Chapter 2

The sweltering heat was brutal as Mike reached the sweet relief of the air conditioning. His team was in the process of inspecting the warehouses and loading sites which had made for excruciatingly long days. Mercifully, it had been an early day. They had been at it for hours and being able to get out of the heat and off of his feet was all he had been looking forward to.

Mike plopped down on the couch in the small studio apartment and put his feet up on the coffee table. He leaned back and closed his eyes, relaxing for a moment. He desperately needed a shower and a good dinner.

Mike felt his watch vibrate. He opened his eyes to see that Ashley’s name had popped up on the watch.

“Good morning! I hope your day has been good. I love you,” it read. He took his phone out of his pocket and texted her back.

“I love you too. What are your plans for today?” he asked.

“I have a few showings this afternoon, including that couple from last week. I’m shocked they didn’t look for a new agent,” she told him. That got Mike’s attention. The couple had seen Ashley unbutton her shirt while they were having fun on a video call. No doubt the husband would still be picturing that when she was showing them the house today.

He had been the jealous type when he was younger and his girlfriend being seen that way would have put him into a spiral, but over the years he had mellowed. He had never expected that he would find it as ... interesting, as he currently did. It had just kept coming infiltrating his thoughts at the least opportune times.

“That should be interesting,” he answered. He was curious if Ashley had any feelings about it in the vein that he had.

“If by interesting, you mean awkward, then yes,” she shot back over text.

“At least it’s Friday,” he texted her back, deciding to drop it.

“Oh shoot, speaking of the weekend. Sarah invited me to go out on the river tomorrow with Rob and some of his friends. I’ve I’m trying to think of an excuse. I’m not really feeling that social,” her next message read. He had met Rob a few times but he didn’t know him that well. There were possibilities here too, though. He pictured her out on Rob’s boat, tanning with Sarah while the men watched them.

Fuck. What was wrong with him? He cleared his thoughts and decided to change the subject to get his mind off of it.

“Speaking of, how is Sarah?” he asked.

“Lol. She’s the same. You should see what she posted this morning. Apparently, she still needs as much attention as ever,” she answered. Sarah was reasonably pretty but didn’t get nearly the attention from men that Ashley did. Before she had started dating Rob, she had routinely posted pictures on social media to fish for that male attention that she so clearly craved. He flicked over to his app and searched for her post. It was a picture of her from the gym, turned halfway so that you could appreciate the shape of her ass in her leggings. Apparently, even dating Rob wasn’t enough to satisfy it.

“Some things never change,” he texted back before he walked into the bathroom and turned on the water to let it heat up while he stripped his clothes off. As he was about to get into the shower, he got another text back.

“Whatcha doing?” Ashley asked him.

“Hopping in the shower before I get some dinner,” he told her and set his phone down on the back of the toilet next to the shower. He stepped under the water, letting it clean the sweat off of him while he tried to keep his thoughts away from the things that kept tempting him.

A buzz from outside the shower told him that she had sent him another text. He reached out and dried his hand on the towel hanging from the hook on the wall, then grabbed his phone.

“Oh, sounds hot,” she had sent him. Mike couldn’t help but smile at that. The lack of physical contact had been having a big effect on him lately and he had been thinking about sex constantly.

“It’d be hotter with you here,” he texted her back and then waited while he let the water run over his back. It didn’t take long for her to answer.

“Mmmm, that sounds perfect right now. But I have to get ready to go to work,” she sent back.

Mike read the message with disappointment. He was desperate to see more of her body, but those crazy thoughts just kept coming back to him ... As much as he wanted to see her, the risk of her being caught or outright teasing other men added a layer of excitement to it that he couldn’t explain. He thought about how to answer and weighed his options.

Mike struggled with the weight of the bar as he pushed hard, trying to extend his arms away from his chest. He had come to the gym early in the morning before work to see if exercise would help him put away the thoughts he had been having. Ever since Ashley had been caught in her car by her clients, Mike couldn’t stop thinking about it. He managed to rerack the weight and sat up to catch his breath. The gym was quiet this early in the morning and there was only one other person in the gym. The sound of them running on the treadmill was the only noise breaking the silence of the morning.

He thought about the showing later today that Ashley had with the man who had so flagrantly checked her out the week before. She would be waking up and getting ready in just a few hours and his imagination kept spinning out of control. The night before he had laid awake in bed, wondering if it was normal to have these thoughts ... these desires. He didn’t know if it was but the very idea of another man looking at his wife that way had a hold on him that he couldn’t break.

He had considered what could happen today when she went to the showing. Would the man stare at her tits the way he had last time? Would he be even more blatant about it than last time? Mike shifted his athletic shorts to cover how excited it made him. He had considered suggesting to Ashley that she wear something more revealing, tease the man and leave him wanting but he hadn’t been able to make himself type out the words.

Mike cleared the weights and moved to use the dumbbells. The other thing that had crossed his mind was the invitation for her to go out on the river on Saturday. Ashley had never been before but Mike had seen the pictures Sarah had posted in the past.

Usually, the pictures were of Sarah in a bikini that was a size too small, drinking with Robb and his friends while they rode up and down the waterway. It looked like it could be a fun time and he didn’t want Ashley to stay home all of the time while he was gone. That wasn’t what interested him about it though. The same thoughts about Ashley came to mind as he pictured the attention she would get if she dressed like Sarah out on the river.

Mike finished his workout and made his way to work to get started on some of his reports before the office got busy and people started coming in to talk to him. Once that happened, his concentration always dropped off. The day went by uneventfully as he waited for Ashley to wake up and answer his good morning text. Finally, it came.

“Hey, I hope you’ve had a good day,” it read. It was after lunch already for Mike even though she was just waking up.

“It’s been alright, just waiting to be able to talk to you,” he typed back for her.

“It’s not the same sleeping without you next to me,” she sent back. Reading that sent a longing through him. Damn, he missed her so much.

“I know. I can’t wait to be back and I know it has to be lonely without me,” he texted her back.

“Yeahh,” she answered. “It definitely can be.” Mike hadn’t been able to suggest to his wife that she tease the man today at the showing but this was easier. He found himself typing the words while he tried to convince himself that it would be good for her and anything else would just be extra.

“Why don’t you go out with Sarah tomorrow? Get out of the house?” he suggested. It didn’t take long for her to answer.

“I already told her that I couldn’t go,” she told him. Damn, he thought. He didn’t want to let it go though.

“Just tell her that you’re free now. It’ll do you good to see her. Plus, a little sun is good for you,” he said as persuasively as possible. A few minutes went by and he started filling out another spreadsheet while he waited.

Finally, she answered. “I guess it would be good to see her,” she admitted.

“Exactly. You deserve to have some fun and relax,” he texted her back as his imagination went wild. They kept texting while he worked and she got ready for her showing, chatting about their lives halfway across the world. The end to their separation couldn’t end soon enough.

“Well, I have to go. It’s almost time for the showing. Hopefully, he offers on this one,” her following text read.

“He probably wants to drag it out as long as possible. I would so I could keep seeing you,” he joked with her.

“Oh, ha ha. Glad you enjoy making jokes about my struggles,” she answered him.

“Struggles? I’m sorry that you’re a knockout. It must be hard to be a ten. I wouldn’t know that struggle,” he texted her back, enjoying a little banter.

“Come on, you’re pretty good looking yourself,” she joked back with him.

“I don’t get the kind of attention that you do,” he sent back, “and there’s a reason for it.”

“That’s not true,” she said, “I don’t get that much attention. Just the occasional pervy older guy.” Ashley was trying to play off her looks again. She enjoyed the attention but it wasn’t something she liked to admit.

“Want to bet on it?” he asked her as the idea came to him. If there was one thing he knew about Ashley, it was how competitive she could be. He had learned this early in their relationship. Board games, sports, it didn’t matter. If it had a score or a winner, Ashley’s competitive side came out.

“I’m getting ready to work, Mike,” she told him. He wouldn’t let it pass that easily.

“I get it. You know you’ll lose,” he responded. Mike was doing his best to bait her competitive side into coming out.

“...” was all she sent back to him. He considered a few answers but kept deleting them. In the end, he didn’t answer and instead let it marinate with her for a few minutes. He hoped that she wouldn’t be able to resist. He worked on his spreadsheets while he waited for her to text him again.

Finally, another text came through from Ashley. There it was. “What do you have in mind?” she asked him. He had been thinking about how to phrase it while he had waited for her response and knew what he wanted when he won.

“I bet you get more attention from Robb than Sarah does tomorrow,” he typed out before hitting send. She couldn’t refuse the bet without dropping her pretend humility about her looks.

“Wow, Mike,” she answered. “Sarah’s cute.”

“She doesn’t hold a candle to you, though,” he sent back.

“What do I get when I win? And what do you want?” she asked him. Mike couldn’t help but smile to himself. He had her.