Chapter One
A CLOSED DOOR.
That says everything when you're a married man, your assistant happens to be young and nubile, and now those two people who should never be alone are inside a room.
And the door's closed.
For one moment, I'm just so tempted to just walk away. Because clichés are clichés for a reason, and right now all I'm thinking is—
What I don't know won't hurt me, so why can't I? Why shouldn't I just walk away? Our marriage isn't perfect, but we've been together since college. What are people going to say if things are exactly as I feared?
So just walk away, walk away, walk away—
And yet my legs are moving at the same time I'm thinking of walking away.
And instead of leaving I'm walking closer and closer, and the next thing I know I'm reaching for the knob, and it's actually cooperating with me, turning silently in my fingers like it wants me to see the evidence with my own eyes.
The door slowly opens. One stealthy inch at a time until I finally see...shapes.
Under the covers.
That's all I can allow myself to think.
Two shapes moving simultaneously in a dance that's as old as time, and just as hideous because these two shapes weren't supposed to be together behind a closed door.
These two shapes weren't bound by matrimony, weren't forged by a relationship that spanned decades. And yet the sounds they're making right now...
In the same bed that I woke up from this morning—
I turn away.
My legs have stopped shaking for some reason.
They're not shaking. They're just standing there. Holding me up like nothing's happened. Like the world hasn't just—
Stop.
Don't think.
Just walk.
And as I slowly descend, I hear...one of the shapes, yes, that's how I should think of them for now.
Shapes.
Just shapes.
Shapes, shapes, shapes.
And one of those shapes, the younger one, she's noticed the door slightly ajar—
"Has that always been opened?"
Her tone is so innocent and young. How is that possible when she's under the covers with a shape that's not hers?
"Ignore it," the older shape groans. "Come back—"
"I'm serious, Mr. Big."