• Slowly, he quietly crept out of the bedroom, not wanting to wake the peacefully sleeping figure in bed. The wooden floors were cold beneath his bare feet. He held his shoes in one hand and his cell phone in the other. The only noise that could be heard was the pitter-patter of the rain and the sounds of New York’s busy streets. The chill of the late night seeped through the once, only hours ago, heated apartment. Where had all that warmth gone?
    Ring… ring… ring.
    He halted in mid-tiptoe. His phone was ringing. With a curious eyebrow quirked, he looked down on his right hand where he held a still phone. The ringing was coming from the bedroom.
    “Hello?” a deep and sleepy voice answered in the other room.
    He remained frozen in the hallway, his left foot still in midair not moving a step closer to the freedom of the outside world and escape the secretive seduction barred in the four walls of this apartment. His bones shook and his grip tightened around phone he held in his hand his knuckles turning white.
    ‘You could get out now,’ he silently told himself. ‘You can go… before it gets weird.’ He thought just as his left foot made contact with the floor.
    “Linda?” the voice in the other room said.
    ‘No,’ he thought to himself. ‘I can’t’ both feet now firmly on the ground and his limp body leaning on the nearest wall as he listened to the voice of the now awake figure in bed answering the phone.
    “No,” the now more alert voice answered the woman on the other line. “Dominic’s not here.”
    He could always depend on his best friend to lie for him, especially if it meant lying to Linda.
    “Why do I have his phone? Hmm…” he repeated the question just asked to him to buy some think time.
    Dominic smiled inwardly. He wanted to hear how David would get out of this.
    “We must have switched.” He answered quickly enough. “Me and Dom had a couple of drinks earlier. We must have accidentally switched phones then.”
    ‘Good one.’ He thought to himself, impressed by his friend’s quick thinking.
    “Don’t worry Linda.” David reassured her. “I’m sure he’ll be home soon.”
    And like a bad joke, Dominic doubles back just as the other man was reassuring the clearly worried woman on the other side of the phone.
    David was still in bed. His hair was a mess, ‘out -of-bed’ look as people would say. He was now sitting up, his back against the headboard, the sheets just covering him from the waist down. His was torso bare and glowed under the moonlight. A cell phone in hand, holding it against his right ear as he spoke to her.
    “I’m sure he couldn’t have gotten very far.” He told her as he gave the other man an annoyed look.
    In mock innocence, Dominic shrugged his shoulders and pouted his lips as if to teasingly ask ‘what?’ David just dryly chuckled and shook his head in defeat.
    He chuckled along as he stared at him with silenced intention. He wanted to be on that bed again. He wanted to be near him again, but opted to lean against the doorframe watching him talk on his phone.
    “Stop worrying so much. He’ll be home soon.” He calmly told her. Then he lifted his eyes to him and said “I promise” It wasn’t just a reassurance. It wasn’t even just an option. It was an only option. He really was promising her that her husband would be home soon.
    They said their goodbyes and the half naked man closed the phone in his hands. “I thought you’d gone home already.” He said eyes down on the cell phone on his hands.
    “Just about to.” He replied as he stepped forward to put David’s cell phone down on the bed gently and stepped back again about a foot away.
    “Here.” David said lifting his eyes towards him as he tossed him his phone. “Your wife called.” He added his once groggy voice, now serious and hurt.
    “Yeah,” was Dominic’s only reply after he caught it. “I heard.” He added as he looked down on his phone, a bit ashamed to look at him in the eye.
    A pregnant pause hung before them. He was fidgeting on his feet. He still had his shoes in his hands and his phone on the other. He looked at it for a moment, and then looked at the phone that lay on the bed. ‘They had the same exact phone.’ He thought. He never realized that until now.
    He looked back up to him. David wasn’t making any eye contact. He was just sitting there. His back was still against the headboard and his face down on his restless hands. He knew why this was. He only acted like this when he had to do something he didn’t like doing. He didn’t even need him to look up to know that he must be biting his lips by now.
    Ring… ring… ring… broke the heavy silence in the room. The cell phone on the bed was ringing.
    “That’s Linda.” He said, finally looking up from his twitching fingers. “I told her you got my phone by accident. She’s expecting you to pick it up.” he explained bluntly.
    Dominic took a step forward and did what he’s wanted to do since he re-entered the room. He sat on the bed, just on the foot, right next to the other man’s legs. He looked down at the ringing phone. He could see the caller ID glowing saying Linda in big bold letters. It was her. It was his wife. He moves to pick it up, but doesn’t answer it.
    “Dominic answer it.” He told him.
    “Why?” he asked in barely a whisper.
    “Because.” He answered in a deep breath. “You have to.”
    “That your answer for everything these days?” he asked sarcastically in a dry chuckle.
    “Only if it has to be.” He answered as bluntly as he could.
    But he couldn’t, Dominic could still hear the slight quiver in his voice. He was biting his lip again. He really didn’t want to do this… so why was he?
    “I can’t do this anymore.” He admitted in a small and pained voice, answering the question that didn’t need to be asked. “We’ve got to stop.” He added with teary eyes.
    “Why?” he asked like a sad little boy being denied of a simple pleasure.
    “Cause we have to.” He replied.
    “But why?” he asked again.
    Ring. The phone rang again, this time in his hands. David looks at it guiltily while he was still under Dominic’s harsh stare, almost totally oblivious to sound. He takes a shaky breath and finally looks up at him.
    “Same reason why you keep going back to her.” He whispered his answer.
    It rang gain, for the last time just before Dominic finally answered it.