Alison arrives home to New York City from a business trip in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is engaged to Henry, a lawyer from San Francisco, who proposed to her when she returned home from a year in Florida with her family six months earlier. Before she went to Florida, the two of them were roommates in college and good friends.
The trip to Charlotte was two weeks long, during which time she met Nick. While working together, the two became romantically involved. After a night of celebration in a local bar two days before she'd return home, they slept together. The next morning, Alison explained to Nick that she was engaged and apologized for getting involved with him. To her surprise, Nick admits to being in love with her and asks her to call off the engagement. Without hesitation, she tells him she feels the same and, after a brief discussion, agrees to break off the engagement.
Now, as she stands in the airport with her bags at her feet, she notices that her fiancée hasn't come to pick her up. She catches a taxi home and has the door man help her carry her luggage to the elevator that would bring her up to their apartment.
She opens the front door to the sound of music playing from the master bedroom at the end of the hall.
"Hello?" She calls. With no answer, she drags her bags inside and walks down the hall to her bedroom. Henry? Are you there?" She opens the door to see her fiancée in the bed with their neighbor Julia. Alison lets her hand fall from the door knob and stares at the two of them as they look at her shocked expression. She starts to cry as she turns around and goes into the neighboring bathroom. She leans against the wall and sinks to the cold bathroom floor. Her cries slowly turn into laughter and then nothing at all as Julia runs half-dressed from the master bedroom. Henry comes out behind her with nothing but boxers on, calling after Alison and looking around until he sees her on the bathroom floor.
"Alison baby, I'm sorry," He kneels next to her and grabs her hand. She lets him hold it, but stares past him at the wall. "Alis, did you hear me?" She just nods, not returning his gaze. He leans in to kiss her and she doesn't pull away. She looks at the floor as he runs the fingers of his empty hand through her thick, dark curls. He kisses her again, and then again, each kiss longer and harder than the last.
Finally she takes a breath and turns away, rolling out from under him. Then she crawls to the bathtub on the opposite side of the room and leans against it. She looks at him; his hazel eyes, dark skin, gorgeous brown hair, then his chest and toned arms. All of this she used to find so beautiful, him so kind and enchanting. Now as she looks at him, he's just human, nothing more. He looks back at her, making no attempt to come nearer.
She sniffles, "I um, I had an affair." he stares back at her incredulously,
"What?" he says, standing up, " You what?"
"I slept with another man." She looks into his eyes as he takes a step toward her and stops. There’s a long silence.
"I was so ashamed. But now I'm not." She continues, "I want to be angry with you but how can I be? How could I when I'm just as guilty?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"I forgive you," She says, using the edge of the tub to help her stand up. Then she walks out and into the guest bedroom across the hall, "but this isn't going to work." She turns around to see him right behind her, staring at her, unbelieving and unrelenting. She sits down on the foot of the bed and faces him, her face unreadable.
"You've got to be kidding me. You're not calling off the wedding over this." He takes her hands in his, "we can move past this. You forgive me, I forgive you...this will work Alis." She shakes her head. "Alice we can't let something like this ruin us. All that we have -"
"It's already ruined Henry!" She says coldly, the picture of her fiancée and his mistress replaying in her head. "I mean who am I to accuse you of being a cheating snake - but SERIOUSLY? I was gone two weeks and you let that SKANK in my bed! How many times has she been here?" He lets go of her hands.
"You know what! NO! This was the only time, but you are not one to talk! What's you're excuse huh? Let's not forget that you're not so innocent either!"
"I LOVE him, I want him and he feels the same!"
Henry scoffs. "You, do NOT love him, you just met the guy! YOU don't know him."
"Henry, I do love him! When I'm around him I -" He looks her in the eyes, his once apologetic eyes now angry. She's never seen them so vicious.
"Don't you DARE insult me like that in MY own home! YOU DO NOT love him." The tears start to flow from her eyes now. He lets go of her chin.
"I DO love him!" He strikes her across the face and she falls over on the bed. As she turns back with her hand on her cheek, his is guilt ridden and staring back at hers.
"I'm so sorry Alis,". He backs away to the door behind him, shutting it as he falls against it, "Alison, I would never -"
"Save it!" She says as he sits on the floor. She holds her hand on her tear-stained face to cover the dark red mark left from his hand.
"Alis -" his face burns with shame. In all of the years that she's known him, he's never cried. He was always so tough, one of the things she loved so much about him. He doesn't look at her, just stares down at the floor. All of those years spent in college secretly in love with him, admiring him when they were together and envying all of his girlfriends.
Her heart pounds so fast and so hard. She has everything she'd always wanted - She has him. Her mind automatically goes back to the thoughts and feelings she had when she received her first call from him while she was in Florida. And how her heart leapt when he'd confessed his love for her through the art of written word. She still keeps that letter, in her desk drawer.
She'd never thought he would hit her. Clearly he hadn't either; he was always so gentle with her, so kind, so caring. How'd this happen?
Now on the floor he cries because he'd done what neither of them thought he would do in a billion years. He looks at her, pleading with his eyes for forgiveness. Her cheek burns, burns where he branded her. She cheated on him. That'd be the excuse. She made him feel like less of a man by taunting him with her sin. But he had sinned too. He had done the very thing she regretted. They can't blame it on each other, neither of them had known.
What now? Can she leave him? Leave the man she so desperately wanted for so long, to run into the arms of a man she swore she loved? But here Henry was, helplessly sorry for the pain he caused her, on the floor crying. Well, he's not crying anymore, now he's drying his face and staring up at the ceiling. Probably asking God- 'What have I done?' 'Will she ever forgive me?' 'I don't know what happened!'
Alison stands and walks over to the window in the back of the room. Why feel sorry for him? He was just yelling at her; calling her a liar and a cheat, trying to make her feel worse than she already felt. 'Let him suffer and cry!' She thinks.
"Alis," in a serious tone he asks, "Were you planning on leaving me when you got off that plane?" She doesn't answer right away. His voice is sincere.
"I didn't know," she starts, "I didn't know if I was going to. But when I came home and saw you two, I thought I knew." She turns to see him, her hands gripping the windowsill behind her. She bites her bottom lip.
"Julia was coming by to see if you were home yet." he lifts his eyes to meet hers. "I told her you would be at the airport in a couple of hours and I was going to pick you up."
"I sent you a text last night telling you I'd catch an earlier flight."
He nodded and took a deep breath.
"My phone is off, it died yesterday and I haven't put it on the charger." he let his eyes fall back to the floor as he fiddled with the carpet. "She was upset about something, so I invited her in to talk. I wasn't planning anything - she just looked like she needed someone to talk to."
'First mistake' Alison thinks, 'evil, conniving little...'
"Anyway, we were talking, and she leaned in and kissed me. We got carried away and the next thing I knew, we were in bed and you were walking through the door. I'm so sorry Alis." He looks up again and lets his head fall back against the door. He closes his eyes, probably in an attempt to keep his cool.
Alison lets the tears stream down her cheeks again, she can't leave him. Not now. She could forgive and forget-She could - if Nick wasn't involved. As if reading her mind, Henry asks,
"Do you really love him?" She was so sure before.
"I don't know," Her cheek throbs, "When I was around him, I was so sure. He made me promise him. Promise that if I could tell you as confidently as I told him that I loved him, that I’d leave you." Henry doesn't open his eyes, but his hands are now still as he listens. "When I saw you two... and I told you that I loved him. I believed it was because I really did love him more than I loved you. But-"
"You said it out of anger," Henry says, "You were angry with me." A long pause enveloped the space between them.
"You hit me Henry." She says callously. He doesn't respond, "And before that, you attempted to make me feel guilty. More guilty than I already felt to cover up your own infidelities."
“Not,” He says, eyes open now but looking up and away from her," to cover up my own. I was wrong, but when you told me about him, it felt like a slap to the face. It felt like-"
"You got a taste of what the rest of us girls get!" She says, he's looking at her now, "the rest of us who cry ourselves to sleep over you and let you break our hearts!"
"Honestly Alis! Why are you so surprised? I've never been faithful to any of my girlfriends."
"Sorry for thinking I was special!" She raises her voice now," And thinking this Damn ring meant something!" She takes it off and throws it at him. He stands and catches it before it hits the ground.
"I'm sorry I slept with her okay? I have been trying to change for you, I've tried so hard!"
"Screw you! You didn't try!" He’s in front of her now.
"What about you!" He comes back at her snarling," Does this ring mean anything to YOU? What is your excuse? And don't you dare say love because you and I both know that's BS."
"I'm not sorry for sleeping with Nick! I'm sorry I hadn't met him a long time ago and slept with him then! I knew something was going on with you and Julia from the first week I was back up here!"
"It took a lot for me to resist her advances at first Alis! I'd never slept with her before! That entire time you were in Charlotte, I was dying! I'm a man- I have needs, I can't fight that nature!"
"Don't you blame your weaknesses on nature! It's you! It's always been you. You're a weak little boy, grow up and be a MAN and stop blaming your mistakes on everyone and everything else. YOU cheated Henry! You didn't need to invite her in! You wanted to!"
"Don't condescend me and tell me to grow up! You claim that you've loved me so desperately for so long-and what do you do once you've got me? The first time you're out of my sight you go 'fall in love' with some guy you just met!" She shoves him as hard as she can; only moving him back a couple of inches. She tries to open the door but he catches her by the arm and pulls her toward him. He wraps his arms around her and kisses her, hard and passionately.
She remembers those feelings she had to hide from him all of those years in college. She loves him, despite his faults; she wants to be his forever and always. Nick is a figment of her imagination now, and as Henry leads her to the bed, he says "I love you" between kisses. "I'm so sorry babe, I love you."
"I love you too," She whispers, "I'm sorry, I don't love him. I love you."
The trip to Charlotte was two weeks long, during which time she met Nick. While working together, the two became romantically involved. After a night of celebration in a local bar two days before she'd return home, they slept together. The next morning, Alison explained to Nick that she was engaged and apologized for getting involved with him. To her surprise, Nick admits to being in love with her and asks her to call off the engagement. Without hesitation, she tells him she feels the same and, after a brief discussion, agrees to break off the engagement.
Now, as she stands in the airport with her bags at her feet, she notices that her fiancée hasn't come to pick her up. She catches a taxi home and has the door man help her carry her luggage to the elevator that would bring her up to their apartment.
She opens the front door to the sound of music playing from the master bedroom at the end of the hall.
"Hello?" She calls. With no answer, she drags her bags inside and walks down the hall to her bedroom. Henry? Are you there?" She opens the door to see her fiancée in the bed with their neighbor Julia. Alison lets her hand fall from the door knob and stares at the two of them as they look at her shocked expression. She starts to cry as she turns around and goes into the neighboring bathroom. She leans against the wall and sinks to the cold bathroom floor. Her cries slowly turn into laughter and then nothing at all as Julia runs half-dressed from the master bedroom. Henry comes out behind her with nothing but boxers on, calling after Alison and looking around until he sees her on the bathroom floor.
"Alison baby, I'm sorry," He kneels next to her and grabs her hand. She lets him hold it, but stares past him at the wall. "Alis, did you hear me?" She just nods, not returning his gaze. He leans in to kiss her and she doesn't pull away. She looks at the floor as he runs the fingers of his empty hand through her thick, dark curls. He kisses her again, and then again, each kiss longer and harder than the last.
Finally she takes a breath and turns away, rolling out from under him. Then she crawls to the bathtub on the opposite side of the room and leans against it. She looks at him; his hazel eyes, dark skin, gorgeous brown hair, then his chest and toned arms. All of this she used to find so beautiful, him so kind and enchanting. Now as she looks at him, he's just human, nothing more. He looks back at her, making no attempt to come nearer.
She sniffles, "I um, I had an affair." he stares back at her incredulously,
"What?" he says, standing up, " You what?"
"I slept with another man." She looks into his eyes as he takes a step toward her and stops. There’s a long silence.
"I was so ashamed. But now I'm not." She continues, "I want to be angry with you but how can I be? How could I when I'm just as guilty?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"I forgive you," She says, using the edge of the tub to help her stand up. Then she walks out and into the guest bedroom across the hall, "but this isn't going to work." She turns around to see him right behind her, staring at her, unbelieving and unrelenting. She sits down on the foot of the bed and faces him, her face unreadable.
"You've got to be kidding me. You're not calling off the wedding over this." He takes her hands in his, "we can move past this. You forgive me, I forgive you...this will work Alis." She shakes her head. "Alice we can't let something like this ruin us. All that we have -"
"It's already ruined Henry!" She says coldly, the picture of her fiancée and his mistress replaying in her head. "I mean who am I to accuse you of being a cheating snake - but SERIOUSLY? I was gone two weeks and you let that SKANK in my bed! How many times has she been here?" He lets go of her hands.
"You know what! NO! This was the only time, but you are not one to talk! What's you're excuse huh? Let's not forget that you're not so innocent either!"
"I LOVE him, I want him and he feels the same!"
Henry scoffs. "You, do NOT love him, you just met the guy! YOU don't know him."
"Henry, I do love him! When I'm around him I -" He looks her in the eyes, his once apologetic eyes now angry. She's never seen them so vicious.
"Don't you DARE insult me like that in MY own home! YOU DO NOT love him." The tears start to flow from her eyes now. He lets go of her chin.
"I DO love him!" He strikes her across the face and she falls over on the bed. As she turns back with her hand on her cheek, his is guilt ridden and staring back at hers.
"I'm so sorry Alis,". He backs away to the door behind him, shutting it as he falls against it, "Alison, I would never -"
"Save it!" She says as he sits on the floor. She holds her hand on her tear-stained face to cover the dark red mark left from his hand.
"Alis -" his face burns with shame. In all of the years that she's known him, he's never cried. He was always so tough, one of the things she loved so much about him. He doesn't look at her, just stares down at the floor. All of those years spent in college secretly in love with him, admiring him when they were together and envying all of his girlfriends.
Her heart pounds so fast and so hard. She has everything she'd always wanted - She has him. Her mind automatically goes back to the thoughts and feelings she had when she received her first call from him while she was in Florida. And how her heart leapt when he'd confessed his love for her through the art of written word. She still keeps that letter, in her desk drawer.
She'd never thought he would hit her. Clearly he hadn't either; he was always so gentle with her, so kind, so caring. How'd this happen?
Now on the floor he cries because he'd done what neither of them thought he would do in a billion years. He looks at her, pleading with his eyes for forgiveness. Her cheek burns, burns where he branded her. She cheated on him. That'd be the excuse. She made him feel like less of a man by taunting him with her sin. But he had sinned too. He had done the very thing she regretted. They can't blame it on each other, neither of them had known.
What now? Can she leave him? Leave the man she so desperately wanted for so long, to run into the arms of a man she swore she loved? But here Henry was, helplessly sorry for the pain he caused her, on the floor crying. Well, he's not crying anymore, now he's drying his face and staring up at the ceiling. Probably asking God- 'What have I done?' 'Will she ever forgive me?' 'I don't know what happened!'
Alison stands and walks over to the window in the back of the room. Why feel sorry for him? He was just yelling at her; calling her a liar and a cheat, trying to make her feel worse than she already felt. 'Let him suffer and cry!' She thinks.
"Alis," in a serious tone he asks, "Were you planning on leaving me when you got off that plane?" She doesn't answer right away. His voice is sincere.
"I didn't know," she starts, "I didn't know if I was going to. But when I came home and saw you two, I thought I knew." She turns to see him, her hands gripping the windowsill behind her. She bites her bottom lip.
"Julia was coming by to see if you were home yet." he lifts his eyes to meet hers. "I told her you would be at the airport in a couple of hours and I was going to pick you up."
"I sent you a text last night telling you I'd catch an earlier flight."
He nodded and took a deep breath.
"My phone is off, it died yesterday and I haven't put it on the charger." he let his eyes fall back to the floor as he fiddled with the carpet. "She was upset about something, so I invited her in to talk. I wasn't planning anything - she just looked like she needed someone to talk to."
'First mistake' Alison thinks, 'evil, conniving little...'
"Anyway, we were talking, and she leaned in and kissed me. We got carried away and the next thing I knew, we were in bed and you were walking through the door. I'm so sorry Alis." He looks up again and lets his head fall back against the door. He closes his eyes, probably in an attempt to keep his cool.
Alison lets the tears stream down her cheeks again, she can't leave him. Not now. She could forgive and forget-She could - if Nick wasn't involved. As if reading her mind, Henry asks,
"Do you really love him?" She was so sure before.
"I don't know," Her cheek throbs, "When I was around him, I was so sure. He made me promise him. Promise that if I could tell you as confidently as I told him that I loved him, that I’d leave you." Henry doesn't open his eyes, but his hands are now still as he listens. "When I saw you two... and I told you that I loved him. I believed it was because I really did love him more than I loved you. But-"
"You said it out of anger," Henry says, "You were angry with me." A long pause enveloped the space between them.
"You hit me Henry." She says callously. He doesn't respond, "And before that, you attempted to make me feel guilty. More guilty than I already felt to cover up your own infidelities."
“Not,” He says, eyes open now but looking up and away from her," to cover up my own. I was wrong, but when you told me about him, it felt like a slap to the face. It felt like-"
"You got a taste of what the rest of us girls get!" She says, he's looking at her now, "the rest of us who cry ourselves to sleep over you and let you break our hearts!"
"Honestly Alis! Why are you so surprised? I've never been faithful to any of my girlfriends."
"Sorry for thinking I was special!" She raises her voice now," And thinking this Damn ring meant something!" She takes it off and throws it at him. He stands and catches it before it hits the ground.
"I'm sorry I slept with her okay? I have been trying to change for you, I've tried so hard!"
"Screw you! You didn't try!" He’s in front of her now.
"What about you!" He comes back at her snarling," Does this ring mean anything to YOU? What is your excuse? And don't you dare say love because you and I both know that's BS."
"I'm not sorry for sleeping with Nick! I'm sorry I hadn't met him a long time ago and slept with him then! I knew something was going on with you and Julia from the first week I was back up here!"
"It took a lot for me to resist her advances at first Alis! I'd never slept with her before! That entire time you were in Charlotte, I was dying! I'm a man- I have needs, I can't fight that nature!"
"Don't you blame your weaknesses on nature! It's you! It's always been you. You're a weak little boy, grow up and be a MAN and stop blaming your mistakes on everyone and everything else. YOU cheated Henry! You didn't need to invite her in! You wanted to!"
"Don't condescend me and tell me to grow up! You claim that you've loved me so desperately for so long-and what do you do once you've got me? The first time you're out of my sight you go 'fall in love' with some guy you just met!" She shoves him as hard as she can; only moving him back a couple of inches. She tries to open the door but he catches her by the arm and pulls her toward him. He wraps his arms around her and kisses her, hard and passionately.
She remembers those feelings she had to hide from him all of those years in college. She loves him, despite his faults; she wants to be his forever and always. Nick is a figment of her imagination now, and as Henry leads her to the bed, he says "I love you" between kisses. "I'm so sorry babe, I love you."
"I love you too," She whispers, "I'm sorry, I don't love him. I love you."
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