Something's Different

The first thing he noticed when the front door opened was Rebecca looked extremely tan. He supposed it shouldn’t have surprised him since she had just been in Florida for the week but even when they had done things together outside and at the beach in the past she normally didn’t get noticeably tan. That was unless she had and he just hadn’t noticed because she was with him as opposed to going away with her friends for a week.

The second thing he noticed immediately when she looked at him was that something seemed different about her. She hadn’t even said a word to him yet or done anything. But he was madly in love with her in a way that he had never felt with anyone else before so if anything was off, he was going to see it. And something seemed off.

“Welcome home!” he said, trying to play it off like he hadn’t noticed anything, thinking it was most likely just his own paranoia. 

“Hello darling,” she said as she walked inside. Darling. She never called him darling. Sweetie and honey perhaps, but never darling. He wasn’t sure he had ever even heard her use the word before.

He was the one that initiated the first kiss when she came inside. She kicked off the flip flops she was wearing and walked over to the couch. He had a seat next to her and he had missed being able to cuddle up next to her and enjoy her affection. As she kicked out her legs he looked at her strong calf muscles as she rested her bare feet right on the coffee table. 

Normally they’d always snuggle on the couch but now she didn’t seem interested and sticking her feet on the coffee table was unlike her as well as it just wasn’t something she normally did. He looked at how her feet looked as tan as the rest of her body and it looked like there hadn’t been a moment the entire week when she was out in the sun where her legs had been exposed and her feet weren’t. Did she not wear any socks or shoes the entire week? There wasn’t even a hint of a tan line on them from the flip flops. 

Her toenails were pained a dark color. He couldn’t quite tell if they were a dark blue, a dark purple, or even just black, because the paint looked so fresh. But he rarely saw that she had taken care of her toes, normally not having any toenail polish on at all, and often seeing red polish on that would be chipped for days.

“Will you get me a soda?” she said.

Eager to please her like he always was, he got up when she asked, and then came back with a Diet Coke for her. As he approached her he saw her sending a text message on her phone and laughing. When he got closer she looked up at him looking almost as if she was startled then she quickly put the phone down in between her leg and the couch cushion. She looked up at him with a big smile, looking like she was doing anything to take attention off of the phone. He handed her the drink. She took it, didn’t thank him, and didn’t say anything.

“Who were you texting?”

“No one.” He didn’t know why she wouldn’t just tell him.

“So how was the trip?”

“Good!” she said, looking like she loved it but she didn’t look him in the eyes or even in his direction as she was looking straight ahead. “So good. I need to go back sometime.” ‘I’ not ‘we should go.’ He loved her more than anything and he wanted to trust her but he couldn’t keep this up.

“Did you cheat on me down there?” Now she looked at him and looked appalled he had said that.

“What? Why would you ask me that?” She looked and sounded so different – so guilty.

“I’m just asking.” He tried to sound as soft and sweet as possible. He even rubbed her shoulder a bit but wished he hadn’t as he didn’t want her to think she was going to get any affection from him right then.

“Shawn!”

“Please just tell me you didn’t and I’ll drop it.”

“I can’t really cheat on you. We’re not married or anything. I mean, I have a right to hang out with other guys sometimes if I want, especially if I’m down in Florida.”

He thought about all the love they used to show each other. All the time they spent together, how they always talked about who loved the other one more and how they’d be together forever. All that suddenly changed after just one simple trip.

“Is that who you were just texting?”

“Well….he just flew up here to hang out for a couple of days. So I think I’m gonna hang out with him tonight. Would be kind of rude if I didn’t.” Shawn felt himself losing control of his breath as Rebecca spoke. He didn’t want that to show when he spoke but he was getting passed the point of caring.

“Where’s he staying?” Shawn gave her a threatening look. “I’ll kick the shit out of him.” She gave him a look like he was nuts. She looked like she had no respect for him.

“Shawn, he’s a bodybuilder.” She looked up like she was dreaming about him. “About six feet tall, so incredibly handsome. He’s a 20-year-old hunk.” She looked back at Shawn like she didn’t care about him. “He’d squash you like a bug. Even I can take you half the time.”

That was true. They two of them would playfully wrestle around sometimes. Shawn was taller than her and was a man but she had unusually strong legs and whenever she’d get them around him, she’d get him to tap out, giggling with her sexy giggle whenever she made him do it. He’d laugh about it to. It had all been in fun, he thought, but now she was using it against him. This new guy was six years younger than Rebecca and eight years younger than Shawn and that’s who she was interested in? He hadn’t realized Rebecca had pulled her phone out.

“Look at him,” she said as she showed Shawn her new man on her screen. “Don’t be stupid and try and mess with him, he’d beat your ass Shawn.”

Shawn looked at the picture of the guy on the phone with his shirt off. The guy was pure muscle with his large pecs, muscular arms, and six-packs abs and Shawn wouldn’t stand a chance against him. He had a smug look on his young face in the picture, almost looking like he was posing proud that he was taking Rebecca from him. Shawn felt helpless. 

“I’m really not cool with you going to hang out with some guy that you met in Florida who flew all the way up here to see you,” he said trying to sound stern but just sounding desperate. She gave him the same look she had when he said he was going to beat the guy up.

“What are you going to do?” she said. “You know you would never leave me. So why are you even going there?”

That was true. She had always made him feel a feeling of elation that he never had before and it had been especially strong the few days before she had left for the trip. Everything had seemed so perfect for him and he spent all of his time while she was gone dreaming about when she came back. She had him in love with her to the point where nothing she could do would make him able to leave her. Not even this. She knew it and he knew it. He said nothing in response to her question.

“I’m not hanging out with him until later. So we can do something now if you want until I do. Want to go get a drink and then maybe we can go for a walk?”

“Sure.” He smiled like he was grateful.

“Cool,” she said. “We got three hours.”