(Continued from last issue)
David and Diane have been married for years; then there is Julie, the young secretary whose axis collides with the couple’s in ways none of them saw coming.
JULIE
Lunch with David’s mother could not have gone any better; David had shown up after all, the food had been great, and the conversation had flowed seamlessly.
David did not offer any explanation for the sudden change in his plans, and I didn’t ask for one; it had been a long time since he had last spent a Sunday with Junior and me, and to have his mother there as well, only added to the feeling of us being a happy little family; I did not want to burst the bubble by bringing up his other family.
Because I still was not very confident in my driving, I didn’t drive after dark; and so, by five, I started hinting that it was time for me to leave; David agreed and said he would follow me to ensure I got back to the apartment safely.
I assumed that meant he would trail me up to the apartment gates, and then drive on to his other house, but once again he surprised me when he followed me into the parking lot, parked, came to my car, and helped carry Junior’s things up to the apartment.
When he locked the front door behind us, kicked off his shoes, and flopped onto his favourite seat with a sigh of contentment, I could not control my confusion anymore, and brought up the elephant in the room; “Aren’t you going to the house?”
“Not today; I’ll go tomorrow. Today, it’s just you, me and Junior – and tonight, it’ll just be you and me,” he added with a suggestive wink.
It had been so long since he had made such a candid sexual overture, that for a few seconds I just stared at him, unsure if I was just imagining his insinuation. When it became obvious from the way he held my stare, looking me straight in the eye, that I had not misunderstood his meaning, I turned away shyly.
“I had better get started on dinner,” I mumbled, then hurried off to the kitchen, my heart racing, my legs trembling like a virgin about to meet her lover.
DAVID
I made love to Julie that night, and it was great; I had been so preoccupied with everything that had been going on from my problems with Diane, to my financial concerns, that sex had been the last thing on my mind of late; but if there was one thing I had learned through it all, it was that no situation was permanent.
The lawyers had finished dealing with all the legal paperwork from my father’s will and estate; so, that was one issue handled.
Thanks to Julie’s tireless efforts, the manager’s unit would soon be ready so we could finally move out of this bloody apartment, and now that my father’s will had been apportioned, I had the money to speed up work on the lakeside villa in the estate that would eventually be our permanent home; in short, things were finally looking up; so, I could attend to the other areas of my life that I had been neglecting – starting with my relationship with Julie.
Although I knew I loved her, there was a part of me that had never been able to contradict Diane’s assertions that my relationship with Julie would always be seen as several steps down the social ladder from my marriage to her; but watching and really listening to her during lunch with my mother, I had been struck by the realization that that didn’t have to be true.
Julie was smart, and a fast learner; after just a few months of managing the Katosi site, she already spoke with authority on different aspects of construction, and if she could pick up that so fast, then surely, she could pick up a couple of social airs just as quickly.
The more I thought about it, the clearer it all became; there was no denying the fact that I had raised Julie’s standard of life from what it had been when I first met her, to what it was today; so, it only stood to reason that if I had raised it that far, I could surely elevate it even further, especially now that my finances had stabilized.
The truth was that one didn’t have to be born into a social class to acquire its status, and I intended to get Diane off her high horse by demonstrating that to her with Julie.
DIANE
Dropping the children off at my brother’s place the next day took longer than I had expected; once they found out they were going to be staying at their uncle’s place for a few days, they all made a big fuss about it, but for completely different reasons.
While Daniel simply didn’t want to be away from me, the girls were more concerned about missing their father’s daily visits.
“We didn’t see him yesterday, now again today!” Samantha whined.
“Think of how nice it’ll be staying with your cousins; you guys always have so much fun together,” I argued, trying to sound convincing. It didn’t work.
“I would still rather see Daddy,” she sulked.
By the time I finally managed to extract myself from them, it was already six, and then there was the usual evening rush traffic to deal with, so that by the time I arrived at the house, it was after seven, and David’s car was already parked in the driveway.
At the sight of it, my heart skipped a beat, and I took a moment to take a deep breath and compose myself before getting out of the car. I knew David would be furious, but I was determined not to let him see how nervous that made me.
If he thought he could intimidate or frighten me into bending to his will, then he would, and the fight would be lost before it started.
My only choice was to show strength and determination, two traits he respected, and the only way I would have a fighting chance at making my plan work. He had obviously heard me arrive, for by the time I walked in through the front door, he was already at the foot of the stairs, barely an arm’s length from me.
“Where are the kids?” he demanded, as he looked past me, and saw that I was alone. “Visiting my family,” I answered flippantly, like it was the most normal thing in the world for the kids to be visiting my family on a school night.
His eyes narrowed dangerously, and in two quick steps, he was right up against me.
“I warned you not to play these kinds of games with me Diane; I won’t let you use our kids as pawns! I won’t stand for it! You’ve just crossed a line you’ll wish you never did,” he swore ominously.
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