Fool's Errand

“Hey, Zac, could you come in here for a moment please?” Dave, Zac’s boss, called on the intercom.

Zac got up from his desk and went into his boss’s office. “Yeah, what’s up, Dave?” He asked.

“Leslie is off on vacation, or else I wouldn’t ask you, but could you run some errands for me? We’ve no appointments for the next hour or so, and they shouldn’t take you too long to run.” Dave asked as soon as Zac sat down.

“Sure, I can. What do you need?” He asked Dave.

“Here’s the list of things we need to get through the week, plus my dry cleaning across town. Now if you don’t want to, just say so. I’ll pay you your hourly plus mileage.” Dave stated.

“No, no, it’s fine. I don’t mind going.” Zac said as he took the list and the company credit card and the boss's personal card for the dry cleaning bill.

So, Zac left to run a few errands. At the copy shop, he picked up 1000 business cards and flyers. At the local Staples, he grabbed the printer ink and paper they were needing. He ran across town and grabbed his boss’s suits from the cleaners. (Although he was a little confused by a woman’s blouse that was included that looked just like his wife Jeanine’s that she wore last week.) He even stopped and picked up lunch for him and Dave before he headed back.

Zac had made really great time and was done in a little less than an hour. He’d been smart and called ahead and had some things ready before he got there. Effectively shaving at least thirty minutes off Leslie’s normal time. He congratulated himself on his quick thinking and also his luck in traffic.

He was still riding this natural high when he pulled back into the office and saw Jeanine’s car. Worried that something was wrong, Zac grabbed everything out of the car and rushed to go inside.

Zac stood in confusion for a minute at the locked office door. They never locked the door during business hours. Then looking around, Zac noticed that the shades were all drawn on the plate glass windows. He could clearly remember opening them when he arrived this morning.

Zac very slowly unlocked the door and opened it very slowly, so as not to set off the overhead cowbell. Going inside, he looked around the building for Jeanine. She wasn’t in his office or the outer office. She wasn’t in the bathroom or the supply closet. That left one room. Dave’s.

Extremely quiet, moving with such stealth that Zac didn’t know he was capable of, he moved towards the door. With each step a dread built up inside him. With each step, he wanted to turn and leave. To leave, and never come back. Just to keep driving forever.

Reaching for the door handle, he could hear murmuring coming from the room beyond. With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he turned the handle slowly and pushed open the door. The vision inside tore his world apart. Completely asunder.

There stood his boss with his pants around his ankles and Jeanine with her dress hiked up to her waist, just going at it. Doing the Dirty Monkey Dance. Fornicating all over the office desk.

Zac backed out of the room and hit a vase by the door, knocking it over and breaking it. At this point, he didn’t care anymore. Grabbing his keys and briefcase, he headed out the door. He could hear Jeanine screaming after him as he went.

His entire body felt numb like he was walking in a dream. A dream? More like a nightmare. As he pulled away in his car, he stared at Jeanine.

As he went home and loaded the he wanted into his car, he wondered how long this had been going on. As he checked into a motel room, he wondered if the baby Jeanine was pregnant with was his. Even worse, as he ordered dinner, he wondered how many of his exes had Dave slept with.

As much as Zac loved Jeanine, and as much as her betrayal hurt, Dave’s hurt the worst. Jeanine and he had only been together four years. Dave and he had over 10 years of friendship together. Since their Freshman year of University.

So it was with a heavy heart that Zac blocked not just his own wife’s social media and phone number, but his boss and best friend’s also. He even changed his social media status to It’s Complicated. At this point, he was very drunk.

He decided tomorrow he would go see a divorce attorney. He wasn’t the type of guy to ever forget something like this. Even if he did forgive them eventually.