The Cheater's Club - excerpt 2

Jayne was a kindergarten school teacher. She taught both of Bev’s children their first years.

Harlow laughed. She envied her other best friend. She was happily married to the man of her dreams. A doctor. They married right out of high school. While Pete went to college Bev became pregnant. She always wanted to be a mother, so when she announced she was having a baby, Jayne and Harlow weren't surprised. She stayed at home with their two wonderful children. They even had a yellow Labrador to boot. She was the perfect wife and mother.

Jayne on the other hand remained notoriously single.

Harlow hadn’t been single until about two hours ago. She might as well have been the way her sex life had been going. For the last few months Charlie hadn’t been able to perform. At first she thought it was from the stress of his job. He was a high-power attorney, who spent many long nights reading over briefs and old cases. Sometimes he didn’t come to bed before one or two in the morning. Harlow on the other hand crashed by ten. She needed to be up at the crack of dawn to arrive at the television studio, where she was a reporter. She always looked for the who, what, where in everything. So why couldn’t she see what was happening in her own backyard?

“You sounded upset,” Bev said. “What’s up?”

“It seems Charlie didn’t have a performance issue after all. It was me.”

“Oh sweetie. It wasn’t you,” Bev cradled Harlow in her arms and cooed her.

Always the mother hen.

“It isn’t? Then why can he perform just fine for his boss?”

Bev pulled back out of her embrace. “So, he is having an affair with his boss.”

“What does that mean? Did you know about the affair?” Harlow felt like she’d been slapped across the face – again.

“Pete saw them out a few weeks ago. He said they looked pretty cozy. When he stopped to say hello, Charlie seemed nervous, like he was caught doing something wrong.”

It was Harlow’s turn to sit there stunned, her mouth hanging open. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Bev’s husband saw Charlie out with his boss a few weeks ago, looking cozy and this was the first time she was hearing it? What the fudge?

“And you’re just telling me this now? You might have saved me a bit of embarrassment had I known a little earlier.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Harlow walked in on them doing the nasty on Charlie’s desk,” Jayne spoke up.

“Oh shit.”