Chapter 2 - The Proposal No Wife Expects
Three days earlier, I had been standing in our kitchen, preparing dinner for the man I thought would grow old beside me.
Tuesday evenings were usually peaceful in our house.
Sean came home around six-thirty. I finished work at the community arts center, and we ate together before watching television or discussing our plans for the weekend.
We weren't newlyweds.
After eighteen years, romance wasn't always candlelight and flowers.
Sometimes it was remembering how the other person liked their coffee.
Sometimes it was Sean warming up my car on cold mornings.
Sometimes it was the quiet comfort of knowing someone would be home when I returned.
I thought that kind of love was enough.
Apparently, my husband didn't.
That evening, Sean barely touched his dinner.
He kept checking his phone.
Finally, he put down his fork.
“Rachel, don't you think our marriage needs something new?”
I smiled.
“New curtains? A vacation? Skydiving?”
He didn't laugh.
“I'm serious.”
“So am I. We've been talking about taking a trip for months.”
“I'm talking about something more exciting.”
I studied his face.
Sean was forty-seven, with dark hair that had only recently begun graying near his temples.
He had always been charming.
That charm had helped him build Bennett Renovations from a two-man operation into a successful local construction business.
But lately, he had seemed distracted.
He worked late.
He guarded his phone.
And whenever I asked whether something was wrong, he told me I worried too much.
“What kind of excitement?” I asked.
He leaned forward.
“What if we swapped partners with another couple for a week?”
For several seconds, I couldn't speak.
Then I laughed.
“You're joking.”
He didn't smile.
“I'm not.”
I put down my glass.
“You want me to live with another man while you live with another woman?”
“Just temporarily.”
“Sean, we've been married for eighteen years.”
“Exactly. Maybe we've become too comfortable.”
I stared at him.
“And you think exchanging spouses like borrowed cars is going to fix that?”
He sighed.
“Don't make it sound so ugly.”
“What would you call it?”
“An experiment.”
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
“An experiment with whom?”
He answered without hesitation.
“Nancy and Alex.”
My fork slipped against my plate.
Nancy Reed.
My best friend.
The woman who had held my hand at my mother's funeral.
The woman who had stayed in my guest room after her own father died.
The woman who knew things about me that even Sean didn't.
“You want to spend a week with Nancy?”
Sean shrugged.
“We know them. We trust them.”
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
“Does Alex know about this?”
“Nancy is going to talk to him.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Wait. Nancy already knows?”
Sean's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But after eighteen years, I knew when he was trying to hide something.
“We've talked about relationships in general,” he said.
“You and Nancy?”
“Rachel, don't start.”
“Don't start what? Asking why my husband has been discussing our marriage with my best friend?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“It's one week. Nothing has to change permanently.”
“And if I say no?”
He leaned back.
“Then I guess you don't care enough about our marriage to try something different.”
That sentence hurt more than the proposal.
He was turning my refusal into proof that I didn't love him.
I pushed my chair away from the table.
“I need some air.”
Sean didn't follow me.
Instead, as I walked into the hallway, I heard his phone vibrate against the kitchen counter.
I glanced back.
The screen had lit up.
A message preview appeared beneath Nancy's name.
I saw only one line.
Did she agree? We still have until Monday.
Monday?
Until Monday for what?
I stood in the doorway, staring at those words.
May you like
Then Sean picked up his phone and turned the screen away.
And for the first time in eighteen years, I wondered whether my husband was planning something far worse than an affair.
