Suspicions
Written for Direneed, who wanted to see an interaction between Ralph and Deirdre.
She smells another woman's perfume on his clothes and she knows that he's having an affair. He goes away for a week every three months, when she goes to visit her brother in Brighton, and always returns more relaxed. He claims that he goes away to get "local colour" for his novel but wouldn't it make more sense to stay there for a few months?
She asks him that and he says that he needs to experience all the seasons.
The first year it's Wolverhampton and the next year it's Cumbria and the year after it's Ireland. It's after his second trip to Ireland that she smells the perfume on his clothes.
She's smelled it once before but can't place it.
***
"Why don't I come with you on your trip?" she asks him two weeks before he gets ready to leave again. "I could cancel my trip to Brighton to visit Will."
He chokes on his salad and is forced to pick up his glass of wine, swallowing copious amounts before he is able to speak again.
"It will be very boring for you, Deirdre," he says, "I'm going to be writing most of the time."
"I'd stay out of your way," she says.
"I'd feel awful if I allowed you to cancel your trip – you know how much your brother looks forward to your visit."
"But I'll miss you," she says.
He smiles, though to her knowing eye it looks a bit forced.
"I'll miss you too."
They finish their dinner in silence and he loads the dishwasher as she goes upstairs, ostensibly to pack. She gets down his suitcase and looks through its contents. There's not much besides his clothes – the only other thing there is a key, a single silver key, with a tag on it. The tag reads "F".
F...
There's a niggling thought in the corner of her mind and she knows that she should know who the key belongs to. But she can't place it...
She hears Ralph on the stairs and quickly closes his suitcase, turning back to her clothes. He gives her an absentminded smile as he gathers his pyjamas together and goes into the bathroom to take a shower and change. When he emerges, she has finished packing, and he joins her in bed.
She moves closer to him in bed as a prelude to something more but he feigns a yawn and turns away from her. That is when she knows that the perfume and the key and the trips away are not just coincidences. He is having an affair.
"Good night, Deirdre," he says and she gives him a weak smile.
"Good night, Peter," she replies.
Fiona is the only one who calls him by his first name, Ralph, something he is glad of. He has always despised that name but when Fee says his name it's different. Everything is different with Fee. Everything will always be different with Fee.
He falls asleep and dreams of Fiona; Deirdre lies awake and ponders the woman who has captured her husband's heart.