FOR REAL

This story's quite different from all the other ones I've written before. I wanted something new to my story, so this is what I've ended up with.

Thanks so much to those who asked if there's an update, coz I realized it was about time to post a new story. HAHA

Enough babbling. Here it goes.

My husband is having an affair.

This I am sure.

He takes calls secretly, even at night; goes to appointments I do not know of; comes home later than usual; and deletes emails very swiftly as if they were confidential. Now tell me, am I just over thinking things?

But as to the identity of the good-for-nothing, slaughter-worthy, home-wrecker, I do not know… yet.

But when I do…

“Good morning mom!” Ethan’s greeting cut my train of thought. I can’t tell him that he gets a portion of my unspoken wrath since he looks exactly like my unfaithful husband when we were his age, twenty-one. When he was still the man I knew and loved.

“Are you okay?” my husband’s doppelganger asked, his voice thick with concern.

I snapped out of my violent trance. What am I thinking? He shouldn’t be blamed! He’s my child, my baby. “Yes, yes dear. Have your breakfast.”

Still looking unconvinced, he took a piece of the bread in front of him, still eyeing me in concern.

“I’m fine, Ethan. Hurry up or you’ll be late.” I placed a slice of bacon on his plate and filled his glass with water.

Realizing that I had a point, he concentrated on his food instead. I sighed silently, mentally spanking myself for having such horrible thoughts about my own son.

Before I knew it, he was done with his food and he started doing the last minute preparations before heading off. When he was done, he neared me and placed a light peck on my cheek. Just like what his father usually does.

I tried my best to keep my composure just so he wouldn’t notice what’s been bothering me.

“See you later, mom.”

“See you.”

I watched him open the door and disappear behind it. After a few seconds, I heard his car engine come to life and pull away from the driveway almost instantly.

Now, off to investigating.

He usually wakes up a thirty minutes after Ethan leaves. Til then, I have to put up with the facade.

Exactly like what I expected, he woke up thirty minutes later. He was still sweet, as if I was still the only recipient of this treatment. How could he do this to me? What did I do?

Before my thoughts could show in my face, I stopped them. I managed to keep up, until he was out of the house an hour later.

Stalking time.

Only the boys have their own car (much to my dismay) so when I go out for these stalking trips, I take a cab. And I’m proud to say that to this day, I haven’t been caught lurking around the vicinity.

We found him entering a fast food chain, nervously glancing around, maybe to see if we had common friends dining there too. Grrrr.

He took a seat at the farthest table inside the place. But luckily, I could still see him from my lurking spot here in the cab.

Still, he was glancing from time to time.

Just then I saw a girl pass by in front the cab I was in. She accidentally dropped her hanky just by the door on my side, so she stooped to pick it up. Since the cab was tinted, she checked her reflection as she straightened up. I was so shocked to see me. Yes, me. She looked really like me when I was her age. I assumed she was in her early twenties too, just about Ethan’s age most likely. The age when we decided to get married. Too early if you’d ask everybody around us, but we both knew we were ready.

She entered the place, and searched the tables. What shocked me even more was that she approached my husband a few seconds later and their greeting obviously meant that they’ve met before. They didn’t get all smoochy, but there was a certain aura around them that suggested something more between them than meets the eye.

Just then I saw a familiar car pull up in front of us, and Ethan came out of the car.

I almost flew out of the cab literally, just to spare him of the hideous sight inside. What would my child think of his father if he found out? As much as I’d want his sympathy, I didn’t want him to hate his father either.

When he saw me, he looked like he saw a ghost.

“Mom?!”

“Hello Ethan. Where’re you going?”

“Uhh.”

“I think you should accompany me to the mall. I was on my way, but I saw you here and I thought it’s a good idea for us to spend some time today.”

“Yeah, sure Mom. Let’s.”

I went back to the cab and paid the driver. My stalking session was adjourned.

*

I’ve always thought it’d hurt. But not this much.

Today was Ethan’s graduation from film school. Of course I had to be there. This was his one and only dream. The other occasion today, our 25^th wedding anniversary, I refuse to acknowledge. After what I’ve discovered, any wife in her right mind wouldn’t want to remember anything that would remind her of the rascal.

The rascal and I settled on the seats designated to the parents. It was getting to tiring to put up this happy façade. I plan to tell them both later this week, but not now. I can’t spoil the fun.

Ethan topped his class, and when he went up the stage for his speech, he looked teary-eyed. He cleared his throat and began his speech.

“Twenty five years ago, there was a girl who made the biggest life-changing decision she ever made…” my son started off.

“..Having the career she always wanted, she decided to give it up to marry the man she loved.”

There was a jeer from the graduates at the opposite side of the venue.

My eyes started to water. If he was talking about me, that would be torture. He didn’t have to remind me what I’d given up for this man beside me. He just threw it all away by his infidelity.

“…I think we should all watch this to better understand what I’ve been trying to talk about.”

I wiped the stupid tears that were starting to fall. My husband saw it and he took my hand in his. I fought the urge to punch him.

Then a video played on the screen.

It was Ethan, wearing those kinds of clothes that were on trend during our college days. A soft background music played as Ethan walked the halls of a familiar place. Then it hit me. Our alma mater. Where we first met.

Then the girl who looked just like me, the home-wrecker, entered the picture, carrying a pile of books. The scene was so familiar that it made me sob. That was the exact scene where I met him. It was almost like those cheesy scenes in the movies where the girl drops her things, the guy helps her pick it up, and their gazes lock longer than usual, and they feel the spark. But for us, it was a little different. I dropped the books, yes, but the biggest and heaviest one landed on his foot so instead of the endearing gaze, he glared at me. And the rest was history.

The video showed how we became best friends, how we spent ordinary days at the park or in school, how we became a couple, how we got married, still with Ethan as my husband and the girl as me. My husband started to wrap his arm around me since I couldn’t stop crying.

When it was finished, Ethan spoke, his voice quite shaky. “Maybe you’re wondering why I prepared this video for you to see on this day. Well, simple. If not for my parents, I wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t have been the person you know right now. With their love, attention, wisdom and patience, the baby boy they had four years after their marriage grew into the man in front of you now. I owe everything I am to them. So I deem it necessary to pay such tribute to them. Happy 25^th anniversary, Mom and Dad.”

With that the audience applauded.

“Happy anniversary,” he squeezed my shoulder gently.

I rapped his side with my elbow. “I thought you were having an affair!”

“What? If I really wanted to, I should’ve done it years ago. Why wait for twenty five years?”

I scowled at him.

“Gotcha.”

And I held his hand, relieved that he wasn’t the rascal I thought he’d turn into; that he was still the man I knew and loved; and I just held on, afraid that I’d lose him for real.

MVJLO 07.31.11