My Husband’s Secret Life

                                                                 Chapter One: Late Nights                             As Janice lies in the bed waiting for her husband to get in from work; she picks up the clock on the night stand beside her bed that reads 2:15 am. She can’t help but wonder where her husband is? He phoned her hours ago about 6:00 pm saying he was still grading term papers at the college and he would be home as soon as he finishes; she's starting to realize this has been going on for the past three months, he says he is grading papers it’s always the same excuse. She can’t help but wonder is he having an affair and don't won't her to know or is he really working late like he says, she doesn’t know what to believe; all kinds of crazy thoughts was racing though her head. She's starting to wonder could this be her faint that her husband may be having an affair.  She's thinking maybe if she was more affectionate towards him or if she spent more time with him things would be different. Janice blames herself for not being able to help with the bills; she had a great job working with a law firm as a paralegal. Once she found out she was pregnant with their second child Janice and her husband decided she should stay home until Aaron turns a year old. To occupy her time she decided to take some online classes and get her Master's degree in law so she could become a lawyer; her husband take on all the bills and is a great provider, he is a professor at a very highly well knew university. They live in a nice and quiet suburban neighborhood with their two adorable children, Aaron who is 6 months and Katie who is 6, Janice spends all her time taking care of their two children and their lovely home, she only has her studies and the kids to keep her busy, she doesn’t get out much, she’s more of a homebody. Her friends and her cousin are always inviting her to come go out and enjoy herself with them,  but she always turns them down. She is either always too tired or just doesn't have the time. Her husband offered to hire a nanny to help her with the kids but she refused it.  As she finally starts to drift off to sleep she's awakened by the slam of a car door, it is her husband finally coming home from work. She picks up the alarm clock that now reads 4:00 a.m. she hears the front door open as the alarm beep, she could then hear his footsteps coming up the stairs. She hears him walking towards Aaron and Katie’s room to check on them and kiss them good night like he always does; then she could hear him walking closer to their room. She closes her eyes quickly pretending to be asleep, as he makes his way into the room he lays his jacket across the chair in the corner of the bedroom, he takes off his watch and his wedding ring which he pulls out of his pocket and places them on the dresser along with his wallet and keys, as he goes to the bathroom to take a shower, Janice jumps up out of bed once she hears the shower water running and sees him get in; she looks through his jacket pocket that had a strong smell of alcohol to it, she was hoping to find nothing but preparing herself if she does. She finds nothing out of the usual but she notice his jacket had an strong smell to it and a piece of paper which falls out of his jacket pocket to the floor, on the paper was a phone number written on it; the paper doesn't have a name on it just a number, "Hmmm I wonder who number this could be?” Janice thought to herself, the number didn't seem familiar. She didn't give the number another thought but was very curious about the cigarette smoke and alcohol smell on his jacket in which she knew her husband didn’t smoke and only drink only on special occasions unless he was hiding that from her too and the phone number she couldn't understand whose number it could had been, she was so tempted to call the number but it was late.  By finding all these things she's really starting to worry, her imagination is starting to take over; because not only is the phone number starting to bother her but she is now curious about the cigarette and alcohol smell on his jacket; she gets back in bed once she hears the shower turns off, Corey dries himself off then puts on his pajamas. Corey never use to sleep in pajamas he always slept in his boxers and a t-shirt, that was another mystery, but tonight of all nights he’s in pajamas, he walks over in gets into bed with his wife; he leans over and gives her a good night kiss on the cheek. Janice could then smell the alcohol on his breath. He then turns and lays down on his side of the bed as Janice lies in the bed next to her husband wide awake with all types of thoughts running through her head. She doesn’t know what to think with all these images of her husband cheating on her going through her mind she doesn’t know if she could trust him; she just couldn’t stop thinking about the smell of smoke and alcohol on his jacket and now on his breath, she’s wondering whose number he was hiding in his jacket pocket and why was his wedding ring in his pocket instead of on his finger. And what made things really confusing was why was he sleeping in pajamas in which he never use to out of all the 10 years of marriage he never slept in pajamas.  She was trying to figure out whom at his job smokes and drinks that would have been around him or that he might have meet at a bar after work and had drinks with and didn’t tell her, but who could it have been one of his coworkers, who? Then all of a sudden it came to her; the only person comes to mind is Jennifer Pierre, she’s a professor at the university also she teachers physics. If that's who he is having an affair with then she knew it all along. Jennifer was a tall beautiful blonde in her mid-thirties who had been teaching physics at the university for 3 years, she was single with no kids, and kind of a spoil brat; she didn't really have to work because her father was the Dean at the university in which he gave her a job once she moved here to Cheshire, the plan was whenever he retires she would take over. And because of that, all the guys at the University flirted with her and she flirts back married or not she had no morals.  Jennifer was known for breaking up marriages, one of her Professor at the college she graduated from, he and his wife are getting a divorce because she caught her husband and Jennifer in her home making love in their bed. In which he thought Jennifer was going to be with him but instead she moved away. The story that was going around town was that she only used him to help her get the grade she needed to graduate. In which she graduated with honors. Janice never liked Jennifer because of what she did at the last company Christmas party, Corey took his wife to the annual Christmas party last year at Rico’s. Rico's is a nice casual Restaurant downtown Cheshire; they are known for their world famous juicy steak and lobster tail, and don't forget their famous pecan pie. Corey use to take Janice there when they use to have date night before Aaron was born, it's Janice's favorite restaurant she just loves their lobster casserole. Jennifer showed up with her date, a nice young man who owns his own construction company. He was very handsome and a sweet young man but she was more into Corey than her own date, she was touching all over him, laughing and at one time she grab his crotch, I don’t know if she had too much to drink or what, so I tried to look over it. At one time Janice sees Jennifer whispering in his ear and hands him a piece of paper with both of them standing nearby. At one time her date looks at Janice and says "I wonder what that is all about?"  She seemed to be doing this as if she had no shame, some of the other wives who were there was watching, whispering and shaking their heads even with Janice standing there it seemed as if she was doing these things on purpose, it was like she was trying to make Janice and her date jealous, at one time Janice thought about going over and snatching her by the hair and dragging her outside and beating the hell out of her but she didn't want to cause a big scene in front of her husband’s coworkers and his boss. At one time Jennifer and Corey goes outside she sees Jennifer light up a cigarette that’s how she knows Jennifer smokes around Corey. Finally her date couldn't take it any more so he decided to leave, leaving her at the Christmas party alone, also founding a way home, in which wasn't a problem for her; for the rest of the night Janice couldn’t sleep, she wanted so bad to wake him and question him about the cigarette and alcohol smell on his jacket but instead she just dosed off to sleep. The next morning Corey was up and dressed by the crack of dawn, it was Saturday and he usually doesn’t work on Saturday’s but today he was dressed for work. Janice says to him “Corey please tell me you are not going to work today, are you?” He replies “Yes I am, I have to work today is that a problem?” "No, but it's Saturday, I thought maybe we could take the kids to the park and have a family picnic then later you and I could have a romantic dinner at Rico's and maybe a movie afterwards or go dancing, we haven't went dancing in a long time.  I could call my sister over and she could watch the kids so we could have some alone time tonight; we haven’t had that in a long time, she says to him as she gets close to him and rubs his chest;" "Well I'm sorry but, yes I have to work, I have a lot of papers I have to catch up on he says to her as he pushes her hand away, our bills doesn’t stop because it’s Saturday always remember that; since I'm the only one who is working right now.” “Remember I offered to hire a nanny but you refused it so what do you want me to do?” “Really Corey, did you just throw that in my face? “I don’t want some stranger in my house raising our kids while we work all the time, besides we both agreed that I would stay home until Aaron started daycare, you said you would support me going to school since I can't work right away, besides I thought that was the reason why you had been working late for the past three months." "As a matter of fact, what time did you get in last night?" Corey looks at her and replies “well you thought wrong and I got home about 12:30 if you must know," "why all these questions?"  "Why do you want to know what time I got home?" "Have you forgotten I am a Professor at a college so I have students that sometimes need help with their assignments or I have papers I have to grade, it is mid-terms." he says as he grabs his brief case and his jacket.” Janice knew what time he came in she was just testing him to see was he going to tell the truth in which he doesn’t, instead she grabs her bath robe and goes and check on the kids, Corey walks downstairs to get a cup of coffee; Janice and the kids joins him as they sit at the breakfast table. Corey grabs his brief case and kisses the kids on the head and Janice on the cheek and tells her “I’m going to be late again tonight so don’t wait up.” “You don’t want any breakfast?” “No, I don’t have time.” Corey walks out the house and heads to his car, before he gets in his car his cell phone starts to ring, as Janice stands in the doorway with Aaron on her hip who had started crying, she looks so disappointed; she was hoping her husband would come clean about last night and all the other times, as they watch her husband pull out of the driveway she can’t help but wonder who that was on the phone. Corey looks at Janice and the kids and waves to them as they watches him drive away.