The Anniversary

“Why do you answer each other’s texts?”

“Why bother passing the phone to the other person when you can type it as it gets dictated? Much less energy and we’ve done it for years. But she’s never said anything about a guy called Brett.”

“Perhaps it’s a new contact.”

“She would’ve said something, Emil.”

Emil rubbed his eyes.

“Listen, Toby, what do you think? Do you believe Simone would never cheat or do you believe she has been sleeping around?”

“I don’t know.” Toby felt a headache coming on. He was going to end up with a migraine if he wasn’t careful. “I’m not sure what to believe right now.” He gnawed at his bottom lip. “I’m worried that my family’s opinion on black people, black women in particular, is rubbing off on me. Maybe I’ve been keeping Mike in my life too long. he’s slowly poisoning me against my own wife.”

“Sounds about right.” Emil said grimly. “He can’t resist dropping a hint or two whenever you see him. You should’ve cut contact with him years ago.”

“Don’t tell me I’m stupid because I already know that. I’m a glutton for self-punishment.” Toby sat forward, twirling his wedding ring round his finger. “But it was put in my mind that Simone is not cheating me.”

“Then ask her. She’s always honest with you.”

“I can’t.”

Suspecting it was one thing but discussing infidelity with his wife sounded terrifying to Toby. He couldn’t confront her about it. Somehow bringing it up was difficult.

“Okay.” Emil sighed. “How about I talk to Simone? She might confess to me what’s going on.”

“No, don’t.” Toby was grateful for the offer but he still turned it down. “Simone’s smart enough to know that I’ve looked at her phone if you start talking to her and ‘drop hints’.” He made quotation marks with his fingers.

“You don’t think I can get the truth out of her?”

“You’re not exactly subtle, are you?”

When it came to keeping secrets Emil was the worst. Asking him to ‘drop a hint’ was the equivalent of bulldozing it into the conversation.

“Fine, I’ll shut up for now.” Emil glanced at his watch and stood up. “I’d better get going. I’ve got a date tonight and I need to change.”

“A date?” Toby raised his eyebrows. “Who’s going to be without a wife this evening?”

“She’s actually single.” Emil smirked. “It’s the barmaid at the club, Emma.”

Toby knew Emma. She was a sweet woman who had recently come out of a bad relationship. Dating Emil might not be the best idea in the world but Toby wasn’t going to act like a father-figure to the woman. It was obvious to everyone she liked Emil so it probably would have gone over her head anyway.

Toby smirked.

“Now I know where you were today. I lost you for an hour. You do know you’re supposed to have the date before the s*x?”

Emil winked.

“I like to be interesting.” He picked up his jacket and slung it over his arm. Then he clapped his hand on Toby’s shoulder. “Call me if you need someone to talk to. You know I’ll always pick up the phone.”

“I know.” Toby could always rely on Emil to be his right-hand man, the person who had an open ear for him regardless of the situation. “Thanks, Emil.”

“And remember this: Simone’s a good girl. She adores you and that’s not going to change.”

Toby could remember that. But remembering it and feeling it were different. He could remember Simone was a loving wife but feeling as though she was would be harder than Toby thought.

Emil had never experienced a broken heart and Toby was sure he was heading for one.

A door slammed in the distance and he heard voices. Emil’s and Simone’s. He also heard Nick’s whooping and shouting as he banged through the house. Evidently his basketball game had been a winner and Nick was on a high. Then Toby heard the front door open and shut again. The smell of pizza wafted into his office and Toby’s stomach growled.

Normally family night was his favorite night. Pizza and his family watching the TV or spending time together. It was what he had missed as a child with his parents and what he wanted to have with his kids.

Now he suddenly wasn’t hungry. His pizza would end up going cold. But Toby knew if he didn’t act normal then Simone would suspect that something was wrong. It wasn’t something he wanted to bring up in front of the children.

The door opened and Craig stuck his head round.

“You coming, Dad? Mom and Nick are back.”

Toby sighed and stood, forcing himself to move.

“I’m coming.”

*****

Carl didn’t join the family. Craig had to come and knock on his door to tell him the pizza had arrived. But Carl didn’t want to venture out and eat with them. Nick would be asking questions about his bandages without filtering his thoughts and his parents would be acting as if nothing had happened but Carl couldn’t handle the concerned looks. Craig wouldn’t ask right then but he would come into his room later and demands answers.

It was far less hassle to stay in his room.

Craig seemed to sense that Carl wanted to be alone because he brought his brother’s pizza with him and left it outside the door when Carl didn’t answer. When the smell of cheese and pepperoni became too much, he had opened the door and nearly stepped on the box, his regular chocolate milkshake beside it. Carl had taken them inside and devoured both. He hadn’t realized that he was hungry.

Now he sat on his bed, his laptop on his lap as he scrolled through videos and games he had downloaded. The volume was turned right down so it didn’t make the pain in his head any worse but the light from the screen was making Carl’s eyes hurt. But he needed something to do otherwise he would go mad.

No way was he going to face his parents. He knew what was going to happen: Toby was going to be in the background looking unhappy and Simone was going to be demanding that he went to the police station right that moment and file a charge against Jason. Carl didn’t want to do that; not only were there no witnesses so it was his word against Jason’s, he didn’t trust the cops to be racially unbiased. With the things he had seen over the years and the news reports, Carl had a feeling his parents’ wealth wasn’t going to do him any favors.