A Can of Worms

She’d only been married two weeks when she called me, I knew she would eventually, but I wasn’t expecting it so soon. We’d been lovers right up to what she called her ‘real hen night’; an exhausting night of lovemaking that had the neighbours banging on the walls and the people from the Karma Sutra wondering if they needed a new chapter. Then, she’d walked away, told me she was never coming back, saying she could be an unfaithful girlfriend but not an unfaithful wife. I nodded, I was half expecting it and half grateful. It had started out as a bit of fun but she’d been like the waxing moon, growing on me every time I saw her. So I knew I would miss her, miss her smile, miss her touch, miss her smell, but it was time to move on, time to put this charade behind us and rejoin the human race. After all it had been two years, that was a long time to keep a secret, that was a lot of sneaking around behind Tom’s back, too much playing with fire, so nearly getting caught with a careless word here or a stray hair there.

I didn’t go to the wedding. I was invited but I couldn’t face it. Seeing the happy look on the bride and groom’s faces was too much for me. I thought it was best to let her start her new life without a reminder of her old.

I was in two minds when she called, I ached for her touch, but at the same time knew it would open a can of worms that I’d only just managed to get back into the tin. But she whispered promises down the phone that made my spine tingle. She promised to do that thing that only she could do. Call me weak, call me shallow but she melted my resistance. So here I was, putting the kids to bed, giving Tom a kiss goodbye, slipping into her favourite dress and heading out to meet my lover.