I’m introduced to Dan and am magnetized by this almost comically homely man, flashing me a presumptuous smirk. Within minutes, I’m swooning, marvelling that he is so insightful, that he uses words like “acrimonious,” that he puts everyone in stitches with his anecdotes and that he has a kindness and vulnerability to him, such that, when my husband and I return home, I cry pitiful tears that men this lovely apparently exist.
The intervening hand of fate has us working in the same building, taking lunches together, clinking toasts at the nearby bar after work and bringing our spouses in on this epic friendship, our partners yawning while we giggle and one-up each other’s arcane music references. When he confesses his passion for me one night in the hot tub, I melt into him with an open heart, an open mouth and an arched back.
The intensity of the kisses overwhelms us such that I divine our souls somehow hold the same originating spark. As I murmur words of gratitude that we finally found each other, he is dismayed that we met so late in life and agonizes about hurting his wife and their children. I acquiesce to his request to cool things down, feeling noble, magnanimous even.
When I get a phone call from Dan’s wife, Janet, that he is leaving her, I swoop to her side. We review the emails hacked from his account where he blathers on and on about how the twenty-six-year-old is “too irresistible” for him to do the right thing. I stomp and tell Janet that I am outraged on her behalf, that I am livid he could treat her this way, that he would dare put her in the category of someone he can resist.
Angela James is a lawyer by day and a lover of flash fiction, comedy and Americana music. She resides in a small Canadian city with her spouse and many pets. Her first published flash ran in September of 2023 and was nominated for inclusion in Best Small Fictions.
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