The Anniversary

Now he was sounding like his youngest son when he didn’t get what he wanted or heard what he didn’t want to hear. Emil rolled his eyes and stepped away.

“Only if it’s as bad as you think. If it’s innocent then it shouldn’t break up your marriage.”

There was something about the way he said it that had Toby suspicious. He narrowed his eyes at Emil.

“You know something, don’t you?”

“I…”

Emil started to protest but his face went red. Toby knew his friend well enough to know when he was caught in a corner. He pounced on this.

“What do you know, Emil? Tell me.”

Emil looked like he was going to crack. He always did; the man was never any good at keeping secrets. Then he turned away and nearly ran off the court, grabbing his bag and hurrying to the gate. He left his bottle behind.

“Goddammit, Emil!”

But Emil was already gone.

*****

Emil had already disappeared when Toby managed to get to the locker room. Evidently he was hiding until Toby left. Toby would track him down later. Emma would know where he was. He was going to have it out with the bas*ard and find out what he knew.

His cell phone was ringing in his pants pocket when Toby opened his locker. Fishing it out, he saw that it was Mike and that he had called four times already. Toby sighed. This was all he needed. He didn’t want to talk to his brother but if he had called that many times it had to be urgent.

So he answered.

“What, Mike?”

“Did I catch you at a bad time?”

Toby closed his eyes and pulled back on his frustration.

“What do you want?”

“I’m so sorry, Toby.” Mike sounded distressed. “I wish I’d been wrong. But I saw Simone earlier today. She was at a little cafe downtown with another man.”

Toby felt like his heart had stuttered. He leaned against the lockers as he got his breath back. This couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be. Simone was just having an innocent lunch date with a friend who happened to be a man.

Except she never said anything about having a lunch date.

This had to be the Brett person. It had to be.

“I was meeting Candace after college and I saw her across the street. She didn’t see me but I saw plenty.” Mike paused awkwardly. “She was all over the guy. He was lapping it up. And the kisses I saw weren’t friendly ones.”

For a moment Toby believed him. He really did. But then he reminded himself that Mike had tried this trick several times and it rang of similar things he had said before. The last time had been about this time last year, right before their anniversary. Toby closed his eyes and cursed himself for even believing Mike for one second.

“Was it that time of the year to try and screw with my head again?” He snapped. “It’s almost to the day you pulled that.”

“No, seriously, Toby, I…”

“Why are you doing this to me, Mike? Why are you so determined to make sure I’m not happy? I have Simone and I have my family. Stop trying to break up the best thing that happened to me.”

“Toby…”

“Goodbye, Mike.”

Toby hung up forcefully and tossed his phone back into his locker. He grabbed his towel and shower gel before stripping and stalking into the showers. A hot shower was what he needed.

But as he stood under the hot spray he wondered if, this time around, Mike was actually right.

*****

Simone finished her last lap and lifted herself out of the pool. A long series of laps back and forth in their pool had been just what she needed and now she felt refreshed. She stood and went to her sun lounger, picking up her towel and drying herself off.

That week had been hard. Her nerves were frayed. Toby was barely talking to her and he had taken to sleeping in the spare room. When they were in the same room the children were with them and Simone wanted to talk to them on their own. But the kids were beginning to pick up that something was wrong so Simone tried to keep it as normal as she could. Then when she attempted to approach Toby about what she was keeping from him he muttered something about being late and hurried out.

The man kept himself out of the house or locked in his office as much as he could. Simone tried texting him and calling him but he never returned them. He stayed out until late at night on Thursday night and it was only after Emil texted her to say Toby was with him did Simone relax.

She didn’t want to think what Toby was up to. If he thought she was cheating he might go out and cheat in revenge. But that wasn’t Toby’s style; he was a loyal man and he wasn’t into revenge. Simone couldn’t see him doing it but her mind wouldn’t stop thinking about it.

She needed to talk to him today.

Putting her towel around her and picking up her cell phone, Simone was making her way towards the house when Toby appeared in the doorway. She tried to keep things calm and smiled at him, relieved that he was home.

“Hey, honey. Your dinner’s in the oven. It just needs heating.”

She tried to step past him but Toby blocked her way. He glared at her, his jaw tight.

“Are you having an affair?”

Simone stepped back in surprise.

“What?”

“I know you heard me. Are you having an affair, Simone?”

Simone was reeling. She knew Toby suspected the worst but she hadn’t expected him to blurt it out like this.

“You’re crazy. Why would I have an affair? I’ve got you and I don’t need another man in my life.”

“I don’t know about that.” Toby sneered. “People do strange things when they’ve been married a long time. Something to make marriage more interesting.”

Simone stared at him. She had never heard Toby talk like this before. He was a mild-mannered, decent man who barely had a bad word to say about anyone on the most occasions. The only person she heard him talk about in derogatory terms was Mike. She had never heard this before aimed at her.