Sex, death and a snake in the grass: 19 linked short stories, fiction for the Internet. Read in narrative sequence using the left-hand menu or follow characters through the in-page links
16
Once and only once had Mark come close to cheating on Alice. It had been after an evening business meeting. The account manager, M-, an older woman, had got him drunk and poured her heart out.
He thought of her thickened body now, remembered her fake tears, the inexplicable speed with which his shirt had been unbuttoned, as he opened the door.
'Alice?'
She was not where he expected her to be: sitting morosely in the lounge. He crossed to the kitchen, poured a glass of water and walked down the hall to the bedroom.
'There you are.'
She was lying on her belly on the bed, flipping through a magazine. Her negligee rode up over the top of her thighs.
'Alice?' he said carefully.
She looked at him, rolled over on her back. Smiled.
He went over and sat on the bed.
'I'm sorry,' he said into the wall.
The bed creaked. Then she slipped her arms around his shoulders. He could feel her breath, warm and coffee-tinged, on his neck. After a while she spoke.
'Oh Mark, it's been so long.'
He put his hands on hers, disengaged her arms, half-turned to face her. 'Just a minute,' he said.He stood up and went back down the hall.
In the bathroom he splashed water on his face, stared at himself in the mirror under the fluorescent light. He closed his eyes and stood there for a moment. He didn't realise it, but his lips began to move.
When he'd got up from the bed, M- had glared at him. 'You'll regret this,' she'd said. And he had. Like a spider she had settled into the centre of his life, spreading poison. There was no way out of it. He would have to tell Alice.
When he opened his eyes, the sunlight falling through the frosted window had brightened a little. It made the bathroom seem bigger.
Back in the bedroom, he let himself caress her small round breasts, lost himself in the scent of her naked body. 'Alice, oh my Alice,' he whispered.
