Page 8 of Temptation

“It was her idea to have me meet her husband and to meet you, so we keep everything open and transparent. But if she were to make a move on me, I would put a stop to it because cheaters are cowards, selfish, and cruel and deserve all the karma that comes back to them.” He pulled up his email and began going through his contacts, looking for people who would be good speakers. “That's why there is a cheating clause in our prenup, remember?”

Viki stood there, mouth opening and closing, clearly struggling to come up with a response. “You're trying to punish me for finding myself.”

Tenn blew out a huge breath. “No. I supported you in trying to find yourself. Now, I'm asking you to support me while I do the first thing I've done for my own growth and enjoyment in three years.” He looked her over. “I thought you were sick?”

“I am.”

“Then go sleep it off.”

“Come rub my back.” She came over and tugged on his hand while she whined.

“I'll be in soon.” It took everything in him not to rip his hand away from her. Her phone chimed, and she backed off, read the text, and walked out of the room without saying anything else.

Quinn

Quinn went back to the kitchen and started cleaning up. As she scraped Viki's plate into the garbage, Joel came in and sat down at the island, watching her. “Are you feeling sick too?” Quinn raised her eyebrow as she picked up his mostly full plate and began to scrape it into a container for him. “Usually, you can't get enough of my spaghetti and meatballs; that's why I made it.”

“Watching my wife openly flirt with another man in my house right in front of me took away my appetite.” Joel's voice was very irate.

Quinn looked up at him in surprise. “What do you mean? What part of that interaction said I was flirting?”

“You were smiling and happy and a little too comfortable touching him!”

“Since when is smiling and happy flirting?” Quinn snorted. She couldn't believe they were having this conversation. “And I touch everyone; it's nothing new for me.”

“He was very comfortable in the kitchen. Are you sure he hasn't been here before?” Joel insisted.

“Considering I met him on Friday, yes.” She rolled her eyes. “I was surprised that you never mentioned Viki. What happened to Rita?” She watched as discomfort crossed his face.

“Her and her husband got back together; part of their agreement was to move back to her home state so he couldn't have contact with the other woman.” He explained, looking away from her.

“God, I can't believe she took him back.” Quinn shuddered. “He got another woman pregnant!”

Joel shrugged. “He made a mistake; she forgave him.”

“Oh, come on, Joel! Cheating is not a mistake; it's a choice. He chose to fuck another woman, and then he chose to continue to do it for a year and hide it from her. He never would have told her either. It was only when the affair partner had to come clean about her clearly Middle Eastern baby to her WASP husband that he came clean.” Quinn rolled her eyes. He would say it was a mistake.

“Cheaters are the absolute worst people in the world.” She continued as she put the leftovers in tubs and put them up in the freezer. “They don't care about the hurt and pain they cause the people they promised to love and care for. All they care about is having their cake and eating it too.” Quinn turned around and faced him, ready to drop the delightful bit of trivia she had found the night before on him. “Did you know it's still a felony to cheat on your spouse in Massachusetts? Punishable by up to three years in a state prison?” She leaned on the counter and met his eyes. “I would never forgive you if you cheated. But, unfortunately, that law is hardly ever enforced anymore, so you would only have to deal with me making it my mission to destroy your life.” She smiled at him sweetly.

“Well. That's not something either of us needs to worry about.” Joel swallowed and stood up. “You know, I'm actually not feeling great. Must be a bug going around the dealership. I'm going to bed.”

“Can I get you anything?” Quinn once again managed to fake some sympathy.

“No. I need to lie down, maybe put on a movie.”

“Okay. I'm gonna sleep in the guest room. I don't want whatever you have.” Joel nodded and left the room without saying good night.

Quinn waited until she heard the bedroom door shut and got her laptop. She logged into Joel's iCloud account that she had set up for him when he switched to an iPhone years ago and was not surprised to see he hadn't changed the password. She doubted he even remembered she could access everything. She quickly went into his messages and found his messages with Viki, or a man named Victor, in which case they needed to have an entirely different discussion that would have the same outcome. She scrolled back to when the affair started and began to screenshot the conversation and save them to a folder.

As she read through, she saw that, in the beginning, he had told Viki what a terrible wife she was, how she never cooked or cleaned, and they never had sex. She refused to have babies with him - which wasn't true; she had a genetic predisposition toward early menopause, and he had refused to try to have kids in her limited window. Also, her anorexia had messed up her cycle. Now she had less than a two percent chance of getting pregnant. She later found out he had gotten a vasectomy behind her back. She was also just a public school librarian, which got her back up because he made it sound like she wasn't able to do any better. Librarians needed at least a master's degree in library sciences; she not only had a master’s in library sciences from Simmons University, but she also had a bachelor's in Arts Administration from Boston University. Joel had dropped out of college to sell cars and had only been at Porsche Dealership for three months when she met him.

Viki hadn't been innocent about what she said about Tenn. Complaining he was stuffy, uptight, and boring. He financially abused her as a stay-at-home wife, giving her a monthly allowance of only a thousand dollars. He also expected her to keep the house spotless and cook his supper for him. He had taken on another job at the Museum on weekends and was never home, and they didn't share any interests.

Their first date was a Boston Bruins home game, and everything devolved from there. It became amusing when she got to the bottom of the screenshots as she watched texts fly back and forth between them, and Viki accused him of lying about her.

You said she had let herself go!

She's been working out lately.