A 1984 Romance

Mark  hadn’t told a soul about Rebecca. Well he’d told his brother, obviously he’d told his brother, there was no secrets between the Rowlands boys. But other than Tony, not a soul knew. And nor could he. If anyone found out about Rebecca, then Mark’s life would be in ruins. He’d put his wife, kids, house and job all on the line for Rebecca, but boy was she worth it?

He was quite proud of the fact that in the modern day and age, with all the technology at people’s disposal, he’d managed to keep his 4 month relationship with his colleague secret from his boss, his wife, his other colleagues, everyone. In his own little way he felt like a spy, covering his tracks, hiding his tricks, coming up with wild schemes to hide the fact that he had taken a lover.

They’d made sure there was no electronic footprint. That’d meant no texts, no Skype, no email., nothing to give it way. They’d jokingly called it their 1984 romance, an illusion to them trying to evade big brother but also because it was devoid of the technological trappings of the modern day relationship.

And they’d got away it too. 4 months of wild, passionate sex, crazy conversations about the meaning of life and the definition of kinky, raucous evenings getting drunk and no regrets. And now Rebecca’s secondment was over, she’d gone home and life would go back to how it was before. Back to being happily married people in their happy homes with their happy jobs and their happy memories.

Mark missed her, his heart was a little bit broken and if he hadn’t come up with a plan then his wife would have noticed. He’d decided to have a few days off sick, wrap himself up in a duvet and invent a bout of man flu to help him ease the pain. Ursula was a great sick nurse. She made him soup and brought him tea and forbade him from getting out of bed or watching TV. But of course because he wasn’t really ill that meant he was bored. So while she was downstairs watching the TV, he decided to Skype message his brother from his phone.

Tony: So Becs has gone then?

Mark: Yep :-( to be honest I’m gutted.

Tony: You’ll get over it.

Mark: Not so sure. she was special.

Tony: You’ll be fine, what does Ursula think.

Mark: Told her I had the flu, she’s being great.

Mark: You fucking bastard. Get out of this house before I come up there and stab you. You have 4 minutes.

Mark stared at the message that had appeared on his screen without him typing.  Shit!  It took a while for the penny to drop. He must have been logged in on the family iPad as well as his phone. Ursula must have been reading his messages downstairs.

Mark: Yes well done for working it out. you are logged in on the iPad. And now you have 3 minutes.