Chapter 5 : Home Wrecker

As you lay there next to your wife's bare body that night, you had never felt so alone. Love on its own was not enough, but it was the fuel needed to run this contraption called a marriage, so if love was absent, then what was this? What on earth were the two of you even doing?

You turned to look at her as she slept, she looked peaceful, as if she didn't have a care in the world. Lucky her, clearly your failing marriage was not affecting her as much as it was affecting you.

You wished you too could shove it all in the back of your mind and forget, you really did, but that wasn't possible. In as much as you felt you were losing your wife and marriage, you couldn't deny that you still loved her, and had hope that your marriage could still be saved somehow.

Or could it?

These thoughts haunted your mind all night and all through the morning as you prepared for work. Your mind was so preoccupied that you didn't even take the time to peek at your wife as she was dressing up that morning like you usually did, but it's not like she would notice, she seemed not to notice many things these days.

Correction; she seemed not to care for a lot of things these days.

As you sat down at your office desk when you got to work, you felt... empty, a feeling much worse than loneliness and sadness. Even though negative, at least when you were sad or felt lonely, you felt SOMETHING. But now, you just felt nothing.

'Mr. Miller?'

Your ears perked up at the sound of her voice, you didn't have to look up to see who was speaking to you, but you did anyway because you wanted to see the look on her face.

The way your name rolled off her tongue made your heart jump, and sometimes you felt guilty that you wanted her to call you by a more endearing name, 'honey' perhaps, no one had called you that in years.

'Are you alright? You have been sipping on your water for thirty minutes now.'

Your eyes met hers and it sparked something within you that you quickly dismissed. She was leaning against the frame of your door, wearing a figure-hugging grey dress, a small smile tugging her lips, and a glimmer of worry in her eyes. That was what always pulled you in, the fact that she cared, something your wife never did.

It was that look of worry in her eyes whenever you seemed down, that made you particularly fond of her as compared to everyone else in your firm.

In looks, she paled in comparison to the mother of your children. Ayaka was a pretty young woman, blue eyes, ginger hair and smooth pale skin. But what was being 'pretty' when compared to absolute breath taking beauty.

As compared to your wife, she was average, but that little spark of hers that ignited the smoldering ambers in your heart, you couldn't get enough of it, it was almost addictive.

'I will be fine' you lied, putting on the fakest smile the world had ever seen. 'I'm just dealing with a very difficult client, you know how it is.'

She nodded and slowly turned to leave, but you knew that she would worry the whole day. For some odd reason, she seemed to care about you, and it flattered you a lot. So naturally, you didn't particularly like it when you were the source of her worry.

You took out your phone, and snapped the most generic 'dad selfie' the world had ever seen, and sent it to her.

Your caption read, 'here's a dad-selfie to make your day better'.

You glanced at her desk, and saw her smile at her phone through the tampered glass of your office door, making you smile as well.

That was the first emoting you had felt in hours, and she had initiated it in less than five minutes. How she was able to pull that off, was beyond you. But it was in that very moment, that you knew that this woman would probably be the end of your marriage.

The whole morning was filled with you and Ayaka sending messages, voicenotes and funny pictures to each other. And before you could realize, the negative feelings you harbored from the night before, had completely dissipated.

You were smiling as you worked and even humming to yourself, anxiously waiting for your message tone to ping, so you could see what funny picture she had sent you next.

You completed a client's order just in time for lunch, and just as your phone screen lit up and pinged to indicate a new message.

You excitedly picked your phone up, and opened the new message, but instead of a message from Aya, there was a message from your wife.

'I will be getting home late again, feel free to have the casserole in the fridge so you don't have to cook.'

Eight years ago, this message would have ended with an 'I love you', but it seemed that boat had sailed a long time ago. You couldn't even remember the last time she had told you she loved you, and you her. And at this point, it didn't even matter.

At first it was a constant thing, you would tell each other you loved each other, every chance you got. It then slowly became a pleasantry enjoyed only in your bedroom when you would make love, and now, it just didn't happen at all.

As you typed your very blunt 'ok' reply to your wife, a message from Ayaka popped up at the top of your phone.

'I'm going to the diner down the street for lunch, would you like to join me? Their special today is your favorite, chicken pot pie.'

You smiled at the fact that she knew your favorite food, it was nice to have someone pay attention to you and the things you liked.

You quickly sent your wife the response, and proceeded to typing out an elaborate response to Aya, telling her how excited you were about the pie, and telling her you would be out in a minute, not forgetting the use of multiple irrelevant emojis.

The redhead waved at you from her desk and pointed at her watch, telling you to hurry it up, and you happily obliged.

You stood up, spritzed yourself with your pocket perfume, and walked out to meet Aya who was waiting for you by the door.

'Ready?' She asked you, a smile on her pretty little face.

'As ready as I'll ever be.'