Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - The night

I then spent the next 2 weeks speaking and choreographing the dance for the stripper. She ended up being really nice and I'm happy I at least made a new friend with similar interests to me. Now I’m sitting in our bedroom, listening to the guys walking into the house for the bachelor party one by one, gradually getting louder. I’ve agreed with Joe that I’d stay in the room to give the guys privacy.

I sit on the edge of the bed, phone in my hands, thumbs hovering over the screen I've been staring at for the past hour. The sounds of the party bleed through the walls — voices, laughter, the clink of bottles, someone's taste in music I don't recognize. The door is shut, like we agreed. I wanted to give them their space, but now I'm regretting it.

I hear a loud laugh — your laugh, unmistakable even through the wall — and my chest tightens. I know you're having fun. That's good. That's what I want. But there's going to be a stripper in my living room very soon, dancing on my pole, to a routine I choreographed for her, and I'm sitting alone in our bedroom like some jealous housewife.