You open your eyes. You’ve just woken up. Something feels off. Different. The sheets don’t feel the way they normally do. You turn and look at the person lying beside you. Your wife. You kiss her head and whisper, good morning my princess. Wait. Isn’t your wife blonde? And these sheets smell different. You jolt up as you realize what you’ve done. That’s not your wife. That’s not Emilia. That’s Cathy. Your coworker. Your boss. Dammit, you whisper. How could you have done this? What possibly could’ve lead you to this point? You think back, to the night before. At least, you think it was at night when this happened. You look at the clock. It’s 5:52. PM. Okay, so what happened this morning? Then, the events flood your brain. You remember now. You remember everything. You remember getting to work. You remember seeing her, standing outside your office. You remember that dress, and those eyes, and that luscious red hair, oh how soft and sweet. You remember how she said hey, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something. You remember how she sat you down, sat on your lap, and talked about how hard you had been working, and how she thought you needed a reward. She knew that you had been overworked and she just wanted to give you a little reward for all your hard work. After all, since her position was above yours, she benefitted from your productivity. It would only be fair for me to show you a good time after you’ve worked so hard this quarter, she said. And then she smiled, with her little half smile, a half smile that could warm a cold dead soul, a half smile that could melt ice on the coldest day of winter. How could you refuse? You couldn’t. So, you forgot about your kids, and your wife, and the family you had built, and you both got in your car. And then you drove. You don’t remember to where. A motel outside of the city? That was your best guess. As you drove, you wondered why you had agreed to come. You love your wife. And your kids. What the hell were you doing here? Okay, maybe you and Emilia had been having a rough couple months, and you hadn’t had any sex lately, but that’s no reason to cheat on her. You began to say something along the lines of maybe we shouldn’t, but then she flashed you that half smile, and all the thoughts of Emilia and the kids went away. You knew why you were doing this. You were doing this because you wanted Cathy. And you didn’t just want her sexually, you wanted her to be a bigger part of your life. You felt the same way you felt about Emilia 7 years ago, when you had first fallen in love. Sometimes, love fades. You can’t control that. That’s how you would come to justify this in your head. But you would never really forget. You could never really forget Emilia, no matter how much you focused on Cathy. You would learn this, but not for years. But for now, you could forget her. You could, and you did. You forgot her when you got to the motel. You forgot her when you opened the door. You forgot her as took off your tie. You didn’t love her. You didn’t even think about her as Cathy gave you the best 3 hours you’d had in a long time. You didn’t even think of moaning her name. The only name to escape your lips as you felt the most staggering bliss you had felt in a long time was Cathy’s. In that moment, nothing mattered but you and Cathy. So that’s why. That’s why you left work with her. That’s why you put yourself on a path, a path to cheating on your wife. As you remember every detail of what happened, you start to get up. You put your clothes on, you brush your hair, and you leave, hoping Emilia won’t ask where you were. Hoping no one will know. Hoping you can suppress your feelings for Cathy, at least for a while. So you leave, and pretend it never happened, because really, nobody needs to know.