Learning Lessons 1: Date Night / Chapter 3

Jess got up around six, but she’d been lying awake since around four-thirty. Mostly she’d been staring at the ceiling, and she might have drifted off again in that time, but she was up now doing her morning routine and she was exhausted already.

Little Andy was so sleepy this morning. When she’d gone in to wake the two of them, it was like he’d been hit with a tranquilizer. She lifted him up and cradled him like a baby, laughing at him as his head lolled around on his shoulders; his sleepy eyes couldn’t even open. She kissed him awake and Petey stood next to her, laughing at his younger brother. She stroked his long, silky hair as he came aware, giggling as he tried to look around and remember where he was. Your bedroom, kiddo, just like every morning, she whispered to him.

She reminded him that they were going out today, going to go and do something fun with her friend Sara Bridge and her four-year-old. That got them moving and as they came down for breakfast Andy was so excited now when he jumped on to the chair in the kitchen, he overshot it and slipped off the other side. It looked so funny she had to cover her mouth so he wouldn’t hear her laugh. He got up and acted like nothing had happened and he tried again, got himself up and she ruffled his hair as she passed.

She made them a real breakfast this morning. Made pancakes and bacon and some scrambled eggs. Pete was moving around upstairs and she heard the squeak of the taps as he got the shower turned on up in the master bathroom.

Sargent was at her knee, a persistent wet nose pressure against her as he subtly urged her to speed up the feeding process. She went into the laundry room and hoisted his heavy bag of dog food out of the bin and scooped out two cups into his metal bowl. He was on a new food, a special gastrointestinal recipe. It was very expensive, but she got the feeling it wasn’t very good food. She didn’t like the ingredient list, but their vet insisted that they use this food to help with his problems. It cost a lot, and it wasn’t working. She’d already cleaned up one big sloppy pile this morning that she found when she came down. Almost stepped in it too.

Back in the kitchen, she leaned on the counter and watched her boys, waiting for Pete to come down. She’d be back to work in three weeks, back to school, facing a whole new classroom and she couldn’t wait. She had all new lesson plans put together, new activities she’d discovered online. She’d filled up a whole Pinterest board with ideas for time structuring that she was going to implement.

For now, she was very happy to be in her kitchen in her short pjs and her robe and slippers. Nursing a coffee and watching her baby boys pal around and eat their home cooked breakfast.

“Yeah, Cedar Point, mom!” Andy’s eyes were wide, both hands on his plastic sippy cup with the curly straw. It was Petey’s ploy: get Andy excited about Cedar Point to put more pressure on old mom.

“Petey,” she said, chastising him and rolling her eyes. “You know we’re not going to Cedar Point.” They’d already gone twice this summer and a day there cost an arm and a leg. Pete Jr. was just trying to ramp his brother up, trying to get the excitement to snowball and hopefully Jess would be powerless against them.

“We’re going to go to the zoo,” she said to them, looking out over the tops of her black-framed glasses. The zoo was about a fifth of the price and then she and Sara could get a little peace and quiet, walk and talk behind the boys.

“Yeah, okay, mom,” Petey said, happy still, but not as happy as he would be if they were going to an amusement park.

Pete’s feet were beating down the stairs, and she felt a little nervous to see him this morning. She sucked her lips into her mouth in anticipation. He stepped in to the kitchen and he slowed as he saw her, a smile creeping across his face as he came and stood on the other side of the island across from her.

He was handsome still, looking good in his suit. He was losing his hair and a bit of his jawline as he got older, but she could see old Pete in there.

“Good morning,” he said, and she had to look away. She was so embarrassed. She got the courage, braced herself and turned back to him, held him with her gaze and watched him melt. She knew what she did to him, she knew the power she had over him. She watched him blush. Then he was the one so embarrassed he had to look away. He turned and sat at the table with the boys.

“So, you boys are going to the zoo today, are you?”

The amusement park was forgotten, and they were both excited now, telling their dad about all the things they wanted to see today. Jess brought Pete’s breakfast over to him, put it down on the placemat, and rested her hand on his shoulders while he listened to the boys. She pressed her lips to his growing bald spot and kissed his scalp. He put his hand over hers.

Pete ate a strip of bacon and he sighed, said, “Ah, you’re amazing, Jess.” He squeezed her hand.

“Pancakes are my favourite,” Petey said, and he swooshed a forkful through a pool of Aunt Jemima. He was so active this morning, eating while sitting, then standing, then sitting on one leg. He was going to be a handful today.

“Guilt pancakes. They’re my favourite too, Petey.”

“What are gill pancakes?”

“It’s just the way your mom makes them, Petey,” he said.

Jess rubbed his neck and walked back to her coffee sitting on the island. She sipped at it, feeling really so good this morning. A little tired, but there was an inner calm. Like she’d been in rough waters and woke up to a calm sea and tranquil sky. She watched Pete with the boys. Her heart swelled watching her men. The kitchen was warm and sunny. Sargent had a ball in his mouth and Andy handed him a piece of pancake and he dropped the ball and snatched it from him. Future sloppy poop, but she didn’t care. She wished they could all stay like this in the kitchen for another hour.

“You boys know there’s a new tiger exhibit, right?”

“No.”

Pete put some bacon in his mouth and talked around it. He got lower to tell them, hushed his voice to build excitement. “Now you walk through a dark Russian forest. There are poles that the tigers climb on, and a stream that they swim through.” He had them leaning forward, listening intently. “And there’s a meadow,” he waved his hands out in front of them like he could see it himself, “and you can watch them stalk through the tall grass. And get this…”

“What?” Petey said, his eyebrows high, his mouth agape.

Pete looked up to the ceiling over the kitchen table, said, “The tigers pass from one habitat to another right over your head, looking down on you.” He recoiled as if he saw a tiger up above him.

“Holy…” Andy whispered.

Petey had been half sitting, one foot on the floor, as he listened, but now he was up and moving. Telling his little brother all about tigers. She’d helped him in the Spring with a report for his Grade One class. It put him madly in love with tigers, and he was telling Andy all about them like he was an expert.

He was talking a mile a minute, and he was getting to the good bits now. The predatory aspect and how they kill their prey. “Okay, Petey,” she said, “let’s not scare your brother. He won’t want to—”

Petey was wheezing. Pete was already up and moving to the drawer on the opposite side of the island. He opened it smoothly and carefully. He was calm. Jess came around and sat herself in Pete’s seat and rubbed Petey’s back. He was gulping for air, his eyes wide and wet. His breaths were a ragged gurgle.

“It’s okay, Petey,” she said, rubbing her hand in circles around his little back. “Daddy’s coming.”

Pete put the bronchodilator to his mouth and Pete Jr, also very calm, put both his hands on his dad’s wrist and he took two puffs from the inhaler.

Little Petey had asthma, but he was working with it well. Sometimes he could get too excited and that could trigger it. Especially this time of year. But they’d taught him to be calm, to keep his head in the game and take his medicine.

“I’ll give him a Uniphyl before we go,” she said to Pete. “It’s probably going to be a pretty exciting day.” Pete stood next to her, his hip against her shoulder, and put his hand on the back of her neck, rubbed it.

“I wish I could go with you guys,” Pete said.

“Me too, dad,” Andy said, his eyes wide and his cheeks rosy from the action. Petey was still getting himself under control. He was going to be okay, but he nodded his head and she could see him swallowing. Poor kid, still trying to clear his airways. He cleared his throat.

“Me too,” Petey said, still a bit wheezy.

#

Jess had never dirty talked him so well as last night. Something really got into her. The things she said to him drove him crazy. He had a fitful sleep, tossing and thinking. He dreamed he had watched it happen, watched another man take his wife in front of him.

Had she really done it this time? The last time they got this close, she’d come home and told him a similar story. A different guy that time. A co-worker, some teacher at another school who she met at a conference. She liked to pretend they were going to fuck. She went out one night and when she came back late in the evening, she’d told him a similar tale. They went out for drinks, she came on to him, he took her out back, he had a really big cock, he fucked her in the van, it felt so good, Pete. But when he went to the car in the morning, he could see the child seat still strapped in, her work bag undisturbed on the bench. It was a tall tale. She told him that story to turn him on. He knew it turned her on, too. She enjoyed the telling. She had an orgasm that made her scream that night after she relived this imaginary encounter with him while they made love.

Pete stood in their driveway with his keys in his hand, looking into his wife’s minivan. Did she dress up for a date, leave Pete in torment, sitting and imagining? Did she go out and see a movie, then eat at a drive-thru like last time? Sit in a parking lot and look at her watch, waiting to come home and humiliate him with her fantasy? Jess was a little too shy to do the things she fantasized about. He saw the car seat had been taken out and thrown to the bench behind. That was a nice touch, Jess. The bench had been cleared in a hurry, items knocked into the footwell.

Did she sleep with Tyler last night? She might have. He hoped she didn’t. Not Tyler. At least she remembered to dress the stage this time. Make it seem authentic. One day, she would do it for real. One day this wouldn’t be a fantasy anymore. He wanted it. He wanted it for himself, of course, but he wanted her to have it. Knew she wanted it, needed it. He couldn’t give her what she needed, and he desperately wanted her to have it. He wanted her to be satisfied because he loved her.

He stepped to the driver's side of his old Buick and that’s when he noticed her panties. He wasn’t sure at first what he was seeing, so he went closer. Standing at the rear of the van, he could see into the very back and draped over the bench, stuck to the rough velour, was a pair of panties. He saw the frilled edge of her soft pink pair that she wore on special occasions. Her dress panties, he called them. They were crumpled and hanging from the grey bench as if tossed in passion. Very good work, Jess, he thought. Unless…

He could picture it like he was standing in this spot next to the van last night. Standing peering in while Tyler fucked his wife. Standing in the cold and the dark, the windows of the van lit up by the logo of the bar and his own aghast reflection. He pictured her moving in the dark of the van, Tyler’s muscular body over hers, pulling her panties down and tossing them to the back of the van. She would put her head back and look into Pete’s eyes while that stud pierced her and made her his woman.

He unlocked the van with his fob and climbed into the back. He picked up his wife’s panties and held them in his fist, felt the soft satiny fabric running under his thumb. He looked around before risking giving them a little sniff. He put them in his pocket and sat for a moment in the quiet space of the cabin. Did she put her bare feet up on the roof as he fucked her? He looked up, but there were no marks. He didn’t really think there would be.

He sighed into the space, felt its energy. Imaginary or not, this little bench seat figured into every one of his hotwife fantasies and it seemed to figure into Jess’ too. She may even have really been fucked by another man right where he was sitting.

He shrugged and exhaled, felt a dreadful tremble in his belly. He better get to work.