Ditched For True Love

Brad loved his wife more than life itself. At least that’s what he believed. When he imagined what Emily would think of him if she found out about Serena, cold sweat broke out on his spine.

His love for Emily was why he finally decided to get rid of Serena: now that they’d been happily married for almost three years, he felt bad that Serena was still in the house. Strangely, it felt like he was cheating on Emily. Even though he’d spent little time with Serena, overwhelmed with the feeling of guilt every time he did, he still kept her in the house. Mostly because he didn’t know what to do with her.

Serena was dear to him, quite literally, too. Coming from a wealthy farming family, he’d splurged $3,000 on her ten years ago when these new dolls made of TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer, a material much softer, lighter and more human-skin-like than commonly used silicone) started to come out.

Brad absolutely loved her as a single man. Busy farm life in rural Georgia does not give a lot of opportunities for dating, so he was quite happy with the doll. Serena was beautiful and so human-like that he treated her as both his sex partner and a friend, forming a deep bond with her he wouldn’t be able to explain to anyone without looking crazy.

Six years ago, Brad’s parents sent him to college, to get a plant pathology degree for their growing corn and soybean farm. They needed someone from the family to fight crop diseases, so Brad was a perfect candidate. Business was good, and Brad was already living in his dream house he’d built not too far from his parents’, with the hunting room, a pool room, and a den where he played video games and Serena on long winter nights.

College life at UC-Davis (his parents wanted him to get a degree from “the best in the field” university) was a big change for an independent and mature 29-year-old farmer. But he did well as he’d already have some credits from a community college. Homesick and goal-oriented, Brad was on track to finish his degree in two years.

At the start of his second year, he met Emily, at a party his roommates thew in the big house they were renting. Emily stood out as she was also a little older than the usual college crowd, 26 at the time. Brad liked her for her thoughtfulness, maturity, and beauty. They started dating and fell in love.

Brad proposed to Emily two months before his graduation. She agreed with some hesitation because she still had a year of studies to finish. But they both wanted to make it work. Emily would have to sacrifice a lot to be with Brad: moving across the country into a rural area where the job prospects for her as a marketing major would be slim to none, into Brad’s house that he would never give up and she had no ownership of, and with no family of her own in Georgia. But the year apart, with only occasional trips to see each other, made their love stronger. They got married three months after Emily graduated.

Emily fit right into Brad’s family. She was great, and everyone loved her. It took her about a year to figure out what to do with her life, with no available marketing or communication positions in their small town. She’d thought about getting a K-12 teaching accreditation, but then a family friend mentioned he was retiring as the local police officer and half-jokingly suggested Emily would be good for it. She thought about it, enrolled in police training courses, and became one of the two township police officers. Brad was proud of her so much that his love for her grew even stronger. But Serena…

Before he left for college, Brad locked Serena in what looked like a deep gun safe in the hunting room, so that his parents and his sister’s family house-sitting for him couldn’t stumble upon her. Brad had the only key to the safe, tucked away where no one could ever find it. He also locked the hunting room, telling everyone it was “off limits” because of the rare collection of hunting rifles he had there.

When Emily just moved into his house, she asked Brad about the hunting room.

“What’s there, babe?” she asked Brad, genuinely curious.

“The huntn’ room,” Brad said in his southern drawl. To Emily, it sounded like “haunted.”

“Oh, really?” Emily asked, slightly sarcastically and skeptically. As an educated woman, she didn’t believe in ghosts. Besides, where would the ghosts come from in a newly constructed house in which no one had died yet?

“Yes,” Brad said seriously. “It’s locked and completely off limits. It’s very dangerous.”

“Ok, ok, babe, I won’t go anywhere near it,” Emily promised, just to put him at ease. As far as he knew, she kept her promise.

He “slipped” into Serena only occasionally, when he was sure Emily was not at home. And each time after, guilt was eating away at him. Intimacy with Serena did not bring as much joy after he got married. Besides, they did have a great sex life and there was no need for the doll anymore. Hence, last night’s misadventure.

Sweating over the news report and scolding himself for not discarding the doll properly, Brad decided to prepare a “surprise” for Emily when she comes back from work.

At about 10:30 pm, Brad heard Emily’s usual, “Babe, I’m home!” from the front door.

He came up to her, kissed her on the lips and asked, “How was your day?”

“Not bad,” she said. “Interesting…”

“Are you hungry?” he asked, without waiting for her to finish.

“Not really, we’ve had sandwiches from Wendy’s,” Emily said.

“Aww, too bad. I’ve made us dinner,” Brad said, leading Emily into the dining room.

Emily saw the whole romantic set up, with the salads and steaks, and flowers and candles on the table, and suddenly closed her mouth with her hand, nearly crying.

“Oh, babe, I’m so sorry I completely forgot that five years ago today we’ve kissed for the first time,” Emily finally whispered.

Brad took a second (he didn’t remember about the “anniversary” either) to compose himself and said, “Oh, it’s Ok, babe, I remembered.”

“It looks so beautiful, honey, let me just wash up and change out of the uniform,” Emily said, heading to their bedroom.

“Oh, no, babe, wait!” Brad pleaded before she opened the door…

To be continued.

Part 1 is here, in case you missed it yesterday. Thank you for reading!