Chapter 202: Juliet Hideaway 015

I was boarded and in the air when I realized I hadn't called Julie to tell her I'd be back so early. It was a little late to call her once in the air, so I didn't bother calling. The flight was uneventful; I landed, and took a cab home. I was in the door sometime before 4:00 a.m. I didn't want to wake Julie, much less alarm her, so I dropped off my suitcase in the entry way, and went to the guest bedroom. I stripped down, got into bed, and was dead to the world.

I woke up around 9:30 a.m., still a little groggy. I am usually an early riser, but my late night had kept me in bed three and a half hours past my usual wake-up time. No worries, I wasn't expected in the office that day anyway. I was a little surprised that Julie's morning ritual hadn't woken me, I was usually a light sleeper, and I had left the guest bedroom door open-and it was right across the hall from the bathroom. I was also a little surprised that Julie hadn't woken me, even with a sleepy morning kiss. She couldn't have missed my presence in the house. Maybe she had, and I was too deeply asleep to notice it. Or, maybe she put two and two together and decided not to disturb me. At any rate, I decided to get up, have some breakfast, and check my emails.

I went into the bathroom, and noticed that there was no condensation or any signs of a shower having been taken. That was strange: Julie always took a shower in the mornings-it was one absolute in her routine. After a light breakfast, I went to the home office (the third of our three bedrooms), and checked my email. Nothing important. I checked my work voice mail. Ditto. I checked my personal email. A note from Julie-"Hey baby, don't know when you are expected to get back today. You weren't answering your phone this morning. Hope you didn't hit it too hard last night-you know how I feel about my husband getting drunk while out of town. Drop me a line and let me know." Hmmm...that was left at 8:30 a.m. She should have known that I was back home this morning before she left for work at 7:30 or so. Unless she wasn't here?.... I listened to my cell phone voice mail. Sure enough, a chipper Julie left a message at 8:15 a.m.: "Hey baby! Rise and shine! I'm already at the office, the least you can do it get your lazy bones out of bed. Ha-ha. Let me know when you're flight is due back. Looking forward to Saturday! Call me."

I considered all of this. She almost certainly did not spend the night at home last night. But, where had she spent it? There must be a reasonable explanation for all of this. Maybe she went over to her sister's house, it got late, and she spent the night. Or maybe her parents'? Either circumstance would be unusual, but certainly possible. Maybe she went out with girlfriends, and had too much to drink, so spent the night at one of their homes? No, not her style. Julie would drink alcohol, once in a while to excess, but not on a work night. Anyway, she wouldn't go out drinking if she was going to go out again tonight. And, it seemed unlikely that she would have put something together on such short notice to reschedule the planned Friday night out so that she could spend it instead with me. And, she didn't sound hung-over in the least on her phone message. One thing I know about Julie-when she does drink too much, she has a raging hangover-you can hear it in her voice. On the very few occasions when she did drink to excess on a work night, she would rarely be at the office by 9 a.m., much less 8:00 a.m. Something wasn't right.

I picked up the phone and called Julie at work. She answered. "Heya, Julie. How you doing this morning?"

"Oh, great William. It's good to hear from you. When are you getting back?"

"Bad news, babe. I couldn't get a flight out today, until late. I decided I didn't really want to deal with a red-eye, so I'm flying out tomorrow morning, 9:30 a.m. flight out or thereabouts, I have to double-check. So, I'll be home sometime after noon."

"Bummer! I was going to cancel on girls' night out and spend tonight with you."

"That's okay; go out with your girls. We'll make up for it Saturday. No sense in you spending another night in when I'm not around."

"You know, I think I will go out. It's been a while since I went out."

"Yeah, I will probably just stay in at the hotel tonight; I had a few too many last night-that's why I didn't answer the phone this morning."

"I figured. I just hope you behaved yourself, mister."

"Always, babe. So, did you catch our sitcoms last night?"

"Uhhh...no. I didn't."

"Oh, what did you do last night?"

"Oh, nothing. Just stayed at home. I guess I was really tired. I made some dinner, talked to my sister on the phone, then turned on the tube and fell asleep before the shows had even started."

"Sounds exciting."

"You know me."

Increasingly, I felt that I didn't.

"Well, you can have all the fun you want tonight. I'll see you Saturday afternoon."

"Okay baby. I love you, goodbye!"

"Goodbye."

I was being lied to. That much was clear. Was she cheating on me? Hard to say. I needed to know more. First things first. I called my secretary. She hadn't spoken with Julie. I told her I wanted to surprise her with my early arrival, so, if she asked, I wanted her to tell Julie that she had booked me a return flight for Saturday morning. I wanted her to find a flight out of Baltimore to here that left around 9:30 a.m. or so, and tell Julie that that was my return flight if she asked. No, I didn't want her to actually book the flight. No, I didn't want to her email or call Julie with the information-just give it to her if she asked. Otherwise, do nothing. No, regardless of whether Julie asked or not I still wanted her to get the information about the flight so that she could tell Julie if asked. Sigh....I really had to get a new secretary.