A Simple Conversation 01: Sonya

Greetings from quarantine zone, Australia. If ever people needed distracting for an hour or so to stop worrying about the world's problems, it is now. So, please put your worries aside for a while and accept this as my small gift to you. These have been available on our blog since August last year, but until CTC gets some free time to edit some more, these are the only ones I have ready to go.

This one is the first in a series of flash stories, five in all, I'll submit one a day. It's only a shorty, 3,500 words with no sex—sorry—and it is mostly dialogue. I wanted to explore exactly what constitutes 'stepping over the line'. Also, some of my 'Sprung' series had no endings as I wanted to encourage people to write by finishing them. I had many comments about the lack of endings, particularly 'Sprung 2', so consider this a finished version of that story. There is no twist, just a different way of presenting things.

My thanks to CTC, once again, for the ideas and edit, as well as Charlie for his use as a sounding board.

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THE SCENE: Dave and Sonya Brown, childless married couple, are sitting at the kitchen table. Dave has just come home from work; Sonya beat him by an hour and is dressed smartly. There is a small suitcase near the front door.

"Now, Dave, the main thing I want you to get finished this weekend is painting the nursery. The paint cans are just inside the door and the guy at the shop said you need to do at least two coats. Oh, before I forget, you did ask your mum and dad if we can paint the spare room, didn't you? I know they said to treat the place like our own, but it's common courtesy all the same."

"Yes, they're fine with it. Remind me again, Sonya, why we need to paint the nursery already when you aren't even pregnant?"

Sonya sighed with the need to repeat all this again. She loved Dave dearly. He was a good provider and would make a great father when the time came. But he could be annoyingly scatterbrained at times.

"Because, Dave. I'm now off the pill, so it's only a matter of months before I'll be pregnant and maybe a year before the nursery will have a little occupant. I told you, I did some research that said even the safest paints give out toxic fumes for up to a year after they're applied. The main reason I'm going away with Bev this weekend is because I'm sensitive to the smell of paint. Otherwise, I would have stayed, and we could have done it together.

"Now, what I suggest is this. You drop my car off for a service first up tomorrow morning; they will give you the loaner for the day; I've booked it. Come straight back here and get the first coat of paint on. That should keep you busy till about lunchtime. Then, if the car service is finished, pick it up and go to Mum's. She'll have lunch for you. Mowing her lawn normally takes you the best part of the afternoon. Dinner for tomorrow is in the freezer.

"Sunday morning, do the second coat of paint and please keep the nursery door shut to avoid the fumes stinking up the whole house. Bev told me to say that Mick will pick you up about one for a game of golf. You can have dinner at the club and Bev will drop me back here about eight. Sound good?"

"Wow, I am going to be a busy, organised little bee this weekend, aren't I?"

Just then, Sonya's phone binged with an incoming text. She looked at it.

"Bev is just leaving her house now to pick me up. Now, are you sure you have everything you need?"

"Don't fret, woman. I'll be fine. Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay here with me than go for a spa weekend with Bev? We could try to make a baby for two days."

"Oooo, tempting, Dave. But the way I figure it, we have the rest of our lives to have dirty weekends, but I only have until I'm a mother for me to enjoy a little bit of freedom."

Sonya had to look away from her husband when she said this. Her self-image as a decent, honest person was taking a hit after some recent decisions.

"Okay, fine, Sonya. I suppose all that's left is for you to open this little going away present I bought you."

Dave reached under the table and placed a wrapped box, about the size of a cigarette packet on the table in front of Sonya. She looked at it, a little nonplussed.

"Should I open in now, Dave? Is it something I can use this weekend?"

"That's up to you. You can open it now or later, but I strongly recommend you do use it this weekend."

Sonya grabbed the gift and started ripping the wrapper off, revealing a cellophane wrapped box. It took her a moment to realise what it was. Dave filled the silence.

"I had to use my judgement, but I think for two nights and two days at the 'spa', twelve condoms are enough for you and Paul. I took a punt and bought the extra-large ones because I presume he has a big cock. Surely, you wouldn't be throwing away our marriage and future family for an average sized cock like mine?"

Sonya froze in shock, unable to stop staring at the box of condoms in her hand. Dave kept talking anyway.

"I also presume your huge job list for me while you were away was to stop me having time to think of questions like, 'How come Sonya evaded my question whenever I asked what spa she and Bev were going to?', or, 'Why did she discourage me from ringing her this weekend?'"

Sonya couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't act. Her foolproof plan to have one harmless fling before motherhood, egged on by her best friend, had just exploded in her face. She was overwhelmed.

"Did you keep the receipt for the paint, dear? Yes, that room does need repainting, but I don't think a 'light pastel shade, suitable for both a boy and a girl' will do now. I'll pick up another colour when I drop your car off tomorrow. I suppose, thinking logically, there's no reason for you to rush back on Sunday afternoon now I know what you're really going to be up to. Oh, by the way, well done on the acting. You were really convincing with some of your lies."

Never believing in wasting words, Dave fell silent and watched Sonya destroy herself with self-recriminations. Leading up to this point, he'd wondered if she had a plan ready to go if the real reason for her trip was ever revealed. Now, watching her open-book face, he realised she didn't have one. Interestingly, she made no move to deny anything he'd said. Maybe the fact he knew not only what she was going to do that weekend, but with whom, convinced her that lying was useless. Maybe, she finally remembered how fundamentally honest she was.

He waited for her to make eye contact so he could have a glimpse of what she was thinking.

And waited.

Finally.

"You think I'll still be going away for the weekend? I... I can't go now. I have to stay."

"Why, Sonya?"

"Well, the whole thought of settling down and having a child was scary, so..."

"No, Sonya; why do you want to stay here this weekend? What would be the point? What would it achieve?"

If Sonya had looked overwhelmed before, she now looked totally and utterly confused.

"Achieve, Dave? So I can explain why, Dave. So you can forgive me; after all, I haven't actually done anything yet. Yes, I was planning to, but not now, Dave, not ever."

If Sonya had dared to look at Dave's face, she would have known just how dead the horse was she was flogging. She'd justified her actions in her own head before making the decision to finally give in to Bev's nagging to join her on one of her secret weekends away from her marriage. If she'd ever contemplated the consequences of being caught after the fact, she would have sworn blind that her marriage was strong enough to survive it. Now, knowing nothing had really happened, in her mind, forgiveness was an eventual given. All she had to do was weather the storm. Suck up her penance. This would put her life plan back, what? Six months? A year?

That was her thinking and why Dave's next words confused her.

"Just go, Sonya. Go fuck your stud, go to your mother's. To be brutally honest, I don't care where, just go."

For the first time since Dave's revelation, Sonya braved a look at her husband's face. He was looking down, and his expression was kind of deadpan. The only hint of emotion discernible was the glint of water in his eyes. Sonya felt that her best course was to leave for a while. Dave was obviously uptight right now and she didn't want him to say anything he couldn't easily take back. She was already composing a story for her mother in her head.

"How long should I stay away, Dave?"

Dave looked at her and shook his head.

"Forever, Sonya."

Sonya's mouth dropped open. Dave ignored her reaction.

"Yeah, we've had five good years, but it's over. There isn't that much to talk about. We have no kids and this house belongs to my parents. We both make about the same amount of money so don't even try for alimony. I've spent the last two days hiding our money; I think that's fair as I spent bugger all during our time together, but you blew your share on clothes, that flash car, and your weekend trips away with Bev. I closed the accounts and credit cards just before I came home. You could go to a lawyer, I guess, but it will cost you more than it's worth to get any of it back. If I were you, I'd treat this as a learning experience for your next relationship. One last thing, Sonya." Dave paused for effect. "Piss off."

Sonya was back to being completely confused. She hadn't done anything to warrant this kind of reaction. Unless...? Was Dave's reference to other trips away implying that he thought she'd been on outings like this before. All the previous ones were either genuine pampering weekends or her covering for Bev's shenanigans. This caused relief to surge through her.

"Oh my god! You think I've already cheated on you, don't you? Well, I haven't. This was going to be the first time. The only time. Yes, Bev has been nagging me to join her on one of her trips for ages, but I never did. She finally tempted me and lined up Paul, one of her lovers, and, yes, apparently, he does have a big dick and..."

"Whether this is the first time or not is irrelevant, Sonya. You've proven yourself to be such a consummate actress and liar over the last two days that I'll never believe you one way or the other. That's what happens when you get caught out in a lie. You lose a person's trust. But that doesn't matter. You intended to cuckold me, you admit that, and that is the end. Now, for the sake of every time we've said we love each other over the last five years, just leave, Sonya."

If Dave had been ranting and raving at that moment, Sonya would have felt better, held out some hope he was just venting his spleen. The cold, emotionless tone of his voice confused and frightened her. She looked into his face, his eyes again, and wished she hadn't. Still the impassive face, but now eyes glinting like obsidian. Devoid of love, or pity, or even recognition that they were looking at anything but an eyesore.

"But, Dave, you have to believe me. Ho... how can you be so emotionless about this? You can't go from loving me to not, just like that."

Still with an unemotional voice, Dave replied, "Until two days ago I would have fully agreed with you. Now, I'm a much wiser man."

Dave's voice had gotten louder and louder throughout these two sentences. Finally, his face was starting to show some anger.

"I come home from work a few minutes early on Wednesday, with flowers for you, I might add, and park on the front lawn, so I can wash my truck. I come in the back door, intending to surprise you with the flowers, and what happens? I overhear you on the fucking phone talking to fucking Bev, that's what happens. And what do I hear?

"You, laughing at the thought of lying to me so you can slip off this weekend and fuck Paul with the big cock. You, tittering while you plan to keep me busy so I won't have time to think about where you are or what you're up to."

"But, Dave, you know I always get giggly when I'm nervous, I..."

"You, laughing while you drove the knife into my back. That ripped all the love from me pretty much instantly. Knowing I would kill you if I kept going into the kitchen, I left again. Everything since has been an act on my part."

Dave stopped talking while his chest heaved and his eyes glittered with hatred. He was fighting the urge to strangle the stranger that had fooled him into thinking she loved him. An actress that had wasted over five years of his life.

Sonya's head was just a whirl. If she could make Dave believe she'd never done anything but plan. This really had been the first time and she really did giggle when she was stressed. She had to convince him. It was time for her to have a baby. It was all part of the plan.

"Dave, I..."

Dave had been fiddling with his phone. He hit a button, then held his phone toward her. His face was back to an impassive mask. A voice, her voice, came from the phone's speaker.

'Hahaha, I suppose it will be kind of hot thinking of poor old naïve Dave painting the nursery while I fuck around, hahaha; you could say, feathering our nest while I sample the delights of another cock in his nest.'

Even with all her rationalisations, all her filters and delusions, Sonya recognised the tiny excerpt as immensely damaging. For just a moment, she could imagine how Dave felt when he first heard it. The job in front of her, the one of regaining his trust and love, suddenly looked like the view of the summit of Everest from Base camp.

Just then there was the toot of a horn. Bev had arrived. By staying in the car, she hoped to avoid looking in the eyes of her long-term friend. The friend whose wife she'd tempted to her own degraded moral view of the world.

Sonya heard the toot and knew it wouldn't stop until she went out and talked to her best friend. The trouble was, her fightback needed to start right here and right now. She dithered with the dilemma. Dave broke the impasse.

"I guess that answers that question for me."

"What question, Dave?"

"When I spoke to Mick an hour ago, he still hadn't decided whether to confront HIS slut wife before she left or ambush her while she was away. I guess he decided on the latter."

Sonya looked at the phone in her husband's hand and remembered back to that conversation with Bev on Wednesday. She was pretty sure that enough words had been exchanged for Dave to garner that Bev was an experienced strayer, even from just one side of the conversation. Her best friend was in deep trouble. She just didn't know it yet.

Turning, she sprinted from the house. It was raining quite hard, so she jumped in the passenger seat.

"He knows!"

"Who knows, what?"

"Mick knows you're going away to fuck Peter this weekend."

Without giving Sonya time to get out, Bev rammed the car into drive. Shortly thereafter, Dave heard the sound of tyres burning down the street.

EPILOGUE

Not believing his luck at getting her out of the house so easily, Dave put Sonya's suitcase on the front porch, texted Mick with the single word, 'incoming', then got his tools and began changing the locks. He whistled while he worked, and why not? He'd shouted out his anger, cried his regrets, and exorcised the evil from his life.

Sonya was too busy crying and ranting on Bev's shoulder to even disturb him with phone calls, which was fine with him.

With all the locks changed, he sat at his computer, copied the voice recorder file from his phone to his laptop, attached it to an email entitled, 'Why I'm divorcing Sonya', and emailed it to everyone in his and their shared address books. He felt justified in getting to their mutual friends, her relatives and work colleagues first. She'd been very convincing when she'd looked him in the eye and lied boldly to his face. People needed warning what an evil, conniving bitch she was. He did ring her mother and explain it verbally, so the email didn't come as too much of a shock; he thought he owed her that.

By the time Bev and a protesting, kidnapped Sonya arrived at her house, Mick had the locks changed. As his now estranged wife pounded and screamed, he completed his bank transfers on his computer. All the accounts Bev had access to, now showed a balance of zero. Sure, she would eventually get her share, but only after scrambling for a source of funds to pay a lawyer.

He switched applications, pulled up Bev's email account and read the email it had received yesterday. At face value it was from Sonya and alluded to the fact that all their carefully laid plans for their weekend away from their marriages were a success, but should their husbands find out and object after the fact, then 'something could be done about them'.

Actually, the email was from Dave, using Sonya's login, but the casual observer would never know that. If Bev didn't leave the house quietly, he could always threaten to weaponise the email for restraining order purposes.

When it was obvious that Bev's beating on her old front door was doing nothing but attracting the curiosity of her neighbours, she returned to her car and a waiting Sonya. It took only five minutes for years of friendship to implode forever. Sonya blamed Bev for talking her into the weekend's adventure. Bev blamed Sonya for carelessly allowing her husband to overhear their conversation. Bev dumped her former friend at her old house and squealed off with a heartfelt, "Bitch."

Sonya's calls to Dave's cell went unanswered and she discovered her keys no longer fit when she tried them. Shamefaced, she went to her mother's place where she received an extremely cold welcome.

Over the weekend, Dave refused to take her calls, but the following Monday evening responded to a text. If she came to the house at 2p.m. the next day, he would have their neighbour supervise Sonya picking up the rest of her personal items.

In the meantime, Sonya had rationalised that as Dave had been so unemotional on the Friday, he wasn't that upset, and with some careful grovelling might well forgive her one day. She knew him to be an extremely 'controlled' man. Her plan was thus to gain entry to the house on the Tuesday, cook him a fabulous meal, then meet him at the door dressed for sex.

On the Tuesday, their neighbour let her into the house then said he'd be back later to check what she planned to remove. Sonya wandered around the house, already feeling like an outsider. There was a faint smell of paint and the door to their planned nursery was closed. Full of curiosity, Sonya decided to see what colour Dave had eventually chosen. Opening the door, she stepped in. The blood left her face.

Sonya realised she'd confused the emotion Dave showed with the emotion he felt. He'd used the paint she'd brought. Written all over the wall in angry letters were repeats of, 'slut', 'whore', 'stolen 5 years', 'bitch' and 'betrayal'.

Sonya staggered against the door frame as it all hit her.

She looked down in horror - the paint had still been wet and had left a broad stripe down her arm. She leapt away from the door shaking, feeling as if she'd been branded. Branded by the awful words screaming at her from the walls.

For the first time, Sonya saw her actions truly for what they were; the damage and pain she'd inflicted on both her husband and herself. After screaming in empathy for her husband and her own loss, Sonya Travis, nee Brown, packed her belongings and with a sense of dread for the pain and humiliation to come, left her home for the last time.

THE END

Now lighten the fuck up.

"Doctor, doctor, I'm having real bad side effects of those HRT pills you put me on."

"Well, madam, side effects are quite common with that medication. Which one are you having?"

"I'm getting hair growing where it has never grown before."