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“Then I know,” Gage told him.
Dom didn’t reply. He knew his friend too well. They finished the conversation with Gage making sure Dom had the updated schedule for the day. He wasn’t off the phone with Dom for more than a minute before he brought up his and Tilly’s message thread. A thread he should have deleted weeks ago, but he never did. He glanced at the clock above the kitchen sink; her kids would be at school and her husband at work. He could call her. Not wanting to take the chance of her not being alone, he chose to just send a message.
We had talked about a weekend away, no consequences, just a weekend. I’m gonna be in Philly this weekend, Friday to Monday at the Hyatt. If you wanna take that leap, I’ll be there holding your hand. What do you say?
Gage hit send and laid his phone down in front of him. A buzzing sensation flowed through his body, one that grew stronger as time passed by. Sitting still wasn’t helping, he rose and grabbed a few treats for Velvet. Wasting the minutes that went by with tossing treats at the excited dog.
Tilly was working on a design when her phone buzzed with an incoming text. Thinking it was Kenny, her boss, since she’d just been messaging him, she flicked her gaze to her phone, and her heart stopped, seeing a message from Gage. She stared at her phone but made no move for it. So many times she thought to message him, to call him, but she worried he had been able to do what she hadn’t...move on. Her hand shook when she finally reached for her phone. Her heart now pounding as she pulled up their thread. She read the message several times, not for any other reason than he hadn’t moved on either. She knew what he was asking, knew what they were risking, but she didn’t need to think about it because he was what she wanted.
I say yes. I don’t know how I’ll get away, but I’ll figure it out. I want our weekend, too.
Gage’s cell skated across the granite as it vibrated with an incoming message. He stared at it, then moved to the dog impatiently waiting for her treat. “I’m doing the right thing, right?” He asked her; she stood from her sitting position, tail wagging, breathing heavy. “I thought so, too,” he told her and threw the small bone down the hall, Velvet taking off after it. He snatched his phone, swiped the screen and brought up her message. He read it. Read it again. Read it for the third time before his lips started to tip up on the ends, spreading into a wide smile.
Gage backed out of their messages, went to his email and brought up the confirmation email from the Hyatt. He got the information he needed before closing it down and bringing back up their thread. He typed out.
Friday, noon, room 906?
Tilly hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until his message popped up on her phone. She felt so much at once seeing those four words. She was going to see him again, have a weekend of just them. She should feel terrible at the thought, but she didn’t. She typed back.
I’ll be there.
Gage read those three words. Three words that had him feeling the best he had in three weeks. Nothing else needed to be said, so he backed out of the thread and moved to the living room with a smile on his face. He cleaned the house that day, lost in his thoughts. Cheating wasn’t his thing. Never came to his mind before. But was he really stepping out of his marriage, a marriage that had died years ago, neither putting it to rest. A loop of silence playing over and over, becoming nothing more than a rut in their lives. When Gage took a long hot shower, he slowly stroked his cock as he thought of all the things he’d be able to do to Tilly. And when he came, it was her name that fell from his lips.
_______________
Tilly didn’t let go of her phone, couldn’t put it down. Her heart was racing, her blood rushing through her veins. She didn’t try to stand because she wasn’t sure her legs would hold her up. He wanted their weekend, in bed with no consequences. There could be, but she didn’t care. She was going to him. Her smile couldn’t be stopped.
She let her imagination roam to where she had steadfastly held it from going. Even in a marriage like hers, so incomplete and unfulfilled, she never once thought about cheating. Until Gage.
She meant what she’d said to him. She’d met the right man at the wrong time.
No one plans to cheat. It happens slowly. An awakening. People think cheaters cheat for sex, for the thrill of it, but it’s more than that. Sure, knowing how Gage had made her feel with just a kiss, the thought of their naked bodies, him over her, those brown eyes looking deeply into hers as he drove his cock into her...it was intoxicating to think about. Knowing that he would think of her first, give her pleasure before taking it for himself, that she was going to experience that in a few short days, but it wasn’t just her body that ached for him.
It was her mind and her heart.
Sometimes the grass truly is greener, the flowers sweeter, the sun brighter. The temptation to step over and savor…we’re only human.
She’d known Gage for only a few months, and yet he, understood her better than her own husband. She could have gone her whole life never knowing how it felt to truly be desired, to be craved, to be the center of someone else’s world. In a life so ordinary, having the chance at a moment of extraordinary, yeah, she felt no regrets following her heart.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Tilly hadn’t been able toeat a bite of dinner; she pushed her meatloaf around her plate, her thoughts never straying from Gage’s message. Her husband was home for a rare family dinner, but all she could think about was how she was going to get away.
Her stomach twisted in knots, working through the lies to the one that sounded the most believable, the one that gave her the excuse to meet up with another man, a man she intended on spending the weekend in bed with.
“Mom, are you okay?” Ashley asked. “You haven’t eaten anything.”
Luke looked up from his phone, studying her from across the table. She couldn’t look at him, not when she was thinking all that she was. Her focus shifted to Ashley, before moving to Justin. She knew what she was doing would impact them. They would feel the repercussions if she got caught. She did feel guilty for that, but then she was always telling them to go for what they wanted. It could be argued what she wanted she shouldn’t want, but she did. She wanted Gage so badly she was willing to take the risk of breaking up her family, though she acknowledged she had been holding her family together, continuing in a marriage that hadn’t been much of one for a very long time. “I’m just tired.”
“You should go to the spa. Treat yourself.” Ashley suggested, growing more animated when she looked over at her dad. “Laney’s mom went last weekend. She said she felt like a new woman.”
They were all thinking about her freak out. Tilly didn’t like losing her cool, hated that part of what fueled that scene was missing Gage, but her family, at times, expected too much of her. Guilt twisted in her gut, hating herself a little for jumping on her daughter’s suggestion as her means to get away...to cheat, but that was exactly what she needed. “That’s a great idea. I’m going to take the weekend.”
“What weekend?” Luke asked.
“This weekend.”
Luke’s brows rose. “You’ve never been to a spa.”
