When the door to his town house opened to Matt Thompson's touch, his heart began to race. It was supposed to be locked. The alarm system was supposed to be activated. But his wife Trudy was still at work, so …
Matt tiptoed inside and closed the door as quietly as he could. Sounds from the living room, someone in tears, someone sniffling. Padding silently along the ornate Oriental carpet, he stopped when he had a good view into the living room.
On the sofa, he recognized the thick, copper hair, the silver silk blouse, and the shaking shoulders -- his mother, Louise.
"Mom?" he asked.
Louise jumped up, startled.
"Oh, Matt, I'm sorry," she said, dabbing her eyes.
"It's all right, Mom, that's why I gave you a spare key."
"Not about that," she said. "These."
Louise handed Matt a sheaf of papers. Matt flipped through them. Certain phrases leapt to his eyes: "You were so good last night," read one. "We really should run away. They'll find out sooner or later," read another "Trudy, you make me feel twenty again."
"Trudy's cheating on me?" Matt asked incredulously. "Where did you get these?"
"Check out the e-mail addresses."
"Oh, my God. Trudy's and … Dad's."
Louise nodded, and began to cry again. His anger building, Matt took his slender mother's body in his arms, and let her cry it out.
His own feelings were suddenly in turmoil. Rage, pain, confusion boiled in his breast, but he kept it all to himself until Louise looked up into his deep brown eyes, the same color and shape as her own.
"I couldn't think of a nice way to say it," Louise said softly. "It's been going on for years. The night before your wedding, when you were out on the town with your buddies, Trudy was in bed with your father."
"That bitch!" Matt spat. "That son of a bitch!"
"He's got a condo I didn't know about," Louise continued. "They meet in the city once or twice a week."
Crushed, Matt sank to the sofa and buried his head in his hands.
"What are we going to do?" he asked.
"Well, when someone's fucking your wife," Louise said softly, "one way to respond would be to fuck his."
It took Matt a moment to realize what his mother had just said.
"You mean … we should go to bed together?"