"Hi!" she announced. "I didn't know you were home already."
"Well, I'm home," Water responded dryly. Louise sensed the tension in his voice. She walked over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Did you finish your work early?"
"No, I have more to do. I brought it with me. I just wanted to come home and see you."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Louise cooed in the way that women do when they're trying to cheer someone up.
"Where were you?"
"I met up with Jo for a quick drink after work."
Walter was agitated. Louise usually called before she went out with her friends.
"You smell like sweat. Did you stop at the gym, too?"
"No! I didn't have time to go to the gym, silly. I left the office at the normal time."
He flashed a scolding look from under his hair. The anger was visible in his piercing blue eyes.
"Hey, I'm sorry!" she apologized again. "I didn't know that you were going to be home so soon.
"I called Jo earlier. I wanted to tell her about last night. - She says that you were 'heroic', by the way. - Anyway, she suggested that we go out for a quick drink after work. I thought you'd be working late, so I said yes."
"Where'd you go?"
"Avalon."
"Really? That place?"
"It's a nice place, Walter."
"It's a meat market."
"Okay, but I wasn't meeting anyone. We stopped by for one drink, and then we left. I came straight home."
"One drink?"
"Yes, one drink," she insisted. "While we were there, the DJ played a song that Jo liked, so we got up and danced for, I don't know, five minutes. That was it!"
He responded with a carefully emotionless "Okay."
"You're not mad, right?"
"No."
"Okay, I'm gonna go change. Do you need help with the vegetables?"
"No, I've got it."
Louise left the kitchen and walked to the stairway.
Walter sensed that there was more to the story than she was telling him. Something seemed off. It wasn't her tone of voice, exactly, but the way that she was selecting her words. She seemed cautious, standing like a statue as they talked. That, plus the smell of sweat...
Last year, when they were having trouble, she used to come home smelling sweaty. When we went to the gym, she always came home freshly showered. The smell triggered bad memories.
They'd been so passionate together the night before. The adrenaline of the incident with Terri seemed to get to Louise. She made love with a freedom and a ferocity that he hadn't seen before.
Walter had thought about Louise all day, about how loving the night had been. He packed up his work and raced home hoping to find her lounging on the couch in one of her short nightgowns. He wanted to be with her again. He wanted more of that fire.
Unfortunately, she wasn't home when he got there. She hadn't called or texted, so he had no idea where she was. The last thing he expected was for her to walk in and say, "Hi, I just went out to a bar. Do you need help with the vegetables?"
It was aggravating. "This whole week had been aggravating," he thought to himself."
First, there was the confusing encounter with Susan, after which she blew him off completely. Then he came home to find Terri's stalker ex-boyfriend in his front yard. After that was resolved, Louise raced him upstairs and fucked him like he'd just won the Tour de France. And then, the very next day, she's back to her old sneaky habits.
He bit his lip and slammed the knife down onto the cutting board. Louise heard the sound all the way upstairs the bedroom.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!" he answered.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I'll be down in a minute!"
Walter picked up the knife and continued to chop the vegetables. He was angry, but he said nothing. His inner voice said it for him.
"That was the sound of me not being in the mood for a bunch of bullshit."
'The Horse Farm'
Copyright © 2016 Daniel R. South
All Rights Reserved
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