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A part of her still couldn’t believe that she was actually doing this. What was wrong with her?! She should be at home with her family, not sitting at a bar, wearing a red wig and trying to catfish her husband. She truly hoped that he won’t show up, the last thing she wanted was to confront him and had the proof that he had wanted to cheat on her. She didn’t want to think about what she should do if she would know for sure that he had been unfaithful, that would break her heart.
She had been feeling for a while that their marriage wasn’t like it used to be. After 4 kids and almost 20 years of marriage she supposed that it wasn’t that surprising, but it still hurt and she had tried her best to fix things. She had even went to a waxing salon, but it was all in vain. Dean was always working late and he seemed to be so distracted.
She had told Ruby and Annie about her fears, and after their talk she had laughed and said that she was just being silly. But the truth was that she was even more concerned. Ruby had said “ Don’t nobody want Dean”, but Beth knew that wasn’t quite true. He had never been a supermodel, but she remembered that many girls had been jealous of her when she had dated Dean in high school. He could be quite charming when he wanted to be. Ruby had only meant to comfort her, she knew that, but it had hurt to hear that nobody would want her husband, and that was the only reason why he wouldn’t cheat on her.
But Diane had quite the opposite reaction when she had told her about it. Instead of trying to reassure her, she told Beth straight up that she thought that Dean was cheating on her. Beth hadn’t wanted to believe that, but why would Diane lie about it? It made no sense.
She had met Diane at the grocery store almost a year ago, and they have been good friends since then. Beth was so happy to have her in her life, Diane was just so cool and outspoken. She told Beth from the beginning that she worked at a strip club, and if Beth had a problem with that then they couldn’t be friends.
Dean had been the one who had a problem with it, he said that some of his friends had recognized Diane from the club, and that people were gonna talk ( “ So let them talk, Dean, Diane did nothing wrong!”). Beth didn’t understand why was he being so stubborn about it, but she made it clear that she was going to continue being friends with the younger woman.
Ruby had been concerned in the beginning and had asked her if she wasn’t worried that Dean might fall in love with Diane, but she had simply laughed. The thought had never crossed her mind, after 20 years of marriage she knew when her husband didn’t like someone, and it was obvious that he couldn’t stand Diane. And the feeling was mutual, Diane had never pretended that she thought that her husband was great. She wasn’t surprised, after all Annie and Ruby didn’t like him either, and would often say insulting things about him.
Diane had told her that she would help her find out the truth about her husband, she had created a fake account and started texting with Dean, but she wouldn’t let Beth see any of the messages. She just told her to go to a bar on Friday night, because she had a date. Beth had no idea why Diane was being so vague about it, she hated not knowing what to expect. She had asked Annie to babysit her kids, went to the mall and got herself a new black lace dress and a red wig. She had wanted to look different and sexy, so she could remind her husband that things could be good again between them.
She had been waiting at the bar for a few minutes when she had noticed a Latino man checking her out. He was incredibly handsome and appeared to be a bit younger than her and he had a beautiful owl tattoo on his neck ( She was married but that didn’t mean she didn’t have eyes, okay??!). He smirked when he saw that she had been looking at him and he slowly approached her.
“ Can I buy you a drink, darling?” he had asked her, and damn if his voice didn’t sound so attractive!
“ No, thank you, I am waiting for my husband” she was still married for God’s sake, just because she feared that her husband wanted to cheat on her didn’t mean that she would start flirting with some stranger.
“ Yeah, he ain’t coming” he said it with such confidence, as if he actually knew Dean. “ So what’s your name?” he asked after he saw that she wasn’t going to reply.
“ Irene, what’s yours?” she didn’t want to give him her first name, and barely anyone used her middle name. She had always liked it, but she had never asked people to call her Irene.
“ Christopher” he answered and then took the seat next to her.
For a brief moment she wondered if he was the ex of Diane’s girlfriend, Rhea. Diane had a wonderful girlfriend and Beth had met her once, she seemed so nice. They have talked a lot about their children, Rhea had a son named Marcus, who was the same age as her youngest daughter, Jane. They’ve exchanged numbers and had talked about having a playdate sometime.
Diane had told her a few months ago that she was quite nervous about meeting Marcus’s father, Christopher, it was very important for her that he would approve of her, since she liked Rhea a lot and wanted to be with her for a long, long time. Their meeting had gone really well, and since then Diane would often talk about him and tell Beth how awesome he was. Apparently he owned a few bars and had a lot of tattoos, and he was an amazing father.
“ So tell me, you dressed up like that for your husband’s anniversary or somethin'? That wig don’t look too good on you”
“ It’s not a wig... how dare you?!” she would have continued denying it, but she was truly curious to hear how could he tell that it was a wig. “ How did you know?”
“ I’ve watched you before and you looked so tense, you didn’t even move your head. Is this your first time?” it was obvious that he was talking about wearing a wig, but the way he asked that question made her think about something else.
“ Yes, I wanted to look different tonight” she admitted, truth be told she wouldn’t be too shocked if she would find out that Dean wanted to be with someone younger, Beth was now in her 40s and she saw every day in the mirror that she wasn’t as beautiful as she used to be. But Christopher didn’t seem to think that she was old, she could tell that he found her attractive. And that made her feel confident about herself, she was convinced that a guy like him would have anyone he wanted, and yet he was still sitting next to her.
“ I think you should take it off, darling” he raised one of his eyebrows, silently daring her to do it.
For a moment she just stared at him, she didn’t know what she should do. Tell him that he should just fuck off? But she didn’t want him to think that she was a coward, she had no reason to fear that he won’t like her natural hair. And if she were honest with herself she was starting to feel silly about wearing the wig.
She slowly took it off and gave him a soft smile, she wouldn’t flirt back with him but she was grateful that he was keeping her company. She could almost forget the reason why she went to the bar in the first place. ( Dean was still nowhere to be seen, perhaps Christopher was right).
“ Gorgeous!” he licked his lips and he gently pushed Beth's hair away from her face. She blushed and avoided looking him in the eyes, she couldn’t remember the last time someone had done that. She knew that he was basically a stranger and that she shouldn’t allow him to touch her, but the truth was that she felt so good about it. And it wasn’t like she was fucking him in the bathroom bar, it was just an innocent touch.
She realized that she hadn’t checked her phone in a while, and she saw that Diane had sent her a lot of texts on Messenger. The first thing she saw was a picture of Dean kissing his secretary, Amber, and she almost dropped her phone in shock. How did Diane get her hands on that photo?
She saw the screenshot of the messages between her husband and Diane and she was furious, she almost throw her glass against the wall. Apparently Diane had confronted Dean about the affair, and he had begged her not to say anything. He told her that he couldn’t lose Beth, he offered Diane money in exchange for her silence. Diane had promised not to say anything, if he would admit that Amber hadn’t been the only one ( There had been 6 women in total, and he had cheated on Beth while she had been pregnant with one of their kids).
She forced herself not to burst into tears, she had never thought that things would be so bad. The man she had been married to for 20 years was nothing more than a pathetic liar, who would sleep with anyone but her. Annie and Ruby had been right all along, she never should have married Dean! She couldn’t forgive him for what he had done, she just couldn’t.
“ Hey, you good, mama?”
She felt so embarrassed, she didn’t want Christopher to see her like this, but she didn’t think that she could pretend that she was fine.
“ You can talk to me, you know. Might do you good” he gently squeezed her hand.
She would have normally said no, she never liked talking about herself, there were many things that she wouldn’t even tell her sister or her best friend. But Christopher had made her feel good about herself, and for some reason she felt like she could trust him. And he was right, it might do her good to talk to someone about her feelings.
“ Yeah, I think I’ll like that” she smiled softly and took a sip from her glass, and then she told him everything.