Birthday Mistake

This is my second story submitted. Appreciated all the critique received from my first story. Have taken more time with this one and tried to incorporate suggestions received from first one. Hope you enjoy.

Birthday Mistake

I was rushing around trying to make sure everything was perfect. I thought Donna and I had planned well and everything was ready for my wife's thirty-ninth surprise birthday party, but of course there were last minute changes and glitches. My wife's best friend, Donna, and I had planned, schemed, lied, and worked our butts off to keep her birthday party a total surprise for her. We had composed birthday invitations and sent them out to all our family and friends requesting they not breathe a word to my wife but inviting them to attend and celebrate her birthday. We rented a large room at one of the nicer hotels in our city and decorated it for the occasion.

Sandy is the love of my life and still as beautiful and sexy as the day I married her. We met in college and dated almost a year before I popped the question. We have been very happily married for over five years now and recently started discussing starting a family. She works at a large manufacturing company that makes machines for other manufacturing companies and I work at a local distribution center. We're not rich but have a comfortable life.

Being a typical male, I understand I don't have the faintest idea how to show her how much she means to me other than the occasional box of candy or flowers. That just isn't enough to show her how much I love and appreciate her. I needed something special and this was going to be it. Her best friend and I went all out.

Of course, I had waited too late to figure this is what I wanted to do and share my plan with her best friend. We were scrambling to put everything together in time for the event and make it look really nice and special. It took a lot of late-night phone calls between Donna and I, as we thought of something else we needed to do or something else to make it extra special. We would meet at least twice a week over coffee or lunch to compare notes and check on each other's "to do" list and progress each had made. We both really got into this and worked our butts off but it was all for a very good reason. She was worth it.

We had scheduled the surprise birthday party for a Friday evening to begin at 6:00. That would give everyone time to get there and I would then tell my wife I was taking her to dinner and show up at this hotel banquet room between 6:30 or 7:00. Her best friend would be at the banquet room early to receive guests and make sure everything was ready and I would await my wife at home and drive her to the hotel.

A perfect plan. Then it went to hell!

She usually arrives at home about 5:30 or so depending on traffic. She didn't show up at 5:30 so maybe she stopped to get gas for her car or traffic was really heavy. Then 6:00 P.M. rolled around and no Sandy. Now I'm starting to get worried. I call Donna and tell her Sandy hasn't made it home yet but she tells me not to worry we had planned on arriving as late as possibly 7:00 and there was still plenty of time. When 6:15 arrives I start to panic, thinking maybe she has been involved in a traffic accident and decide I need to call her. I call her cell and no answer and it goes to her voice mail.

A few minutes later I receive a text from Sandy. It say's; "I have seen you on the phone whispering several times these past two weeks and was wondering who you were talking to. I finally overheard you say Donna's name and I paid close attention and realized you and my best friend have been talking to each other quite a bit at night the past two weeks. I confirmed my suspicions when I checked your phone log. When I asked you about it, you denied it. You were lying to me. It all became clear when I saw you and Donna having lunch together on Wednesday and when I asked what you did for lunch that day you told me you had skipped lunch due to work. When I asked Donna she also lied to me. I know you two are having an affair. I am hurt and devasted and cannot understand how you could do this to me and with my best friend. I cannot stand the thought of being around you this weekend I need time to think. I will return home Sunday evening and we need to talk."

OMG! Where did this come from? How in the hell did she get this idea in her head? Me cheating on her, ridiculous. I immediately try to call her but goes to her voice mail. I leave her a message telling her to call me, there is a huge misunderstanding. I call Donna and tell her what has happened. She tells me it wouldn't do any good for her to try to call Sandy if she thinks we are having an affair. She tells me Sandy's mother has arrived and will have her give her a call and explain. Donna calls back in a few minutes and tells me Sandy has turned her cell phone off. Now what do we do?

I drive to the banquet hall while trying to think of where she may have gone and thinking of some kind of excuse to tell all our guests why the birthday girl isn't there and won't be there this evening. I arrive and huddle with Donna and her husband and we come up with a believable, but somewhat embarrassing, announcement. Once we are sure all the guests have arrived, I get everyone's attention and make my announcement. I apologize to everyone and tell them Donna and I had worked really hard to put this surprise birthday party together for the love of my life, but forgot to invite her! Of course, everyone gets a good laugh but then I go on and explain my wife and I had a little mis-understanding and she isn't talking to me right now but I'm trying to contact her and hope she will join us shortly. I tell everyone to go ahead and enjoy the evening and we can just celebrate it without her if we have too. A little strange but what else could I do. The evening didn't go very well and everyone was wondering what kind of mis-understanding could have occurred to make my wife miss her own birthday party. I gave every lame excuse I could think of but none came off very well. The party broke up early and everyone started to leave.

I tried calling Sandy all day Saturday and until noon on Sunday but she still had her cell phone turned off.

Sandy came through the door about 6:00 P.M. Sunday evening. I was sitting on the couch and by this time I was more than a little pissed. Donna and I had worked our asses off to make Friday a special day for her and she gets some hair brained idea we are cheating and runs off? What the hell?

Sandy stops when she sees me sitting on the couch in the living room and just stares at me a moment and then proceeds upstairs to the master bedroom. I brought all her birthday gifts to the house and they are all sitting in the front room un-wrapped. If she even notices them she doesn't say anything. I expect her to freshen up and come down stairs to talk but after about an hour I go up and knock on the door. I ask if she is ready to talk. I'm anxious to explain to her how she screwed up an entire week-end for me, made me look like a fool and embarrassed me in front of family and friends, and let her family and friends down by not attending her own birthday party. She is in trouble.

Instead, she yells through the door, she isn't ready to talk and for me to leave her alone and oh by the way I am sleeping in the guest bedroom tonight and maybe for a long time. I stand there for a few minutes and finally decide I don't want to have a discussion, or yelling match, with her through a closed door.

The next morning, I'm in the kitchen fixing my breakfast when my wife comes down the stairs, dressed for work, walks out the front door and I hear her leave in her car. O.K. What now?

I get dressed and go to work but starting to get really pissed. I haven't done anything wrong! I throw myself into my work but everything I do is a struggle. I can't concentrate and seems I have to do everything twice to get it correct. Finally, the end of the work day comes and I head for home wondering what in the world awaits me.

When I walk in the door Sandy is fixing dinner. I usually arrive home a few minutes before her. All her birthday presents are still sitting in the front room although it appears some of them may have been moved around a little. At least she noticed them. I go into the kitchen and get a beer out of the fridge not saying a word. She doesn't even look at me. I go into the front room and sit on the couch. A few minutes later Sandy comes in and sits down across from me.

She looks at me for a few seconds and lets out a big sigh. She appears nervous. She tells me she is sorry. She said she turned off her cell phone last Friday because she knew I would try to call her and she didn't want to hear my voice right then. She said she turned it back on Sunday afternoon and listened to her voice messages but didn't believe such a weak story about a "surprise birthday party". She pointed out I had never had a birthday party for her before and it's just not like me. When she saw all the presents Sunday afternoon she said she even thought I had gone out and bought a bunch of gifts and wrapped them to make it look like there had really been a birthday party. She hadn't believed it until a couple of her friends at work talked to her about the surprise birthday party and her not being there. They assumed we had a big fight and I had left and they were concerned about her. She said she was embarrassed and tried to pass it off as a big mis-understanding but not sure they bought it.

She said she had noticed the late-night phone calls and got suspicious, especially when I had made light of them and been evasive. We share our passwords for our phones with each other and she had checked my call history and seen it was Donna, her best friend calling me, often late at night. What was she supposed to think? She told me I had seemed pre-occupied with something and hardly noticed she was around. The final straw was one day when she went to lunch and saw Donna and I eating lunch together. She said she watched us and it sure seemed the two of you were up to something as well as laughing and having a great time. It all added up to the two of you having an affair.

She said she was angry, hurt, devastated and went into panic mode. Her mind was going in all directions and she just couldn't think straight. She was an emotional mess and had to get away for some time to think everything through. She thought I was going to divorce her and didn't know if she could go on with life without me. With all of this going on she completely forgot about her birthday. It really didn't register with her until today when she was talking to her co-workers about the birthday party.

"I am so sorry. We have never kept anything from each other and you were being so secretive and evasive. Then the late-night calls and with my best friend. I was crushed and scared and by Friday wasn't able to think straight and an emotional mess. I don't think I would have listened to anything you would have said to me right then. I was convinced I was going to lose you. I wanted to die."

The longer I listened the more my anger sub-sided. I could see where she could think I was having an affair. On one hand, how could she for a second think I would cheat on her? Haven't I always told her and shown her my love for her but she is right, we never keep anything from each other. We have always been open and honest with each other. Damn, what a mess.

She continued, "I feel like such a fool for ever doubting you and after you went to so much effort to give me a surprise birthday party. I really don't deserve such a wonderful husband. I am so sorry. I love you so much."

I looked at her, the love of my life, and my heart melted. "Because you are such a wonderful wife, lover, and best friend, I wanted to do something special for you, to show you how much I love you. I should have told you what I had planned and told you to look surprised when you arrived at the banquet hall."

"I guess I really screwed up your birthday week end."

She said "no, it's all my fault for ever doubting you and I am so sorry to have missed such a special occasion with my beloved husband."

I told her, her best friend Donna was also involved and I couldn't have pulled it off without her. She wanted to make it special for her too and that is why there were so many late night phone calls and lunch meetings with her. We wanted everything to be perfect.

Sandy got up and said "I need to make a phone call and apologize and hopefully I haven't lost my best friend."

We went to bed that night and made slow sweet love.

We soon reverted to our old routine and I was again content. We talked like we use to, we set close together on the couch like we use to and life was again good.

It was about two weeks later when Sandy called and said she would be late getting home. It seems they had a very upset major customer concerning a delivery problem. She was part of a team appointed to get the problem solved immediately and get the customer taken care of. When she arrived home about three hours past her normal time she explained a shipment to a major customer was not what was ordered resulting in loss time and production for their customer. A team comprised of representatives from several departments within her company was assigned to address the problem and get it straightened out. She had been assigned to the team to determine what the problem was and let the customer know they were promptly taking care of them.

Well, it happened again the following week, another customer had received a wrong shipment from her company. The team she was a part of was again able to save the day and correct the problem but it took a couple of late nights

I was hopeful things would return to normal so we could begin to spend all our evenings together but it didn't. It seems the company COO wanted the team to remain together and work together to figure out what had happened and determine corrections needed to prevent future customer problems. Although it would mean a few late evenings for team meetings Sandy was proud she had been selected to be a part of this very important team.

Sandy continued to work late a couple of nights each week and she said they were documenting their findings and making some recommendations to change the production and shipping process and it shouldn't last too much longer. I was looking forward to having my loving wife at home with me full time every day.

About a week later I ran into an old friend. His wife worked with Sandy and they had once lived in our neighborhood but when their last child entered college they had sold their house and moved across town. I hadn't seen them in a couple of years and so I chatted with the husband while his wife shopped for paint for a project at their home. She found the color of paint she was looking for and joined our conversation. I casually mentioned I was looking forward to the company she and Sandy worked for getting their production and shipping problems ironed out so Sandy wouldn't have to continue to work long hours. She looked at me and asked what problem I was referring to and I said the upset customers due to all the shipping problems the company had experienced the last couple of months. She looked sort of confused and said she hadn't heard about any problems but would have to ask around Monday morning. I asked if she had been working lots of overtime and she said no and hadn't heard of anyone needing to work overtime. I assumed it must have just been the team Sandy was working on but the more I thought about it the more something just didn't seem right.

It kept bothering me so to satisfy my curiosity I drove to Sandy's place of work, located her car and parked quite a distance away but still close enough I could see her when she went to her car. This was a Thursday evening and one of the nights she would normally arrive home two to three hours later than normal due to a "team" meeting. I was surprised to see Sandy leave her work building and walk to her car and leave the parking lot at her normal quitting time. I pulled in behind her leaving a few cars between us so she would not see me. She headed across town, away from our home, and I continued to follow her. I'm not very good at this spy stuff and sure enough I lost her when a light turned red and she had already gone through the intersection. I wasn't able to catch up to her and lost her in the traffic.

I was really upset but began to calm down after considering all the different reasons she may have left early. I was sure she would tell me all about her day and it would explain why she left work at her regular time rather than having a team meeting that night and why she was driving in the opposite direction from our house.

I became more and more anxious as the hours went by and my wife had not made it home. She pulled into the drive-way about three hours later than her normal quitting time but about the time she would arrive home from a team meeting. When she came in the door she looked tired and I asked her how her day had been and she said it was a full and tiring day. I asked how her team meeting went and she said about as usual. She said they had reviewed their findings and recommendations and made some corrections and would be returning it for re-writes.

I was stunned! She had just lied to me. I stood there staring at her and she asked if I was alright. I recovered and said fine, I had just remembered something I had forgotten to do at work. She chatted away as we ate dinner. I couldn't eat much because my stomach was doing somersaults. I had no idea what was going on but was determined to find out.

The next day I looked through the phone book and randomly picked a P.I. that had an office close to my job. I made an appointment for that afternoon at 4:00 P.M. I left work early and started thinking on my way over to his office that maybe I was over-reacting and there had to be a logical explanation. Maybe I should just cancel the appointment but I didn't. Since I was at his office I might as well talk to him.

His name was Bill and he looked to be around fifty with short grey hair and intense eyes. I felt like he didn't miss much. I told Bill I was probably being paranoid and there probably wasn't anything to it but I just wanted to check on my wife just to calm my nerves. I told him I didn't really like spying on my wife but there had been a few strange events lately and something just didn't seem right. I told him it was probably nothing and I didn't want to spend a lot of money only to find out I was just an old foolish man with an over-active imagination. I then related my story leaving out the "surprise birthday" incident because I didn't think it had anything to do with the recent events but just explained my encounter with my former neighbor, my wife obviously lying to me, and my general suspicion.

Bill said he understood and thought he could help me. He said he had a recently retired police officer who worked part time for him and could assign her to be at my wife's work place at her regular quitting times on Tuesday and Thursday since these seem to be the days she usually arrived home late. If she did leave early she would follow her and see what she could find out. He said she would begin the following Tuesday and have a preliminary report for me by the end of the following week. Since it was only for one P.I. and only a few hours for a couple of days it wasn't going to be as expensive as I thought and well worth putting all my concerns to rest.

The following week was normal with Sandy coming home late on Tuesday and Thursday due to team meetings. I got a call from Bill Friday morning and he asked if I could come by his office after I got off work to go over the preliminary report. I told him no problem and figured there wasn't much they found out or Bill would have asked me to come by earlier. I arrived at the P.I. office about 5:15 and he was waiting for me and had me come into his office. Bill introduced me to Pamela and said she was the one who had been handling my case. Pamela introduced herself and explained she had retired from the local police force a couple of years back but liked to stay involved and Bill had been a friend when they were both serving on the police force. She said she worked for Bill part time.