Free So You Call Yourself a Man by Carl Weber

didn’t.” I was trying to remain calm.
    She raised her voice even louder. “Yes, you did.”
    â€œLook, I don’t have time to argue with you. It was an accident. I dropped the phone by accident.”
    â€œWhatever.” I could almost see her neck rolling on the other end of the phone. “So, are you gonna bring me some Tylenol for your son?” I hated it when she called him my son.
    â€œYeah, I’ll be over there in a few.” I tried to think of a lie to give me more time. “I’m waiting for my wife to come home with the car.” I hung up the phone, then hit the talk button again. When I heard the dial tone, I placed the phone on the kitchen table. Now if she called back, she’d just get a busy signal, I told myself as I walked toward the stairs to take care of my wife.

12
Sonny
    I was following Tiffany back to her apartment in Queens, still intoxicated from the effects of our dance. There was an accident on the Cross Island Parkway, so she was taking me some back way through residential neighborhoods in Long Island. About thirty minutes into our ride I spotted a sign that read: ENTERING THE TOWN OF ELMONT and I could feel my hormones start to kick into overdrive. I wasn’t quite sure where we were, but I was sure that we were close enough to the Queens border that I’d have Tiffany naked as the day she was born within the half-hour. It had been seventeen years since we’d made love, but I could still remember the way she moaned and the warm, wet, velvety way she felt when I slid inside her.
    Tiffany and I had a sexual chemistry like no one I’d ever been with, and it was never more evident to me than the way I felt the second we walked on the dance floor. I couldn’t wait to kiss her, to touch her, and yes, to make love to her. But as Murphy’s Law would have it, there were always going to be some obstacles in my way, this time in the form of a ringing cell phone.
    I checked the caller ID, hoping it was James, but I knew it wasn’t. It was my wife checking up on me. I was tempted to answer it and tell her I was on my way home or tired, but I never hit the talk button because I didn’t want to lie. Matter of fact, when it stopped ringing, I turned the phone off completely. I’d just have to deal with the consequences in the morning. I know it sounds crazy for me to jeopardize everything I had with Jessica, but for me this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
    Believe it or not, I felt no guilt until we pulled up to a stop sign and I saw a house for rent. It was a white Cape Cod with black or maybe blue shutters. It was dark, but the yard looked big enough for my kids to play in. Damn, this was it. This was the house Jessica and I had always dreamed of. I searched for a pen to write down the phone number on the FOR RENT sign, but I couldn’t find one. Tiffany was now a block in front of me and I had no choice but to speed up and catch her, hoping I’d be able to remember how to get back to my family’s dream house.
    Ten minutes later, I pulled in behind Tiffany’s car and watched her get out, swaying those lovely hips as she walked to the sidewalk. She stared at me through the passenger-side window for a few seconds, obviously waiting for me to get out of the car. When I didn’t, she walked over and knocked on the window. I rolled it down and she stuck her head in, grinning.
    â€œYou coming?” I wanted to say yes in the worst way, but James’s words and my reply had been echoing in my head ever since I’d seen that house for rent.
    What about Jessica? he asked.
    What about her? What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her , I had replied.
    Looking back on things, I couldn’t believe those words came out of my mouth. I knew it would hurt Jessica, if only because my conscience would kill me and I wouldn’t be able to look her in the face.
    â€œGet in for a minute. I have to tell you