joint life. Silver picture frames lying on the grand piano showing our wedding photos, sailing photos, party photos, skiing photos, summer photos… The list went on and on, a series of petty, mindless events illustrating our marriage perfectly, showing it for what it really was. There are no pictures though, of my infidelity. There are no shots of Hyacinth and I on the balcony overlooking all Paris, none of us having dinner in Rome, nothing. I’d been so secretive for so long, and now I was about to rip that shroud away and force both my lives together in one second of confession? Well, I’d promised H. and so I would do what I would do.

Hearing the engine of that taxi broke me from my reverie. I swallowed half my drink in one go and made another, hearing the elevator whirr beneath my feet as I did so. She unlocked the heavy door and walked in, wearing a fur coat, tight red dress with a black belt that I didn’t recognize and a huge hat that shaded her face just slightly and showed her lips perfectly…

The effect was stunning, she radiated physical loveliness as she always had though in my heart I knew that deep down she was as twisted and vile as anyone I’d ever met.
‘Darling’ she said, the coat falling off her shoulders if on accident, ‘I’m sorry I’m back so late.’
She said this warmly, as if she was still as in love with me as she’d said she’d been when we’d first met at Oxford. It made me falter, perhaps I had made a mistake?
‘Did you put the supper in the oven?’ she asked, hanging the coat up and moving closer, the smell of her perfume intoxicating, ‘I left a note for you.’
I was made almost speechless by her, as I often was, and all I managed to say was a quick thank you and ‘I found it.’
She looked at me strangely, almost seductively and looking down I realized that I had finished my drink. I walked over to the sideboard, seeing her still standing there in the corner of my eye, unspeaking as I poured another drink. Suddenly she spoke,
‘Charles’ she said quickly, almost garbling her words, her voice husky, ‘don’t you have something to say to me?’
At that moment I suddenly realized that she knew about H. Why else the silences, the strange aura I was seeing like a chimera. She had found out, somehow, and had planned her move perfectly so that she could surprise me absolutely. What else could I do, I had to continue with my plan.
‘So’ I breathed deeply, ‘so I guess that you know already…’ I said, half expecting a slap but nothing came but a sharp intake of breath, her eyes widening in sudden fear and she seemed to glance around nervously for a second before speaking,
‘What should I know Charles?’ what I perceived as fake innocence throwing me for a second, her usual cockiness so ridiculous in this circumstance that I yelled at her, tried to force a confession of her knowledge, as if she was the guilty one,
‘‘Don’t play games’ I snapped at her with venom, ‘how long have you known about me an Hyacinth?’
She laughed, filling me with uncertainty, and then said primly, like the bitch she is
‘Actually, Ididn’t know about you and Hyacinth, and I guess you didn’t know about me and Seb.’