Sara sat quietly in the car as they went back to the studio. She took out her phone, which was quite old, and under some kind of family plan, and looked at her photo again. Sipping overpriced coffee. Her husband would tell her the coffee is too expensive. She passed such cafes so often when they are out in the city, only for them to look at the menu and change places.
The dark lord smiled. “That’s a beautiful photo of you.”
She gulped. Edmund’s photography skills naturally meant the angles and lighting was superb. Sara’s heart churned, looking at the beautiful photo. She couldn’t believe it was her. The photos of her in a swimsuit. The photos of her in dresses in a studio setting. Those were not real.
But this- of her in a cafe just having coffee. That attacked an identity. It hurt.
The car stopped in the studio’s private parking lot. He noticed she was still thinking about it, her glances at her phone, the slight trembling in her hands. He leaned closer, and whispered. “Sara.”
She looked at him.
“You deserve happiness.”
Her heart shook somemore.
Her friend’s words bounced back to her. “I thought I wouldn’t cheat too. But then, I asked myself, am I happy? Am I really happy if this is what I have for the rest of my life?”
Edmund could feel it. The cracks in her soul. The buckling in her foundations. He placed his hand on her soft hands. “Sara. You deserve happiness.”
“I- I deserve happiness.”
Her eyes were locked on Edmund. There, in Edmund’s car. He leaned closer. So much closer. “Yes. You deserve happiness.” He repeated the third time. Their face was so close now.
She said she was happy to her friend. But looking into Edmund’s eyes, she knew she lied.
No. She wasn’t happy. She leaned closer, and kissed the man that made her feel so good. Their lips locked. Her body still remembered his touch. Edmund naturally unbuckled her seatbelt, and pulled her over to his side. They kissed passionately once more in the car.
Edmund whispered. “I can give you happiness, and the life you want.”
But her heart thought about her husband. Yes. She wasn’t happy, but she still felt guilt. They had a promise to be with each other through thick and thin. To be married and grow old together. She wanted that ideal image for herself, for her family. Yes. She was unhappy. He didn’t do his part. He promised her so much, and yet nothing, but that didn’t excuse her. The guilt was still there. She couldn’t answer Edmund. A very faint part of her still wished for her happily ever after with her husband. Even though her body desired the man she was now kissing.
The man hugged her. She was sitting on his lap. “You’re worried. You’re thinking about your marriage, about your husband. You don’t have to leave him. I don’t need you to leave him, anyway.”
Sara paused, “-you don’t?”
“I don’t. In fact, I can even sweeten the deal. I’ll be your fairy godfather, and I can turn him from a frog into perhaps a decent man. A man you can show off to your friends, someone to be proud of. You can keep your image as a loyal wife who stood by your husband through tough times.”
She gulped- “Really?” Edmund offered her the chance to have her cake and eat it too.
“Yes. I’m very well connected, and with the right incentives, I can help give your husband’s career a big boost.”
“-You can?”
“Of course. I own the entire apartment, multiple businesses- and you doubt me?”
Sara’s heart pounded. She was nervous as hell. Would this be a deal with the devil?
He leaned closer, and gently nibbled her earlobes. “Consider it your special way of contributing to your family. You don’t want to see him suffer, right? After all, even though he works so hard for the family, he doesn’t go anywhere. While you just sit at home, he’s toiling away.”
She gulped. It was true. The past few years she did nothing! Part of it was because of her husband’s ego and his stupid promise, but could she? This- this was already cheating.
She looked at Edmund, realized she was already knee deep into this pool. There was no turning back after that first kiss a few days ago, and from what they did in the swimming pool. She cheated. So, she looked at the man of her passion, and nodded. “-what do you need me to do?”
He smiled. “When you’re with me, just listen to your desires. Listen to your body, and let it out.”
“My desires-” The housewife felt her nipples turn hard. Her lower parts ached. She felt his pole rise, poking against his pants. She could feel the bulge on his pants through the fabric of her skirt.
“Like right now- what do you really- really want to do?”
With him holding her like this, her body so close to him. Yet, her mind still had a logical part, and that part tried to poke holes into Edmund’s offer. She looked at him, trying to find assurance in his promise. “Will you help me? Really? Help my husband out of his job issues?”
He nodded. “I can introduce someone to him. She’s a Manager and should be able to help.”
“I see.” Sara sighed, feeling like shit for doing this. “-I’m a bad girl.”
Edmund pulled her closer. “No one but the two of us knows. Well, maybe my assistants but they are all silent.”
She- she couldn’t answer. Edmund smiled, and let her go. He unlocked the door to his car. “It’s time to go home.”
Back in the studio, she changed back to her own clothes, and Edmund told her to go home. There was nothing more to do for today.
***
Once home, back in her normal life. Her husband came back late. He had the faint whiff of alcohol and smoke. She knew he didn’t smoke, so he must’ve hung out with someone who did.
“Ah- dear. You waited for me?”
“-yes.” Sara wasn’t. Her mind swirled with Edmund’s offer, and partly hated herself for walking down this path.
“Oh. You shouldn’t have.” James smiled, but she knew enough to know it was fake. It was the subtle gait, the posture, the lifeless way he moved about the home that suggested he was probably overwhelmed. “-I’ll go change and sleep first, okay?”
She wouldn’t tell him about the deal. Her husband hid things from her. “Okay. I’ll join you soon.”
In Sara’s heart, the deal was sealed.
