David
Furious, I went to the only place I could think of to find level-headed advice—my best friend, Brent. He’d known me at my worst. He always shot straight with me. I knew I could count on him this time.
Kaye was saying things she’d never said to me before. I knew it was serious, and I knew I had to get a handle on things or risk losing my wife.
I can’t lose her. I can’t live my life without her in it.
With one phone call, I had Brent meeting me at a bar that was halfway between our homes. Tulley’s Pub had a quiet, dark atmosphere that often proved capable of soothing the savage beast that sometimes rose up inside of me.
I sat at a small table in the back, sipping on an ice-cold brew after downing a shot of ninety proof. My nerves were still raw as I saw the door open. At four in the afternoon, light poured in along with Brent. The other patrons shielded their eyes as the light blinded them for a moment.
Being too far back in the pub, I wasn’t affected by it and waved at Brent. He waved back at me before grabbing himself a drink from the bar and joining me. “You sounded a little keyed up, David. What’s got your shorts in a knot today?”
“Kaye and I just had the mother of all fights. And it ended in a way that has me worried.” I took a long swallow of the beer in hopes it could soothe the anger and fear mixed up inside me.
Brent wiggled two fingers at a waitress who shot off to grab a couple more beers for us. “The mother of all fights, you say?”
A long, deep, slow sigh started my next words, “Brent, am I a jealous man?”
He laughed as he nodded. “Yeah. You’ve been known to be.” He ran his hand along his jawline. “I remember you and me having a fist fight over your bride. Don’t you?”
“That was a long time ago.” I didn’t want to even talk about the old days and the stupid shit I did way back then. “I’m talking about now. Am I a jealous man now?”
The waitress placed two more mugs of frothy beer on the table, and then left us without saying a word. It was as if she could sense that we weren’t there for a social visit.
Brent tapped the table. “You do remember that your wife and my wife are best friends, right?”
“I do.” I downed the rest of my first beer, then went to work on the next one. It was quickly becoming evident that I would be drowning my sorrows.
“Then you know that Kaye has told Angela about the things that have been happening in the last few months.” He laughed lightheartedly. “Like yelling at the postman and calling him a Peeping Tom. Making her switch doctors. And I think there was even something about you firing one of your drivers.”
“Well, he had the nerve to talk all sexy to my wife!” I said a little too loudly, causing other patrons to look our way.
“Chill, dude.” Brent put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m just saying that you’ve been on a jealous roll here lately is all.”
“About that…” I went on as I looked at my best friend in the whole world. “Brent, I know I’ve been jealous lately, but there are good reasons behind it. I was trying to talk to Kaye in a rational manner about this. You see, I think that she’s trying to see if she’s still attractive to other men. Not that she’s going to leave me or cheat on me or anything like that. I just think she’s feeling the need to know that men are attracted to her.”
With a firm shake of his head, Brent said, “No way. Not Kaye. She’s not like that. She’s a gorgeous woman, and she’s aware of that fact. Not that she’s full of herself or anything like that, but she knows she’s pretty. I can’t see her ever trying to get compliments out of men or trying to get them to flirt with her.”
“Then why are so many doing that lately?” I had to ask. “I just had to fire our bodyguards because I caught them leering at her this morning as she tended to her flower garden.”
“Wait.” He looked confused as picked up his mug of beer. “You fired your bodyguards? Both of them?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “They were both doing it, so they both had to go.”
“And Kaye is where now?” he asked.
“Home.” I thought about that. “At least I hope she is.” I took a drink of the beer as I thought about how things had ended. “I kind of said something pretty damn stupid before I stormed out.”
Brent ran his hand through his thick, dark hair. “Like?”
“Like, that she should leave me if I’m giving her headaches or some shit like that.” I put the mug down as I thought about all the shit that had spewed out of my mouth when we had argued. “Hell, I didn’t mean it. I don’t want her to leave. I just want her to realize that she’s subconsciously doing something to entice men, and she needs to stop. That’s all I was trying to say to her, but she had to go and start a fight with me over it.”
Brent’s expression was one that told me he wasn’t too pleased with me. “David, you and I both know that we have too much money to leave our families unprotected. Please tell me that you had the service send someone over to keep her protected before you went and stormed off.”
I hadn’t thought about doing that at all. My adrenaline had been running me instead of my brain. “I’m sure she’s okay, Brent.”
He nodded. “You’re probably right. But my advice to you is to get your ass back home, call the security service, and have them send someone over immediately. Even if you two have to sleep in separate rooms until you figure things out, you should be there with her. Don’t let this get out of hand, buddy.”
I kind of thought I might’ve already let things get out of hand. But I could fix it—if she would just give me the chance to.