THE OTHER WOMAN

Today, he brought me flowers.  Surprised, I thought to myself what had happened that had made John so romantic. After all I had my reasons to be surprised considering this was probably after ages that he even cared to look at what I was wearing. "You look beautiful in this white dress", he said. Overwhelmed and blushing I hugged him tight. I felt as if some miracle had finally brought my monotonous marriage life back on track. In his very busy schedule where he went to work before I woke up and returned after I was asleep, this was the ray of hope that I had been wishing for, for the past two years of marriage. Probably marrying a rich,successful businessman came with its own set of demerits. When he was busy making dollars day and night, I sat at home waiting for his return to have dinner together. People think that a big house and fancy cars is all one can wish for, but sitting all day in this big and empty house made me feel alone.. very alone.  Desperately trying to understand the importance of work in his life, I had finally started to give up. Then amidst all this thinking it often came to me that I should not be complaining since I knew before marriage that John was extremely devoted to his work. Deep inside my heart I knew that he cared for me and yes, he actually did. For he would atleast find time to call me twice a day from his work. Those two phone calls, each lasting for about five minutes each, relieved me from all that loneliness that I was haunted by during the day. Neither did he forget our anniversary or birthdays or any other special day. John, whom I had known since our high school days, was always the quiet and shy boy, who could not express himself in a fancy manner. He was handsome yet far away from fashionable dressing. He had not changed much. Even now I picked all his clothes and matched his blazers and ties with his trousers.

Next day I had the urge to dress up even more beautifully for him hoping to hear more romantic words from his thin, kissable lips. I put on the dress that he had gifted me on our first anniversary. I dressed up in the most perfect manner and waited eagerly for his return. As the door bell rang, I ran towards the door. There he was, dressed in a dark blue velvet blazer (which I never bought for him) with matching mustard tie. He smelled of too much perfume. It was strange for me to see him like this, since he was the kind of a guy who couldn't differentiate between black and blue colors. All these thoughts went away as soon as he hugged me and swung me round lifting me up in his strong arms. "Annie Baker, you look the same like you did on the high school prom night", he said. As he picked me up in his arms and headed towards the bedroom, gazing into his mesmerizing baby-blue eyes, I said to him teary-eyed, "I love you John. I love you very much". Suddenly the smile on his lips faded and  he said hesitatingly," I.. I love you too Ann". I noticed his hesitation, however not wanting to spoil the happiness, I kept quiet.

This went on for many days.  John brought me flowers, took me out for dinner, spent weekends with  me at home, showered me with gifts. With all these changes, there were also visible changes in many other habits of him. He had started taking care of how he looked, right from his new haircut to his clothes,which strangely, he now picked on his own. Every morning he dressed up emaculately, in the most perfect set of shirt and trousers, then stared at his wardrobe for an hour to find the best match of blazer and tie, styled up his hair which he never took care of earlier( and I often told him to style them as he had gorgeous silky golden brown locks), put on ozes of perfume and left for office. After all this continued for about four weeks, one day when John was in the shower, his phone rang. I saw that it was from some unknown number. I picked up but nobody answered from the other end. As I was placing his phone back on the side table, I realised that there was a lock on his phone. Never in two years of marriage, John had a lock on his phone. He came out of the bathroom, got dressed ,kissed me and went to work. I told him about the phone call. I could see him brushing his forehead with his fingers, which he often did when he was nervous. I did not inquire about the lock. All kinds of thoughts came to my mind the whole day. The most obvious of which was, Was my husband cheating on me? Was this sudden over-romanticism signs of a cheating husband? With all these thoughts almost giving me a migraine, I spent the rest of the evening sleeping. Hoping that when I wake up everything will be fine. John did not come home that night. He called me to tell that he was caught up in some urgent work and asked me to have dinner and sleep. The next morning, there he was, even before I woke up, ready with breakfast in bed for me. I ate and then got out of bed to clean the messy room. I picked up John's blazer and as I was keeping it in the wardrobe, I found a long brown strand of female hair from underneath the collar.  My fears grew worse...  I, was a blonde. Were all these mere coincidences or this show of love was probably just a medium of escape from the guilt that a man faces because of cheating on his wife. Now, whenever John's phone rang, he went out of the room to answer the calls. I knew that something was not right. After a lot of thinking I finally gave up on my patience. Keeping patience is easy if you dont have to do it twenty four hours a day.

I decided to hire a private detective from Hillingdon, West London to investigate into the matter. This was the only way to catch my cheating husband. After all I wanted to know whether my doubts were true or I was simply mistaking John's show of love for his infidelity. After a week of following John, the detective called me to his office. I entered his office and shivered as I sat down. He handed me photographs of John with a girl, and said, "Her name is Beth.. Beth Garner.. She is an ad-model in London". I  sank in my chair, my eyes blinded with tears. My ears could not hear all the other details about the girl. I wiped my tears to see her face even more clearly trying to figure out what was in this girl that could make John destroy his marriage. First, my heart refused to identify that the man in the picture was my John. My mind had stopped thinking. I couldn't breathe for almost a minute. It was like I was about to die and was just trying to recall all our fond memories for the last time. I wanted somebody to tell me that it was just a nightmare. I gazed and gazed at that girl's face, each time just trying to find out what made John do this. What was it that I wasn't able to give him and she did. Honestly, there comes a time in everybody's marriage life when you can get sidetracked by easy girls or guys. But what's important is that Do you fall for those temporary emotions or Are you strong enough to let all those pass. And yes, John fell.  My husband cheated on me. The only man I ever loved in  my life cheated on me. I wanted to face him and ask him what was it that I couldn't give him and he had to find from someone else. But if my love wasn't enough, do you think my words would have mattered. John agreed to having an illegitimate affair with Beth for the past four months. He apologized, but now it didn't matter.. the damage was done. Based on the proofs the detective had provided, I filed for divorce.  My marriage ended but I think it is better living with the bitter reality in life than with a cheating husband.