Across That Line

Brad stood up, staring wildly around the room. He wouldnot stay here, waiting like a dutiful cuckold for his wife to come home. He would not!

He made sure his wife's keys were in her purse; he saw her cell phone there too. He couldn't evencall the woman he'd married just one year ago. Well...so be it.

Heck, he'd had his doubts this marriage was going to last anyway. Some thingsweren't meant to be. Before he left the room, he tossed both entry cards onto the table beside her purse.

Brad stepped back into the lobby and hesitated, suddenly unsure of what to do next. He'd left the room upstairs intending to get into the car and drive home. He didn't want to...he hated himself for doing it...but he glanced down the hallway to make sure Ashley wasn't hurrying toward him. He gave up, and surrendered his last remnant of self-respect to walk down the side corridor and try that damned door once more.

It was still locked...and he was still the man left out. Disgraced and shamed a second time, he stalked quickly back down the hall and through the main lobby.

Before he went through the big outside doors, a movement off to his left caught his attention. Customers were going and coming from several small shops down a wide hallway. The rental car agency was the third office down on the right. Brad stared at a moment before allowing his shoulders to slump even more than they were. As much as Ashley had humiliated him, he couldn't strand her here, several hundred miles away from her babies. He shook his head and walked down to the office to rent a compact car for the drive back to San Antonio. He kept his head down, hoping others wouldn't see the humiliation in his eyes.

# #

The Interstate was busy and the drivers inclined more to anarchy than anything else. Brad didn't care. Being cutoff by an aggressive driver was nothing to what his wife had done to him this morning. He almost welcomed the hectic feel to the traffic. At least he could disappear here. No one would remember his passing. He was secure in his anonymity.

The sunny day had turned dark and windy. It got worse the further south he drove. A Pacific hurricane had come ashore in the Baja and...though only classified a tropical storm now...it was tracking right across central Texas.

The radio said violent thunderstorms and heavy rains were popping up all over. The cheerful radio personality told his unseen audience it was a good day to stay in and not venture out. Brad laughed hysterically. If he'd only known all this was going to happen to him, he'd never have left the house.

Just north of Waco, his cell phone buzzed. Dazed and bemused by shame and humiliation, Brad laughed when he saw who was calling. It was Ashley, the woman he'd been married to for a while. Well, she'd at least found where her room was...she was calling from her cell phone.

He checked his watch. It was getting late and he was a long way from home.

"Hey, Ash..." he said when he punched the button to accept the call. "How's the party going?" he asked cheerfully. He wouldn't let the concept of her being at a swinger party alone bother him any more. After this morning, nothing would ever touch him again.

"Brad!" Ashley shot back. He couldn't figure out whether her voice was trembling because she was pissed off or what. He decided she probably was mad. So what else was new?

"What, hun?" he answered casually. He wasn't going to let this get to him.

"Brad, where are you, baby?" Ashley asked, apparently trying to control her voice.

Brad didn't answer for a moment. There was a sign coming up on the side of the road.

"Ohhhhhhh...five miles north of Waco," he said brightly.

"Waco!" Ashley said. "Waco? Bradley...what are you doing in Waco? Honey, I don't understand...how did you get to Waco? What's going on, baby?"

"Oh...I dunno. Gimme a minute," Brad replied distractedly. His wife had asked so he would try to find out what was happening. He peered through the side window at the heavy clouds. When had the pavement gotten so wet?

BAM! The flash of lightning and the slamming concussion came with no pause between them. More than one driver flinched at the close strike and Brad had to pay close attention to his driving in order to find a way through suddenly slowing or stopping vehicles. When he put the cell phone to his ear again, Ashley was no longer there. Brad shrugged and tossed the phone to the passenger seat.

Fifteen minutes later, give or take, Brad's cell phone started sounding off again and he picked it up.

"Brad! Honey, are you all right? What was that noise? What happened?"

Ashley's voice sounded anxious and concerned. "Hell of an actress," Brad told himself. Damn, she could almost fool him if he didn't know some things about her...hadlearned some things about her, he corrected himself. He had to ponder her questions for a moment. He felt like he'd had at least a six-pack...kind of like he was on a fluffy cloud and watching life go by.

"Okay...hey...quit it," he said finally. When he hadn't answered immediately, Ashley had started screaming in his ear.

"Yeah, that was just some lightning...it was real close," Bradley explained in a jovial tone. "It's raining real hard down here, Ash. Has any rain hit up there yet?"

"No, there's no...Brad! Honey, where are you? Please come and see me, baby. I need you."

Brad laughed at that. Yessireee, she'd showed him exactly how much she needed him just a couple hours ago.

"I told you where I was," he said a little testily. "Iwas north of Waco...but now I'msouth of Waco. Did I tell you it's raining really hard down here? It's really coming down...I'm here to tell you it issomethin' else!"

"Hey," he added, remembering a question of his own, "you didn't say. How's that party with your fuckbuddies going, huh? Boy, the way you and ol' Ma and Pa Kettle were going at it, I guess you folks are having a ball, huh? Ha-ha...made a funny there, didn't I? Everyone up there is balling away, huh? Haha....

"Damn! You know what, Ashley? I didn't know you went forthat much older a man...and woman. Live and learn, I guess, huh? Whew!"

Ashley was quiet for a time and Brad almost put the phone down. Women! They sure didn't know how to hold a phone conversation. When someone said something and asked a question, it only stood to reason the other person would answer...or saysomething anyway.

"Brad, honey," Ashley said at last. Her voice was strained but carefully controlled. "I'm so sorry Floyd and Ann and I got separated from you, but it was just an accident. We looked and looked for you but we couldn't find you, sugar. We didn't know where you'd gone...please come back to the hotel, baby...I need you."

Abruptly, Brad's mind cleared. The traffic, the dangerous weather, and terrible road conditions were brought back into sharp focus. He took his foot off the accelerator and slowed drastically. Briefly, he wondered how he'd been keeping the car on the road going that fast.

"Bullshit...baby," he retorted coldly. "I saw them with their hands all over you and you letting them...and...and letting them tongue kiss you right in front of me. Huh-uh, Ashley, dear...you donot need me and you showed itreal clear.

"Don't fucking lie to me,sugar. I saw exactly how much your solemn promise means to you. I SAW YOU GO IN THAT MOTHER FUCKING SEX PARTY WITH THOSE OLD FARTS AND YOU LOCKED THE GOD DAMNED DOOR BEHIND YOU!"

He stopped short to suck in a deep breath of air.

"Nah...you don't need me, Ashley," he said calmly, almost formally. "I was under the impression you loved me but I see different now...goodbye, Ashley."

He thumbed the disconnect button without waiting for an answer, snapped the cell phone closed and dropped it on the seat beside him. A second later, he retrieved it and turned it off. There was nothing more he wanted to say to the woman who'd been his wife so briefly.

Hurting, angry, and ashamed by turns, he drove carefully the rest of the way home. As he pulled in the driveway, the girls...Ashley's daughters...crossed his mind. He shrugged. They were with Ashley's mother and she wouldn't be expecting him, or Ashley, to come for them until Sunday evening. There was nothing he had to do tonight for anyone.

Inside the dark house, he drank a beer and stuffed down a sandwich, tasting neither. The TV he turned on couldn't hold his attention. An hour after he got home, he went to bed to take refuge in a deep, dreamless sleep.

*

Chapter 2

Brad spent Friday morning in the garage, finishing a big dollhouse he'd been working on for a month for the girls. It kept his mind busy so he didn't have to think.

Outside, the storm continued to dump huge quantities of rain on a city already inundated with too much water. Every gully in the county was running full and the news was full of street and highway closings. There were about the usual number of high water rescues and foreseeable reports of accidents caused by too much speed on wet pavement.

Starting just before noon, the rain began to let up and the skies began to clear from north to south. By mid-afternoon, the sun was shining and the steaming ground was drying. It was south Texas...if you didn't like the weather, you only had to wait a little while.

Shortly after 3:00 PM, he heard the car in the driveway and knew his wife was home. He considered staying in the garage, but he suppressed the urge. He was through avoiding confrontations. A sullen anger had built, then dissipated over the course of the day. He felt drained and worn out.

Ashley came in the front door slowly. She was apprehensive and wondered what was in store. She hadn't gone by her mother's. If Brad had already been there to pick up the girls, her mother would want to know why Ashley didn't already know about it.That was a conversation Ashley dreaded only slightly less than the discussion she expected to have with her husband. She was both relieved and sorry her daughters weren't here to greet her. She sighed.

Brad was waiting for her in the kitchen, having just come in from the garage. He was wiping his hands on a shop towel so she knew he'd been working on something out there. She guessed it was the dollhouse.

"Hello," she said to her husband, not sure she'd get a reply. He nodded tersely.

"Hi," he said after a distinct pause, "how are ya?"

Ashley winced. For a couple who'd been in the habit of kissing each other goodbye and again when they saw each other, it was a cold greeting.

"I'm okay," she said tiredly. "It was a long drive," she offered.

"I hear that!" Brad replied without interest. "You should try it with a hurricane blowing and tornados twisting all around." He might have been talking to a stranger he met standing in line at the supermarket.

She knew her husband had a side he never showed her or the girls. He was an aggressively confident...and successful...sales manger for a rapid expanding local firm. At home, Brad was loving and kind. The kids adored him. She did too, but she'd let things get away from her lately. She hadn't told him how much she loved him...not really...in far too long.

"I...Brad...honey," she began. Her eyes fastened on the percolator on the countertop. "I...can I have a cup?" she asked, not sure if Brad would allow it or not.

"Oh, sure," he said quickly. "Sorry..." he said contritely, "I should have asked you if you wanted one." He hurried to take her usual mug from the cupboard and poured it three-fourths full.

Brad took his coffee hot and black but Ashley needed the strong brew dilated a bit. She took a small carton of cream from the refrigerator and mixed in enough to fill the mug to the brim. She tasted it cautiously. It was just cool enough to drink.

Ashley took a seat at the kitchen table, hoping Brad would sit across from her as he usually did, but he would not. Brad stood by the sink and drank from his own mug. He wasn't ignoring her. He just had nothing to say. Ashley sighed to herself and drew in a deep breath.

"Brad, I amtruly sorry, baby," she told him...hoping he would hear the remorse in her voice. "I don't know how to tell you how bad I feel about all this," she added. "I can't understand how it all happened and I...I just hurt so bad because of everything." Brad took a sip of his coffee.

"Just whatdidhappen, Ash?" he asked quietly. He took another quick swallow. "Please tell me how you walked right away from me and left me standing like a fool at the hotel desk...I've been wondering how a woman can do that to her husband." Ashley winced.

"Honey, I thought you were right behind me. I thought we were going to sit and visit...just talk with Floyd and Ann for a while."

"No you didn't," Brad replied quickly but without rancor. He blew on his coffee to cool it a little before his next drink.

"There was no "we" in any damn thing you did yesterday. Actually...this is what happened...you took off in a fast walk without saying one damn word to me...and left me holding your damned purse too." He sipped at the coffee while studying the liquid in his mug. He couldn't look at his wife because she'd see the rising anger in his eyes.

"Never saw you do that before," he muttered. "Youalways keep that purse right by your side."

"I know..." Ashley said quietly. She raised her hands, only to drop them helplessly in her lap. "I don't know what I was thinking...I don't rememberthinking at all, Brad...it's like I was in a daze or something." She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

"I was so shocked to when Ann and Floyd were there," she explained. "It never occurred to me I'd see anyone up there I knew. Ann and Floyd don't even live in Texas anymore. They moved to Alabama two years ago. They said they came back to visit their daughter."

"Interesting," Brad commented. He kept his voice calm. Ashley waited for him to say something else but he motioned with his cup for her to continue.

"Yeah...well...I don't know what happened but all of a sudden we were walking...and talking...and...I didn't know you weren't right behind me, Brad. I swear I didn't, honey."

"How could I have beenright behind you, Ashley?" Brad asked. He sounded curious.

"What?" Ashley replied. "I...well...I just thought you were."

"Did you...oh...I don't know...did you reach out to take my hand and pull me close so I'd be right there?" Brad asked, blowing gently on his coffee. Ashley shook her head miserably.

"Hmmmmmm...strange," Brad commented quietly. "Well...heck...did you figure out I wasn't beside you and...let's see...did you stop and yell back at me maybe?" Ashley fastened her eyes on the tabletop. "No? No, youdidn't do that either, did you?" Brad said.

"Oh...by the way, just for my information," Brad remarked, "would you tell me why my bride of twelve months couldn't be bothered to evenintroduce me to her old fuck buddies?" Brad rasped. The anger was slowly coming to the front. He carefully throttled it back.

Ashley's fingers twined about themselves in her lap. "Baby...I'm so sorry," Ashley sighed. "That was so wrong. Iknow it was...I just wasn't thinking. It was like I was in a trance and I couldn't feelanything...you know?" The silence built for a moment. Both swigged their coffee and stared at their hands.

"They weren't...what you said," Ashley said eventually. Brad cocked his head to one side quizzically. Ashley thought he knew exactly what she was referring to but she wasn't going to get any help today. She sighed to herself.

"I never...I've never been with Floyd and Ann," she said in a low voice.

"Really?" Brad asked interestedly. "Damn, you could have fooled me. Looked like you three wereawfully close pals, you know? Hell, they made you forget about your husband...shit, they made you forget aboutcommon, ordinary courtesy. You wouldn't have treated thebellhop as badly as you did me."

Brad made himself stop. He took two quick swallows of coffee and freshened his cup with more directly from the percolator. When he turned back to his wife, he'd wiped all the emotion from his face.

"Hey...I interrupted," he said by way of an apology he didn't really feel. He motioned to her. "Go ahead...you were walking away from your husband without saying a word to him, without trying to get his attention or grab his hand or anything...with two old geezers who you knew when you were a hot little piece of ass in the swing clubs...but they never fucked you. Is that where we were?" he asked. Sarcasm was beginning to edge into his tone. Ashley winced.

"We...we walked...I remember walking down a big hallway," she said at last, "and then we turned." A frown of confusion came over her features. "I...we turned down another hall and then we went into one of the hotel conference rooms, honey."

She waited for Brad to make a comment but he refused to say anything. He concentrated on the mug of coffee as if it were the most important coffee in the world.

"Anyway...there was a band getting ready for...for...a party later in the evening...we could barely hear and had to practically yell at each other," she said. "Then...oh, God...then I...it hit me that you weren't there...Floyd said maybe you went up to the bar at the other end of the room or something and we looked but the bar wasn't even open yet." Ashley's voice broke as she related what she remembered happening. "Honey, I'm just so sorry. I don'tknow what happened to me. I don't!" Her husband watched her, waiting until she regained control of herself.

"That all?" he asked. Ashley nodded. Brad snorted derisively.

"Bullshit!" he said emphatically. "You left out a few little things, sugar. Like...you were walking away with two old farts I didn't know and wasn't good enough to be introduced to. They were two old fucks you say you never did at one of your sex clubs...but, heck...you're gonna love this...those twomiserable pieces of shit felt right at home playing with your ass while y'all walked down the hall.

"Did you forget all about that, Ashley? Actually, Ithink that damned old woman grabbed your fucking tit when y'all stopped to open that big door down that second hallway. What about that?"

He looked at Ashley contemptuously. "Any more things you leave out?" he asked. She couldn't respond. She could only hang her head.

"I didn't realize what was happening while we were walking," she said after a long while. Her voice was husky. "I mean...I did...but it wasn't real somehow. I keep telling you I was so shocked by seeing them...by seeing anyone I knew from back then that I was just...I was on automatic pilot or something.

"I made them stop..." she offered. "Right inside that door you talked about...I made them quit touching me. I knew you wouldn't like it," she added.

"Yeah, right," Brad replied. "You're on autopilot...got it." He made an angry gesture and turned to stare out the kitchen window. He didn't like looking at his wife anymore.

"You know something that really pisses me off?" Brad asked. He didn't wait for a reply.

"Damn you...you don't even let me hug you in public, much less play with your ass...but you let them stick their god damned tongues down your throat and you walk through a big lobby with everyone there while those two groped you like a two-dollar whore." He whirled around for a moment to regain control. "But...what the hell, huh? I'm just your husband, right?"

His voice was bitter. He watched nothing at all in the backyard while he sipped coffee.

"So...go on...go on," he urged her. "Hell, don't stop now. We're learningso much about each other this weekend. What happened next? Tell me about that fat woman who took her top off at the door right when you were going in. You can tell me...was she gonna let you suck on those babies?" he asked facetiously. Ashley jerked her head up.