Stupid

"Hello Ms. Hoover. It's nice to finally meet you in person. I already know a lot about..."

"Uh, Judy, just notarize her signature," Elmo said cutting her off before she said too much.

"Jack?" Cheryl said looking for me to tell her what to do.

"Uh, just sign here on the last page. It's all pretty boring stuff really. Bla, bla, bla, secrets of the United States of America, bla, bla, bla, prison for up to 20 years, bla, bla, bla, never reveal what you know, and so on. Pretty standard stuff."

She signed without ever looking down at the paper. Elmo took it and handed it to Judy who stamped and signed it, finally handing it back to Elmo.

"Well it was nice meeting you," Judy said turning to leave. "Maybe we'll see each other again soon. Maybe at the Christmas party. Ta Ta."

Cheryl watched her go and then gave Elmo and me the craziest look possible. "Christmas party? Are you serious?"

"Oh yeah," I said trying not to sound cavalier about it. "They put on one epic Christmas party. Rent out the entire Greenbrier Hotel for a weekend, top band, all the food and drink you could want..."

"Ahem!" Elmo said with his hand over his mouth.

"Oh, yeah, or so I've been told. I've never actually..."

"I got the point Jack," Cheryl said looking up from the bed with one eyebrow crooked up. "You WILL tell me all about it, later."

"Okay then," Elmo said with the first smile of the day. "I can see things are getting back to normal so I'll just take my leave."

"NO!" Cheryl shouted making him stop dead in his tracks. "Before you go you're going to answer a couple questions and if you don't then there is not going to be any reconciliation with Jack and me. "

"I'll try to answer as best I can," Elmo said with another smile.

"You seem to know all about Jack and me and our split. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"And you know everything that Jack's done in the last 20 years?"

"Yes."

"So answer this one last question and then you can go back to saving the world. Did my husband ever cheat on me? Was he ever with another woman? Did he tell me the truth about that?"

"Well... Actually ma'am that's three questions."

"Just answer me!" She gave him a look that would make any grown man shiver.

"Ms. Hoover, Cheryl, I can answer your question with all honesty and say that in all the year's I've known Jack he has never, and I mean NEVER, done anything with another woman, or man for that matter, that you would consider cheating. He's been true to you and you alone. He's got a reputation as quite a Boy Scout around the office. He's even refused assignments because they might involve something, well let's just say, of an intimate nature."

Cheryl looked up at him trying to judge the man from the Agency. "I believe you," She said after a minute staring him in the eye. "But if I ever find that you lied to me then you and I will have a little talk, and you won't like it. Got my drift?"

"Absolutely," Elmo said without a glimmer of a smile. "I'll take my leave now." He turned and left.

Cheryl and I just sat quietly holding hands, enjoying the silence.

"You are such a stupid ass!" she said almost under her breath. "You jeopardize our marriage because of some confidentially agreement?"

"Well, actually, it wasn't the paper. It was because I was afraid that if you saw the real me then you'd be scared and run away. I couldn't risk losing you if you found out the things I did, and I did some pretty awful stuff."

"Jack, I love you. I always have. I know what kind of a man you are around me and I love him, not some Rambo character you become for your job. Have a little faith in me. Let's just get out of here and back home where we belong and then you can tell me all about things. Maybe we can schedule a couple weeks on a cruise or fly to Fiji for a second honeymoon. How does that sound?"

"It sounds wonderful to me. How does that sound to you Elmo?"

She looked around the room and then back at me. "He's gone Jack."

"Wait for it..." I said.

The phone rang and I answered it. Smiling, I hung up and said, "Elmo said it was okay with him. And Judy said to tell you that you are one lucky woman."

Again she looked like a deer in headlights.