Paper Slip
by DrSpin

(299 words)

I was at the airport to meet my wife. She'd been away for eight days at a business conference, a rare circumstance. When you share your life with a woman for seven years, you can forget what she looks like. She's so close you don't see her.

Yes, there she was, pushing her way through the throng. Tall, elegant, graceful, aloof. I stood back for a moment, one of the crowd, watching her with a voyeur's eyes. Yes. She'd do very well. She could climb into my bed any time.

I stepped into clear space and raised my hand, grinning foolishly, happy to have her back and happy to have her at all. It had slipped my mind for a while just how attractive she was.

I took her hand and squeezed it. She smiled fleetingly, nervously, and squeezed back. She was not one for exuberant public displays of affection. We'd save that for later, when we were together alone.

I lifted her suitcase from the carousel and we headed for the exit. A man, another passenger, appeared in front of us. He didn't look at me. He had eyes only for her.

"Excuse me," he said, handing her a slip of paper. "I think you dropped this."

He was a younger man, good looking. His eyes were full of messages.

She took the paper and folded it tightly into her hand. She said nothing, but I could hear the quickness in her blood.

The man moved away and we walked to my car. I sat in the driver's seat with the key in my hand. I looked across at her.

The paper was still in her hand. She looked straight ahead. "Nick, I have something to tell you," she said, her voice strained.

Yes, and I feared it.