The sound of heavy rain descends onto the top of Amy’s silver minivan. The car is parked, but it’s still turned on. The squeaky noises of the windshield wipers are the only thing making noise besides the rain. Amy’s hands hold her husband's phone tightly. She finally has the strength to open the door and go inside her house.
As soon as the door shuts behind her, Amy can hear her husband’s familiar voice in the living room. “Hey babe! How was work?”
Amy mumbles something under her breath that no one within five feet could possibly hear.
“That’s good. My day was crazy. Ricky scheduled so many meetings I barely had any time to pee. Oh and your mother called a few minutes ago.”
“What did she say?” Amy asks purposely sitting in the seat across from him.
“Oh yeah, I didn’t pick up. I’ve had a long day at work babe, I didn’t feel like talking on the phone for two hours about what we are doing for Thanksgiving for the millionth time. Besides, she can just call your cell. Doesn’t she know she can call your cell? You really need to tell her that babe.
“I know. I’ve told her. She’s getting old you know…”
“Yeah I know. She forgets. It just gets frustrating hearing the home phone ring all the damn time.”
Amy prepares the speech she spent hours preparing for in the car. She wrote it out all of last night so she wouldn’t forget anything.
“So the other day I was doing the laundry..”
“Babe, you can tell me about the laundry another time, the big game is just beginning.” Without even looking at his wife, he points to the tv with the remote. Perhaps if he did, he would have seen the streaks of mascara running down her face. And the fact that those Michael Kors boots her husband got her for her birthday were still on.
“I found this phone in your work pants. And I’ve never seen it before. I unlocked it. I didn’t even know it was yours at first”
“What did I say about looking through my stuff? You’re just asking for trouble when you go through things that aren’t yours to look at.” His voice becomes deeper and angrier with every word that comes out of his mouth.
He snaches his phone from Amy and puts it back into his pocket.
“I unlocked it. And I started reading these messages from these girls.”
“Babe. You’re asking for trouble. I really don’t want to fight about this again. Just let me watch Tom Brady in peace. I had a long day at work. I’m tired. I’m also really hungry. Mark and I went out for lunch, but that new restaurant on 8th Street isn’t as good as people were saying. So if you could make more of that spicy chicken curry like last time that would be much appreciated. You’re a great cook babe.”
“Why were you asking these girls for all those pictures? You said you cared about me and you weren’t going to do this again.”
“Pictures are just pictures. It doesn’t mean anything. Besides those girls wanted to send me those.”
“What about Charlie and Emma? What are we going to tell them?”
“Ok now you’re overreacting again. We aren’t telling the kids anything. You don’t want to stress them out, right? They are too young to understand this anyway. You will be doing more harm than good.”
“Babe, you even said your body changed a lot after you had the kids. A man has got to get off somehow. It’s just a few random college girls online. Who happen to have really nice breasts.”
“You said you loved me. I just don’t understand how that could be true if you keep all those pictures and talk to all those girls.”
“Look Amy, I can’t trust you when you keep going through my SHIT. WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT THIS?”
“So do you want carrots with the curry?”
“Carrots would be nice. You’re the best babe.” He says this, refusing to let his gaze fall from the television screen.
