Page 1 of Mr. Infuriating (Mister #1)

Mr. Infuriating

Gretchen

“ No !” I screeched when my computer screen went black at the same time all the classroom lights shut off.

I dropped my head to my desk and willed myself not to cry in frustration as the silence of the dark room filled the air.

Even if the power did come back on, the old software on my classroom desktop didn’t update my work constantly like my personal laptop did.

I knew when I turned the dinosaur back on, everything would be lost.

Administration had decided to schedule school building maintenance during the teachers’ planning day. Kids were dismissed at noon, and we were supposed to use that time to work on our curriculum. But the last hour I just spent on lessons might have been in vain.

There was nothing that annoyed me more than having my time wasted.

I really should bring my laptop to work with me and use that.

Except it would be just one more thing I needed to remember in the morning, and the last thing I needed was to add another item to my morning checklist.

I barely made it to work on time as it was. Between getting Jake, our eighteen-month-old son, up and ready in the morning and getting him to daycare, plus remembering my lunch, his diaper bag, and my satchel of student work, my mornings were hectic enough.

My classroom door opened and Samantha McClung, my principal, stuck her head in my room.

“Hey. It looks like we’re going to be without power for a while. Feel free to get out of here.”

“Okay, thanks for letting me know.” It was on the tip of my tongue to ask what happened, but then I realized I didn’t care. “Have a good night.”

“You too, Gretchen.”

I decided to take advantage of this new-found free time and do something nice for my husband. I could swing by the grocery store and pick up ingredients to make his favorite, lasagna, and get it prepped before heading out to pick up Jake from daycare.

The question was, would Troy be home to enjoy dinner while it was hot? He’d been working so much lately.

Me: Hi, babe! Do you think you’ll make it home for dinner tonight?

He answered right away, which I hoped was a good sign.

Troy: Sorry, hun. Probably not. I’ll try not to wake you when I get home. Give Jake a kiss for me.

It had to be killing him to only see his son on Sundays. He rarely made it home before I put Jake down for bed, and he didn’t wake up until after we’d left for daycare and work. When I suggested he take Jake to daycare in the mornings, he said he didn’t want to disrupt our son’s sleep schedule .

I guess that made sense.

Not five minutes later, Stacy McCartney, the sixth grade English teacher from across the hall walked in with her backpack slung over one shoulder.

“Studies have shown one-strapping is bad for your back,” I admonished as I grabbed my lunch bag from the little minifridge under my desk.

“I know, but old habits die hard. The cool kids one-strapped it when I was in high school twenty years ago.”

“I’m glad that trend died before I got to my freshman year. My back hurts enough now as it is.”

“It’s because you carry a thirty-pound human everywhere. And thankfully, I do yoga three days a week to counteract any effects one-strapping might be having. Speaking of… I’m headed to an early class now, wanna go with me?”

Yoga would do me good. Maybe it’d even help with the remaining baby weight that had been lingering on my hips. But not today, I had an idea.

I looked at the folder of essays to be graded as I draped my satchel over my body and hemmed about whether to take the file home.

Zipping up my bag while leaving the essays on my desk, I replied, “I think I’m going to take advantage of this early out and surprise Troy with an office picnic.”

It’d felt like Troy and I were drifting apart, and I desperately wanted to rectify that. I couldn’t even remember the last time we’d been intimate.

I’d thought with me being off for the summer break, we’d have more time together, but my poor husband worked six days a week and rarely got home before eight or nine in the evening. I could count on one hand the number of times we’d shared a meal in the last six months.

But today it wouldn’t matter. I’d come to him.

Maybe there was a bright side to this power outage after all.

~~

I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz as I practically skipped up the sidewalk leading to Troy’s office building with the picnic basket tucked under my arm. My heart raced as I waved to the receptionist and walked to the elevators.

Rarely did I get to see Troy in his element. Although he always looked handsome when he walked in the door at night with his tie loose around his neck, it wasn’t the same as seeing him behind his desk. I hoped he’d be surprised to see me.

And that he’d know how much I loved him. It felt like I hadn’t had a chance to show him in a long time.

It worked perfectly that his assistant Cora wasn’t at her desk that sat just outside his office. Her not announcing me only added to the element of surprise, and I’d get to see his genuine reaction.

I hesitated outside his closed door. Should I knock? What if he was meeting with clients?

Surely, they’d forgive an intrusion by his wife.

I opened the door with a big smile that quickly fell when I saw Cora bent over Troy’s desk, ass up, while he nailed her from behind.

The sound of the contents of the picnic basket rattling as it crashed to the floor echoed in my brain when my eyes met his shocked ones. I knew in that instant, my beautiful little life had ceased to exist.