Roy waited in the far corner table of the bar, sipping what little he had left in his Manhattan. He was alone, but only for a moment. He had just handed his wife his wallet, and sent her off to buy another round.
Briefly alone and somewhat bored, he watched the women of the bar with a careful eye; they were covered in their Friday night war paint, willing and ready to make passes at any man or even boy that would offer an available eye. He knew this scene all too well; he knew his wife all too well.
At the other end of the bar his wife cozied up to one of the younger bartenders.
“What happened to Mark? Doesn’t he usually work on Fridays?”
“Yeah, well I had this thing going with Mark where I would work his Fridays if he needed off, so here I am.”
She licked her lips, and looked over at her husband of twenty years, sitting patiently, tapping his feet to the sounds of the jukebox.
“Well my brother over there would like a rum and coke, but I’d like a Cosmo--a strong cosmo.”
Roy took the last sip from his rocks glass, smiled, and thought to himself,
“In an hour she’ll become sloppy, complain that the bartender was hitting on her, and demand that we leave.”
This was tenth or ninth time they had been at this particular bar, and almost everytime without fail, his wife end's the night with a bitey comment that somehow questions his role in their marriage.
“What kind of husband are you? You just let any man hit on me...disrespect me?...You're a god awful husband.”
But Roy was in fact a very good husband. He knew it and so did she. However for some reason, his wife's behaivor truely irked him the more he thought about it. So he got up drink in hand and walked over to his wife.
He slammed his glass on the bar and interrupted whatever meaningless conversation the bleached white smile was having with his wife.
“I can’t believe your forty-five. I almost carded you.”
“Hey kid, save it for someone who cares, we’re leaving.”
In the cab ride home, Roy began to divulge his every thought.
“We’ve been together for almost twenty-one years--Jane you know I love you, but this is killing me. You completely disregard me; you build impassible barriers between us. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yeah Roy, I know exactly what you mean.” she wiped the tears from her eyes and said, “You’ve found someone else haven’t you?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I just watched you flirt with the bartender for fifteen minutes, and you accuse me of infidelity? You’re out of your mind.”
The driver of the cab squeezed out a laugh and watched the two argue for the remainder of the ride though his rear view mirror.
As soon as the cab stopped Jane got out, and slammed the door, then ran inside their apartment. Roy went to pay the driver, but realized his wife still had his wallet.
The cab driver simply replied, “Don’t worry my friend. You get me back next Friday.
I hope it works out. Have a good night.”
Roy thanked the cabbie and approached the lobby of his apartment building. At the door he patted his pockets for his keys, and suddenly realized that they were not his pockets.
He rang the door bell several times and tried to get her to open the door, but there was no answer, so he did what he always did in situations like these: he took a walk around the block.
As he rounded Irving Street, he said nothing. He was thinking of what to do with his wife. How to patch things up. Perhaps counseling, therapy, a priest. He had not a clue.
“I really don’t know why I go through this every Friday. She’s at that age where she is bored with everything. I'm scenery to her. I'm the constant backdrop to the boring play she has box seats for.”
And then almost out of nowhere two cop cars, and an ambulance sped past him. Their light and sirens bounced off the buildings across and near him. He figured it was normal to see that in his neighborhood, so he kept walking but as he started to get closer to his building, he noticed that the same police cars were in front of his apartment.
He ran over to the yellow tape, and watched the E.M.T.’s carry out a stretcher with someone on it. He couldn’t see the face because the whole body was covered in a sheet. Roy began to fear the worse. He assumed that something had happened to his wife, and ran through the yellow tape, past the policemen, to the lobby of his apartment. He yelled out his wife’s name in hopes that she would hear him. The police grabbed him, and tried to wrestle him to the ground. He resisted, and fidgeted as the cops tried to subdue him. “Jane! Jane” he screamed but there was no answer. Just then his apartment window opened. There his wife stood wrapped in a bath robe and said to herself, “Oh my god, what is Roy doing? Why is he yelling my name? Why are there so many cops outside my building? What the hell is going on?”
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