The Middle
If you divided the number of times Lloyd and Marissa had slept together into the period of time that the actual affair had taken up, you would of course, have the average number of days between their meetings. Lloyd amused himself by doing the mental arithmetic while lying in the hotel room bed, feeling tired, exhilarated and king of the world. Marissa was in the shower, singing something that Lloyd did not know. This happened a lot as Lloyd had no interest in the latest hits. He was more of an 80s guy.
If Lloyd had thought deeper he might have realised that he and Marissa had few interests in common. They were both part of a friendship group that first came together due to of the friendship of their children and their affair had begun at a camping trip with all the families of the friendship group attending. Other than that, and the fact that they were meeting irregularly for sex in hotel rooms without their partners’ knowledge, they were very different people.
Marissa came out of the shower in a cloud of steam, a massive white towel wrapped around her long lean torso. The wrinkles of middle age were beginning to congregate around her kneecaps and eyes. Always flamboyant and selfish, Marissa did no math around the affair other than perhaps counting the frequency of her many orgasms with Lloyd. Despite his lack of self-assurance, sloppy eating habits and onset of varicose veins, Lloyd was a hard worker and wanted to please. He seemed to enjoy her pleasure as much as his own. Rare and unusual in Marissa’s experience.
“Let’s get dressed and grab some breakfast before we go,” Marissa ordered. She wasn’t tired but was certainly hungry.
Lloyd hesitated,” Be a bit safer if we have room service don’t you think?
The hotel was on the other side of town from their homes, part of an office park and convention centre, new and anonymous, but you never can tell. Naturally a follower Lloyd was already in awe and fear of the new person that he was becoming since the affair started.
“No, Marissa said sharply. “C’mon Lloyd, we have to check out in an hour anyway. I’ll shout and I don’t know anyone over here. Do you?”
“No,” Lloyd had to grudgingly admit and reluctantly he eased his solid frame out of the bed and padded to the shower. He thought he caught a look of distaste on Marissa’s face as he walked past. She was dressing, putting on a black bra while looking at her small breasts in the full-length mirror.
He had put on some kilos around the middle he had to admit. Was that it? Marissa hadn’t complained last night as he hammered her with all his weight from behind while she kneaded the sheets in her hands.
Lloyd showered and dressed quickly, careful to avoid the clouds of perfume generated from Marissa’s poor aim.
They took the lift down to the restaurant, tucked to the right from reception. It was large square room with full length windows looking over a large carpark and the national distribution centre of a well-known soft furnishing company. It was a Saturday morning yet the room was full, with only a few empty tables. Lloyd noticed that for a business hotel there were a surprisingly amount of couples.
A young waiter escorted them to one of the last tables. His black trousers were too long and the cuffs pooled like thick batter on his faux leather shoes. After ascertaining that they both wanted the full buffet breakfast and to charge the meals to room number 111, a number he said back to them with a degree of theatre, he returned with their cappuccinos.
Marissa sipped hers and scrolled through her phone.
“Surprisingly good,” she commented. Lloyd agreed. Now that he was downstairs he was hungry but still nervous. Should anyone see them breakfasting together in this place and at this time, it would be very hard to explain. The best thing to do would be to eat as quickly as possible.
He grabbed his plate and stood up to go over the long tables of hot breakfast food.
“You coming? We really need to get on or we will be late for checkout.”
Marissa looked at him with a smirk. “Don’t worry Lloyd, they won’t charge for another 30 minutes. You’re such a worrywart. And a tightarse.”
“Maybe,” Lloyd said trying to make light of his concerns, “but don’t forget your kids have water polo this afternoon and you agreed to take them.”
“Oh shit.”
Marissa unfolded her long skinny legs and grabbing her plate, marched off to the cereals and pastries.
By the time they had finished it was past time to check out. Lloyd having grown increasingly tense as the minutes went by, breathed an audible sigh of relief when Marissa deigned to leave the table. He stood up and accidently cut off the waiter who was coming to clear their plates. Lloyd turned to apologise to the waiter and to complement him on the coffee. It was not the same waiter though. This waiter had pants that fitted him, this one was someone Lloyd knew.
It was Hugo, Lloyd and Anita’s teenage godson. Lloyd felt the blood run from his face and suddenly the breakfast smells of coffee, bacon and maple syrup were overpowering.
Hugo looked at Lloyd and then the back of Marissa who had walked off expecting Lloyd to follow, not looking to see if he had.
Lloyd recollected what he knew about Hugo. He should be nineteen now and three years ago his parents moved to a big country town so Hugo must be here for Uni. They were never part of the camping group of friends, instead Hugo’s mum Kerry was a Uni friend of Anita, Lloyd’s wife. Contact between the families was less frequent now, so it was a safe bet that Hugo had no reason to find seeing Lloyd at the hotel with a woman not his wife too suspicious, as long as it stayed as a breakfast with no mention of the room.
“Hi Hugo, How long you’ve been working here? Did you get into Southern University?”
Hugo looked unsure, as if it is he who wished he was not recognised.
“Hi Uncle Lloyd,” as he had always called him. “Yep, started this year in Architecture.”
Lloyd felt compelled to explain. “Good for you mate. I know that was your first pick, so great job. Well I might see more of you then; I have a couple of interstate clients who hold conferences here fairly regularly. Just came out today to have breakfast with a key buyer and drive her to the airport. Big deal in the wings hopefully.”
Lloyd thought he sounded phoney as fuck but Hugo nodded and smiled agreeably enough. “Anyway, I should go. She would have checked out by now. Say hello to your mum and dad for me. We are overdue to catch up.”
Lloyd moved out of the way and Hugo began to clear the table.
“Will do Uncle Lloyd, how was the breakfast? Hugo asked as he stacked the bacon smeared crockery.
Lloyd distracted and eager to flee before Marissa could return answered,
“Ahh yeah, very good thanks Hugo, coffee was excellent and that is important.”
“Yeah, nothing better than good coffee after a big night.”
Hugo stacked plates in hand walked off.
Lloyd looked around but no one was seeing his terror and dismay. Diners’ heads were down, chewing food, checking screens. He scurried from the room suddenly needing the toilet.
He rushed into the toilet, charged into a cubicle and vomited up his breakfast, great coffee and all.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Marissa hissed when they met up again in the room. She was throwing her clothes back into her overnight bag. Lloyd sidled past her at the door and bent down to pick up and pack his own clothes.
“The waiter, the one who cleared the table, that was my godson Hugo. Cant fucking believe it. He’s only worked here a few weeks, down for Uni.”
“Didn’t you know?” Marissa accused.
“No, no course I didn’t know. Wouldn’t have suggested here would I, if I’d bloody known. But he saw us, he saw you leave the table. I made an excuse that sounded good I think. You’re a business contact from Sydney down here for a conference. I’m here to have breakfast and drive you to the airport. You remember, his mum is Anita’s best friend from Uni so this, this is not good. If he says anything to her…”
Marissa looked up, closed her bag. Lloyd thought she could look more concerned. Jesus, he was just about hyperventilating.
“Calm down Lloyd.” Marissa walked to him and threw her arms around his neck, whispered in his ear.
“You’re not that close are you? I can’t recall either you or Anita talking about him or the parents. He’s busy, got Uni, parties, more important things to think about than you. Relax.”
All the while Marissa rubbed her crutch on him. Lloyd started to feel all the muscles in his torso unclench.
Marissa laughed, “Jesus, you really do need to chill Lloyd. I don’t think you are cut out for this game. That story is good though, should be ok if we see him when we check out.”
Marissa slid her arms down and begun to sink to her knees in front of him. She smiled at him.
“Fortunately I know something that brings relief to the stressed.”
Lloyd complained half-heartedly, “We have to go Marissa, got to get back before.”
Marissa overruled him. “Shh, this won’t take long and you’ll thank me later,” she said.
Whilst Marissa undid his fly Lloyd wondered how Hugo was enjoying his first semester at university and how he would be able to look him in the eye again.
Photo by Michiel Annaert on Unsplash
