The Other Woman

An hour later I had tidied the house top to bottom to the point where it was spotless. The kitchen counters literally shone. I had showered to the point where there couldn’t possibly be a trace of the tequila and sambucca I had drank or a sniffle of the entire box of cigarettes I had smoked the night before. I was fresh and prepared. Totally prepared to meet Harry. At first it had seemed like a bad idea. In fact a terrible idea. But the mere thought of him turned my insides to jelly. I had pulled a dress from the back of the wardrobe. I don’t know why really. Every girl has a red dress and meeting an ex was definitely an occasion for a red dress.
“Babe,” a voice at the top of the stairs groaned as I finished mopping the kitchen floor. Babe? Who did he think he was?! “Have you seen my socks?” As excited as I was, my mood came crashing down when I remembered about the Aussie upstairs.
“Yeah they’re just-” As I made my way to the bottom of the stairs to Max’s socks on the pile of bits and pieces to be taken upstairs, I stopped myself. At the top of my stairs was a stark-bollock naked australian man stood quite proudly in his birthday suit. I was (not for the first time in my life) totally flabbergasted. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop my gaze dropping to between his legs. “They’re right here.” I said, bending down to pick up his socks from the bottom step. As I stood up, I heard Max running (yes running) down the stairs. As I straightened and held out the socks in in my hand, I came face to face with a rather large male appendage. His dick was in my face.
“Thanks sweetcheeks,” He said, swatting my arse at the same time, then heading off into the kitchen, which I had just spent the last hour cleaning.
“How about I call for your taxi?” I hinted in the direction of the kitchen while keeping myself busy in straightening out the hallway. I think I was so excited for Harry to turn up that I had to do something and that was cleaning and primping and preening. My question fell on deaf ears. As I made my way into the kitchen, I almost cried. My lovely clean kitchen a mess within seconds. Boxes of food out of the cupboard all over the work surfaces. A packet of pasta had split and spilled all over the work surface and all over the floor.
“I was just looking for a treat for Archie.”
“Who the hell is Archie?” I had spent one night with this guy and now I’m his nanny? He lifted up pup from the floor. His once white coat was now thick with sticky brown mud (among other substances) and he stank. Within minutes my day had turned upside down. I had to take a deep breath. My phone rang.
“It’s me” an ever so familiar voice whispered. That voice turned the butterflies in my stomach to fireworks.
“I know it’s you, your name came up on my phone.” I flirted. Was I allowed to flirt with my ex? Or worse, with my married ex?

*****
“Are you flirting with me?” Harry was curled in bed facing me. The cream drapes let just enough light in from the street lights outside to see the outline of his face curled up in his beautiful cheeky grin. As first nights in a new home go, I never thought it would be as quiet as this.
“I’m trying to. Is it working.” I mumbled, feeling sleepier by the second. I had thought that our first night in our own home would wild and raucous; christening every room in the house at least twice. We had in truth spent the first evening in our own one bedroomed flat in Mayfair eating Nandos takeaway chicken, watching the soaps and a sit com on the telly and having a bath before clean pajamas, clean sheets and an early night.
“It’ll always work for me.” I felt a kiss on my nose and the duvet pulled over our shoulders and his arm pull us closer together.
“Is that a promise?” I whispered, barely able to keep my eyes open.
“I promise.” His voice turned into a whisper too. I could hear in his voice he was moments away from falling asleep. His hand rested, as always, on my back, just on top of the band of my pajama bottoms where my loose top had left a bare patch that was warmed-up by his huge hand. My eyes started to flicker closed.
“I love you darling.” He slowly whispered. For once in my life I had truly felt that a man loved me.
*****
“So when can I come over again?” Max said at the doorstep. His taxi was waiting and the driver was most impatient.
“I’m not sure Max.” How could I let him down easily? Yes he was lovely ish but I didn’t feel anything. What did I expect? He wasn’t Harry. He looked down at his shoes and kicked a lump of gravel from the doorstep. He looked like he had just been told off. “How about sometime next week?” I didn’t have it in my heart to be cruel to him.
“That would be great.” He ruffled pup’s fur and set off down my garden path with no more than a wave. I stood, holding a wriggling pup in my arm, waving the taxi away. With a relaxed sigh, I closed the door. I had finally got rid of him. Not that he wasn’t lovely and I did have a nice night with him, but something just didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel like I wanted to see him. I sat down on the sofa, lost in my thoughts. I concluded that maybe I was a bit cruel to Max after all. Pup jumped up next to me and rested his paws on my lap.
“Archie.” I tried and his head popped up from my lap. I gave him a scratch on the top of his head. “Do you like your new name Archie?” He panted, wagged his tail and stood up tall on my leg. “I guess you do.” I scratched behind his head and he licked my face before stopping and squeaking out an almost bark. “What is it?” He squeaked his mini barks then stopped. Then the doorbell rang. Could it be Harry? With a sudden jolt of excitement in my stomach, I almost ran to the front door. Throwing it open I stopped when I saw Max stood on the other side.
“I think I left my phone here.” He grinned before bounding upstairs in search for it, leaving the front door open in his wake. I changed my mind I wasn’t being cruel to ‘get rid’ of him. Seconds later he came running downstairs, phone in hand. He grabbed a handful of my bum, kissed me on the cheek and left. Turning around, I had noticed Archie cock his leg against the coatrack in the hall. My eyes went wide in terror. I scooped up pup and ran to the back garden. Within seconds all was fine and Archie grumbled at the back doorstep. As I picked him up again (they’re right when they say looking after puppies is like looking after children) the doorbell rang. ‘If this is Max...’ I thought. As I threw open the door I stopped dead in my tracks. It was probably just my imagination but he looked incredible, almost like a dream, stood there in my doorway. I must have stood staring.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”