The day that Tina found out that her husband of 11 years was cheating on her had, up until that very moment, been just like every other day for the past several years. Alan's alarm went off at 5:15 am, at which point he got showered, made himself a coffee, and left for work. He was the VP of Operations at a biotech company, and it was his dream job. His rise in the company was quick, and at just 36 years old, he was the youngest VP the company had ever had.
It wasn't surprising to Tina. Alan was intelligent, but more importantly, was charming. He was the opposite of her in many ways. She enjoyed being home while he enjoyed going out at every chance they got. She was quiet and reserved, while he was usually the life of the party. Everyone seemed drawn to him, and she had often told him that he should have been in sales.
But despite those differences, they'd had what she thought was a great marriage. They had been unable to have children, so they had more time on their hands than most of their friends. They took advantage of their freedom and usually took a trip or two each year.
Five years ago, Tina began volunteering at the local elementary school and quickly felt she had found her calling. Eventually, she worked her way into a teacher's assistant position and couldn't have been happier. They were comfortable and on their way to being well off. Life had seemed good.
When her friend Amy had broken the news to her that she had seen Alan going into a motel two afternoons ago, Tina reasoned that there had to be some other explanation. Maybe it was someone in town for his company, she explained, knowing he had never in 11 years mentioned any executives traveling into town.
But Amy had more. She had been suspicious and waited in the motel parking lot for almost an hour. When Alan and the mystery woman came out, she had her phone ready and began snapping photos. She showed them to Tina.
Tina stared, trying to hold back the tears, as her heart thumped in her chest. She recognized the woman in the photos, so casually holding her husband's hand. It was Angela, one of Alan's employees. She had never actually met any of his colleagues. She didn't enjoy attending work functions, and he had always seemed fine with keeping his private life separate from his work life.
But she remembered she and Alan bumping into this girl while Christmas shopping just a few weeks ago. Alan had introduced them, saying Angela was one of the four managers on his team. She was very attractive, probably in her late 20's, and Tina had thought she seemed nice. She even said as much to Alan after they parted ways. He had smiled and said something about her being the most talented manager on his team.
Now the tears came. Not in fits and sobs, just streaming quietly down her face, as she stood there feeling broken-hearted. Amy hugged her tightly.
"I'm so sorry, Tina," she said, trying to comfort her friend. "I hoped it wasn't true, and even debated whether to tell you, but I couldn't."
"I know," said Tina, "It's ok. I'm glad you told me."
"What are you going to do?" asked Amy.
Tina was quiet, the tears still streaming down her cheeks, though starting to slow. She stepped back from their hug and shrugged her shoulders with a big sniff.
"I don't know. I guess I need time to think. Please don't say anything to anyone, ok?"
"Of course," Amy assured her.
For several days afterward, Tina did her best to act as if everything was fine. She would feel moments of pain overwhelm her, and sneak away to the bathroom to have a little cry. But Alan never seemed to notice. She thought his inattentiveness made it worse.
She thought hard about what to do about it. She felt sure she could never trust him again, no matter how much apologizing and pleading he might do when she confronted him, so she resigned herself to the fact that her marriage was over. Her pain turned into anger with every day that passed, Alan trudging to and from work so happily, thinking her a fool.
She began to think she smelled perfume on him some days he got home, but she wasn't certain, it was faint. His deceit made her anger turn to rage, and before long she had made up her mind: there would be a divorce, that was a given. But she wanted more than that. She wanted to hurt him as he had hurt her. Worse, she wanted to destroy him. She would figure out the financial aspect of that once she met with her lawyer. But she wanted more, and before long, she had an idea.
It would take some time and planning, and she found herself questioning whether she could even go through with it. It was so deeply out character for her, and not without risks and possible consequences. But she pressed on with the planning stage, thinking she may or may not end up having the fortitude to go through with it when the time came.
Over the years, Tina had heard Alan talk about his team of managers on occasion, as part of small talk over dinner or when he came home upset about something one of them had done that day. But she also knew them by the photo on Alan's desk in his home office. The picture had been taken last summer after the company baseball team had won their league championship.
Each person's name was listed underneath the group photo, and she had easily worked out who the four managers that reported to Alan were. They all looked to be of similar age as Alan's mistress, mid to late twenties, she guessed. If the photo were any indication, Alan's company seemed to place a high value on good looks when hiring their employees.
"Andrew, Colton, and Jason," she muttered to herself as she held the photo in her hand. "Ok then." She sighed and set the photo back down.
Over the next several days, Tina sat outside the downtown office building and watched the managers leave work each day. It didn't take long before she saw the pattern. At 5:30 pm each day, the guys trickled out of the high-rise building and walked two blocks to a bar called Pour Advice. Angela, on the other hand, left work in the opposite direction and never seemed to join the guys for their after-work routine. Tina wondered if perhaps she was married, and needed to rush home to her unwitting husband.
Tina only stuck around the bar parking lot one night for long enough to see what time they left. On that particular evening, she watched Andrew and Jason come out of the bar at 8:15 pm and hail a cab. Colton didn't accompany them, and while she couldn't know why, she speculated perhaps he stuck around to try to pick up a one-night stand. She thought he may be the easiest target for her plan.
By 7 pm the following Friday evening she found herself sitting in that very establishment, sipping her fourth cosmopolitan. She had arrived just before 5 pm, not wanting to risk missing Colton, but also trying to build up the courage to do what she had planned.
But now she wondered why he still hadn't arrived. She had initially thought this would be transactional, a means to an end, and wasn't particularly excited about the thought of having sex with this stranger. Her goal was the aftermath of said sex and the pain it may cause. But now after waiting this long, she started to feel disappointed. She thought perhaps she was more into it than she had let herself believe.
Just then she felt someone bump against her arm, almost spilling her drink. She set her glass back on the bar top and turned, feeling slightly annoyed.
"Sorry about that," It was Colton, apologizing with a big grin on his face.
Oh my god, it's him, she thought. She suddenly felt a wave of panic run through her. She tried to maintain her composure and nervously returned the smile. He was even better looking up close, she thought.
"No problem at all," she said with a smile of her own.
