It is early on a Sunday morning as Michelle White lies on her back, staring at the painted ceiling of her master bedroom. The mother of two can feel her palms becoming clammy as she thinks about her encounter with her daughter on Friday. Michelle knows that Gwen will not wait much longer after delivering her ultimatum about wanting action to take place on her demand for being with her father. She flips the comforter off her naked body and places her feet to the floor. The thick carpeting feels nice on her bare feet as she stands from the bed. The still sleepy wife looks over at her small robe tossed carelessly on the dresser and just shrugs, opting not to bother herself with putting it on. Michelle turns her attention to the bed, looking at her husband asleep with a slight trail of drool running from the left corner of her mouth. The wife thinks to herself how much she loves him and how she wants to keep him happy, but worries what will happen if he finds out all the details of her shopping trip with their daughter.
Michelle releases a sigh of relief as she looks at the small suitcase sitting on the floor. Jason is going to be leaving for a few days, It was not a long-term work trip but long enough to buy her some time. She slowly eases the white wooden bathroom door shut and turns on the lights and exhaust fan as she steps in. She turns the dials on the shower to set her temperature as she leans on the marble vanity, stretching her aching joints. The auburn-haired beauty can still feel the painful markings on her bottom left from her overzealous daughter's attack with a duster handle. "What have I done?" Michelle questions herself as her eyes stare into the mirror. The woman knows it is her reflection but does not know if she genuinely recognizes the woman looking back at her. She did not even contemplate sharing her doubts with Jason about what they have done and are doing. The conflicted wife can hear her familiar inner voices, the thoughts she previously fought with starting to return on a more regular basis.
Michelle removes her earrings and wedding band, placing them into the small dish on the counter. She takes note that her husband's phone lays there as well; she stares at it, wondering if the passcode is still the same as she picks it up and enters their wedding date. The wife smiles as the screen comes to life, she thinks for a moment that she should lay the phone down and not snoop, but she cannot resist opening the messages app. Her delicate index finger presses down on the green icon opening up a list of various messages. She opens up some from Marc, Jason's friend and co-worker and giggles as most are dirty jokes and a few messages wanting details of them hooking up with Johnny and Shelly. "He has a real fascination with Johnny being bi-sexual." Michelle giggles as she exits that thread of text messages before seeing the name that piques her curiosity the most. "Kayla Long," Michelle knows she should not be investigating her husband's phone. The curious wife knows that the content of the messages all stem from what she started, but she cannot fight off the temptation as she presses the name. The messages appear the first several being simply nudes of Kayla in various poses. Michelle admires the other woman's body as she blows up some photos and then closes them zooming in on Kayla from multiple angles. The wife continues to scroll past the pictures to find actual messages. The first couple fairly innocuous as they are just banter about asking what's up and how was your day. The next few though, hit Michelle hard as they were Kayla calling Jason sweetie and honey and professing how much she cares and loves what they are doing. The last one begging him to break the staying overnight rule and be with her without Michelle. The torn wife closes the app and places the phone back down. She wonders if the relationship with Jason and Kayla is not moving past the point of cheating and into something more. She does take solace in the fact Jason politely declined the invitation but wonders how much longer he will do that.
Feelings of doubt did not often enter Michelle's mind, but she did feel them on occasions, and now they were there rooted in her thoughts. "I do want this, right?" Michelle asks her reflection as the mirror is slowly starting to steam over. "Yes of course I do, I love this. I love the abuse." She says, reaffirming her choices to herself as she wipes a streak across the steamy mirror. "Does he love Kayla?" Michelle issues a final question to herself before turning her attention to the shower and stepping in. The question one that has sat festering in the back of her mind ever since the night Jason made her ask Kaya's permission to come over. The thoughts now coming back more forceful with the revelation of the text messages. "Maybe I do need to get this ball rolling with Gwen, give his attention to someone else." She says to herself as she lathers her large double D breasts.
"Who are you talking to in there?"
"Don't do that shit!" Michelle exclaims as she nearly throws the bar of soap in shock.
"Sorry I said hey I thought you heard me open the door," Jason says with a laugh. The husband could hear his wife but could not make out what she was saying over the sound of the shower. "I thought you were talking to me, I couldn't hear you."
"It's fine; I am just jumpy," Michelle says as relief fills her body.
"You said we needed to talk on Friday, but we didn't yesterday, and I am leaving really soon, so is now a good time or should I wait till you're out the shower?"
"I'll be out in a minute," Michelle rolls her eyes, she usually cannot get Jason to talk, and now of all times he wants to, she thinks to herself as she starts to rinse herself off.
About fifteen minutes later, the married couple meets in the kitchen. Michelle wears regular clothes for the first time in a long time, walks to the table, and slides chair out, taking a seat across from her husband. She fidgets slightly as she finds it difficult to make eye contact with him. The mother has intentions to broach the subject of her daughter's demands, but the words seem unable to escape her dark painted lips.
"Well, since you're not talking, I am going to," Jason says as he rolls his hands together to crack his knuckles. "First and foremost, you look nice today. I don't see your normal wardrobe as much. I like the new clothes you have picked out. Now secondly, the work trip is for three days with a possibility to be one day less if we get our shit together and get it done quickly."
"Well, thank you. I just felt the need to try this today instead of my other clothes." Michelle says as she smooths her hands down over the light-colored blouse. I didn't know you could be back early, I assumed since they were training classes it was a set number of days."
"They can make them last if they want to be sticklers for details, but some just want out as badly as we do. Anyway, yeah, I wanted to give you a heads up so you can kick all the big burly men out a day in advance." Jason says as he tries to make a joke, as he can feel the unnaturally higher tension in the room.
"Yeah..." Michelle says with a half crooked smile.
"I am not sure what's up, Chelle, but I don't like it. I don't like seeing you unhappy."
"I am not unhappy, I am just thinking a lot, and well I guess I don't want you to go," Michelle says as she can see her husband's work itinerary in her mind. The wife accidentally caught a glimpse of it in a stack of papers Jason left on the table when he came home Friday night. The itinerary the reason she did not want to talk Saturday. The words Jason White plus one in red ink burned through the woman's mind as Michelle wondered why he did not tell her the company gave him an extra ticket again. She could not get the idea that he was not even going to say to her that someone could come with him, and now she has convinced herself that his plus one must be Kayla.
"As long as you're good, that's what matters. So anyway, I know we touched base on this a while back, and then we never really pursued it much outside of the pool party, why don't you cut loose?"
"Excuse me?"
"You had asked about being with other men, so why not try it?"
"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Michelle asks as she can feel her pulse quicken.
Jason laughs at his wife's paranoid expression as he reaches across the table to grasp her hand. "It's nothing like that; I was just thinking I am going out of town. Why not try it, I don't want you here alone and wanting like the other night. If you feel the need, then I am okay with it, call Johnny if you want."
"I'm sorry."
"For?"
"I don't know, the past the present, I am just sorry."
"Chelle I am confused do you need me to stay, is there something going on?"
"This life, this new normal for us. I love it, I do, but I also have a bit of worry and paranoia lately. I worry that you and Kayla are getting to close, and instead of her being the third wheel to us, I am becoming the third wheel to you two."
"Chelle, I love you. I like Kayla, and we are close I won't lie, but it's not like that. I like this new life; that is why I want you to be more than a submissive participant in it." Jason says as he leans over the table to kiss his wife.
The honking of a horn outside interrupts the moment from going further as Jason pulls back from his wife. "Well, that is my ride. Are you good? I am one of the bosses I can blow this trip off without too much consequence."
"I'm good just a little inside my own head today." Michelle laughs as she escorts her husband to the door handing him his small suitcase as they kiss again on the porch before watching him jog over to Marc's SUV.
After closing the door, Michelle leans against the door, the inner thoughts ever-present in her head as she wonders about everything all at once. The doubt and worries something she has worked hard to keep to herself today being the first time she believed she showed anything close to them to her husband. "Well, I guess I need to figure out what I am going to do today," Michelle says to herself as she twists the small lock on the brass doorknob. "Maybe I should call Johnny and Shelly, at the very least just talk with her I need to open up some about this, or I am going to go nuts." She whispers to herself as a noise catches her attention and she looks towards the top of the stairs
