She did it for Him

"Umm...sure...you'll be the first one I call. I just need to ask you a few questions."

"Deal. 5' 2", 110, 23 years old. Puppies and walks on the beach."

I laughed good naturedly. "Not the answers to the questions I had in mind, but impressive. When did Luke leave?"

"My dad drove him to the airport yesterday morning. He had to fly out of Newark."

"Wow, they must have left really early. What did he do Friday night?"

"Shockingly, he spent the night here with us."

"He was here with you guys all night? Really?"

"Really really. He had to be at Newark by, like, 7. They planned to leave here by 5 so he stayed here all night. We had some family over and had a barbecue and just sat out back and reminisced. It was actually fun. I got to hear stories about my dad and my uncles that were pretty funny."

"He never left? No beer runs or anything? You're sure?"

"Jeez Dave, he went into the house to pee at around 10. I mean, i didn't follow him in or anything. I assume he did. Swear to God, he never left before going to the airport." I know Claire didn't have a reason to lie, but things weren't adding up.

"OK, Claire. Thanks. I gotta go."

"OK, it's really good to see you, Dave. Remember our deal."

"Sure thing," I laughed, "I'll see you later."

This wasn't making sense. I drove back to the house and put some rubber gloves on. I got the t-shirt with the dirty sheet in it and took it into the back yard. I spread the sheet out on the grass and put some rocks on the corners to hold it down. I was hoping to see where Maya had maybe vomited on it, or a big pee stain, I could live with either.

Nope. There it was. The obvious signs of sex. I threw some bricks on the corners to make sure it wouldn't get blown away and left it there. I went into the house and changed into hiking boots. I got into my truck and headed to the kennel. I was confronting that bitch right now!

I know I probably should have waited for her to come home. I just couldn't help myself. I needed to get this over and done with. There was no more waiting. I had no desire to 'collect more evidence'. I certainly didn't need to see video of her fucking someone in my bed.

I pulled into the kennel and parked near the front entrance. I went in the front door and through the lobby and into the the kennel area where the dogs inside runs were. I saw Maya walking towards me smiling.

"Hey you, I just put the last of the dogs away for the day. What are you doing here?"

By this point I was really pissed. "Explain the sheet, Maya!"

"Wait, what..."

"The sheet! I changed the fucking sheets Friday and put on a blue set. When I got into bed last night there was a green bottom sheet on! I found the other blue one in the laundry!"

"Oh fuck...I thought I..."

"I know! You're color blind! You put the green one on thinking it was blue!"

"Yes, I thought I put a blue one on. I'm sorry. If it bothers you that much I'll switch them! Jesus Christ!"

"That's it?! That's fucking it?! You'll fucking switch them?! You know what?, fucking leave them! It won't matter...."

"I'm sorry Mr. Walsh. It was my fault."

I turned around and Andrew was standing there. "No, Andrew! She's a big girl! Her decisions have consequences....." then it dawned on me. She was fucking Andrew. His girlfriend broke up with him because he was cheating on her. He was cheating on her with my fucking wife!

I buried my fist in his stomach and he doubled over. I was about to hit him in the face when Maya grabbed my arm and was screaming. "Jesus Christ, David! What the fuck is wrong with you?! This is not a big fucking deal!"

I was suddenly very calm. "You know what, Maya? Fuck you. Fuck you and fuck him. I'll go to the house and pack some stuff." With that I stepped around Andrew, who was trying not to vomit.

I went to my truck and sat in the drivers seat for a minute taking deep breaths. I saw Maya leave the building, helping Andrew, and locking the front doors behind her. She saw me in my truck and started yelling. I couldn't tell if she was yelling to me or at me, but it didn't matter. I pulled out of the lot and took off.

I drove to a secluded area a few miles away and parked. I laid my head back and went over everything that happened. I couldn't believe how casual she was being. I basically caught her fucking this kid in my bed and she was acting like the only problem was that the sheets didn't match.

Obviously, we had different ideas about monogamy. I may not be old fashioned, but I'm definitely a 'nobody outside the marriage' kind of guy. I didn't see any way forward for us. I loved her, but this was a bridge too far.

What the hell happened to the sobbing and crying? Where was the pathetic, conciliatory apologies? What the fuck?! She was willing to go home and switch the sheets so they matched?! What the fuck was that?! No, we had a great run, but this roller coaster was at the end of the track.

With that realization, I started my truck and headed home. I started thinking about all the things I would have to do to separate our lives, and I suddenly got very tired. I decided I would go home, get this next confrontation over with, and crash in the second bedroom.

As I pulled up to my house, I saw Maya's car in the driveway. I parked in the street so as to not block her in if she eventually decided to leave. I doubted she planned on leaving, though. I figured that since she expected my cooperation in her little dalliance, she figured it would blow over and no one would be moving out. I trudged up to the front door and took a deep breath. I walked through the front door and the onslaught began.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! You punched that kid in the stomach for what, defiling your bed?! Are you kidding me?! Get a grip!"

"Look, Maya..."

"Don't 'look Maya' me! Are you out of your fucking mind?! And why is that fucking sheet spread out in the back yard?! You trying to show the neighbors that somebody got laid here?! God forbid that happens, right?!"

"You know what? You win...".

"I WIN?! I FUCKING WIN?! You come here and realize through your master detective skills that sex happened in our bed and you go off the deep end?! You come to my job and punch out the kid? You take the dirty sheet and spread it out in the back yard? How did you even have that sheet? I washed it!"

"I saved it and threw a clean one in the chute," I said in a quiet voice.

"You fucking SAVED it?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Just then the door bell started ringing. "Look, Maya, I don't even care anymore. I'm gonna go lay down..."

"No you're fucking NOT! You sit down right fucking there!"

I plopped down onto the loveseat as Maya went to answer the door. I heard voices, then Maya returned with Andrew and a young girl that looked to be 18ish.

"Mr. Walsh, this is my...umm...girlfriend, Michelle."

"Mr. Walsh, I'm really sorry. This whole thing is my fault. It was my idea."

I was sitting with my head tilted back and my eyes closed. I was surprisingly calm. "Michelle, are you telling me it was your idea for Andrew to fuck my wife?"

"WHAT?!" Maya and Andrew both screamed at the same time. They both started yelling at the same time and I couldn't understand either of them. I caught bits and pieces like 'what the fuck..' 'I swear I never...' 'fucking kidding me...' 'never touched her...' 'lost your mind...'

Suddenly, Maya yelled for everyone to shut up. She stood in front of me breathing hard and staring daggers at me. It was the first time I figured I may have slightly misread the situation. "Did you actually think it was me that had sex with Andrew in our bed?"

"Well...yeah."

"Why in the hell would you think that?"

"Why not?," I replied. "It was obvious someone did. The bottom sheet was changed after one day. The dirty sheet was in the laundry. Luke knew I would be gone overnight..."

"Wait, you thought I had Luke here?"

"Well at first, yeah. But I went to his house..."

"Oh my God. Please tell me you didn't get in a fight with him."

"No, he wasn't there, and his sister told me he was there all night Friday. Claire said he stayed at home all night because he had to leave early to catch a flight to Germany."

"Oh geez. Did you tell her you thought he spent the night here?"

"Of course not. You think I would do something like that?"

"Seriously, David?!," she said while making a sweeping motion with her arm indication all the stuff going on.

"OK," I said, "fair point. Then when I left his house I figured i would go to your job and calmly confront you about it. When Andrew walked up behind me and said it was all his fault, I assumed...umm...that you and him..."

"Oh my God. Look, David. Andrew and I did NOT have sex in our bed! We haven't had sex anywhere for that matter. On Friday at work we decided to have a get-together here Friday night. There were 10, maybe 12 people here."

"Mr. Walsh," Michelle started, "at one point, I talked Andrew into sneaking off and fooling around. Maya had told us that you wouldn't be home until the next afternoon."

"Honey,"Maya said, (a good sign) "we were all in the back yard with a fire going. We all had a lot to drink. We never realized they were missing. By the time we did and I went to look for them, the bad things had already happened. I found them asleep in our bed. I went into the guest room and passed out there."

"And I woke you up in the morning."

"Yes, you woke me up. I knew I needed to clean up. I knew you would freak out about the bed, so I changed the sheet with what I thought was a blue one. I cleaned up the rest of the house and threw away the empties. If you look in the recycle bin you'll see the empties. The only thing I really wanted to hide from you was Andrew and Michelle being in our bed."

I wasn't sure how to respond. "Andrew, I sincerely apologize for hitting you..."

"It's OK, Mr. Walsh."

"OK, first, stop calling me Mr. Walsh. You call my wife by her first name. Do the same with me. We're not really that far apart in age. Look, I'm really sorry. You guys gotta see why I thought what I did, right?"

Maya was staring at me but had the hint of a smile. "You really thought that Andrew and I hooked up?"

"Well. At first I thought it was Luke. When Claire confirmed that it couldn't be him...Oh well, I guess Claire is gonna be a little disappointed."

"Excuse me? You wanna explain that?"

"Well, I had to make a deal with Claire for her to give me the info I wanted. She made me promise that if we split up I would take her out on a date."

"That girl is an absolute sweetheart! I actually liked her more than Luke when we were dating. Don't you lead her on."

"OK, can we put this whole thing to bed? I will apologize for my behavior al long as you guys can see things from my point of view. We good?"

We agreed to drop it, and of course promised to have better communication in the future (as if that would happen). I guess if nothing else, Maya knew exactly where I stood on infidelity. We took Andrew and Michelle out to dinner to kind of make up for the misunderstanding.

Maya, thinking she was being funny, labeled all the sheets with their color "so when my boyfriend leaves, I can make sure I replace the sheets with the same color." OK, it was actually pretty funny.

*******************

Author's note:

I was climbing into bed one night when I noticed the sheets were different colors. This story popped into my head. Did the whole thing in a day. While writing it down I realized that I didn't know any women that were color blind. My father and uncle were both color blind with blues and greens. Siri assured me that while not nearly as common in women as in men, some do experience it.

Shout out to Jlyn1 for admitting his(?) mistake in the comments.