A Tangled Web

I'm not a bad person. I do love Henry. I know he loves me. But after all these years, we've got complacent.

It started innocently with Jeff. I liked his blue eyes. His lopsided smile, his beard, his smell.

Look by look, visit by clandestine visit, we wove something wicked and wonderful between us. Message by deleted message, drink by drink. Secret by secret.

I look back to the time I could say, I've not fucked him, we've not even kissed. I'm too far gone, now, but each step was so venom-sweet. Now I look and the web is knotted too tightly around me. I'm not sure how to extricate myself. I ponder when I crossed the line, when the web first tangled.

Jeff and I had gone out for drinks. Again. The air fizzed between us. I could feel the heat from his skin when I got too close. His hands wandered, and I stopped him. I hesitated, lingering in an eternal moment of sweet, sweet pleasure... but I did stop him. I was still a good person then. I should have left, not looked back. But I paused, reached out, ran a hand through his hair.

That is the moment. We've done more since. Whispered in the dark corners of each others ears about the things we'd like to do but our spouses won't, or we can't ask. But that gesture felt so intimate, so personal, so... deliberate.

Henry thinks I'd gone to Birmingham for a conference. There's a club Jeff and I want to try. So we made calls to our significant others, lying fluidly about dull speeches and going out "for drinks".

It's hot in the club, dimly lit. A lot of skin everywhere, until my eyes are almost numb to it. Jeff and I swap sidelong glances, nervous smiles. The warm chlorine fug envelops me. I feel every eye on me as I step naked down the steps, tying my hair on top of my head. To keep it out of the water, but also to lift my naked breasts.

Henry is watching me, his arm around a woman I don't recognise, emotions registering on his face in a chaotic reel.

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Word count (excluding notes): 366

Submitted on 19th March at 17:15

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