The Affair

Sora couldn\'t believe it. The one man whom had long ago completed her childhood was now standing there before her, his trademark grin adorning his lips like some sort of blessing of familiarity. And yet...he was also very different. His hair was mostly hacked off, yet it was still shaggy enough to hang down in front of his deep brown eyes. He was taller, slightly broader in build, and he seemed even more confident in himself, if that were possible.

\"Well?,\" Tai finally demanded, thus snapping her out of her brief reverie. \"Aren\'t you going to invite me in, or something?\"

Sora managed to give him a wry smile, then nodded, acknowledging pleasantly, \"Well, of course! How silly of me! Please come in and state your business, won\'t you?\"

Shocked that she was now treating him as if they had never met, Tai uneasily stepped forward, then unearthed a beautiful pink evening gown from within a small traveling bag. \"This,\" he began, \"is why I came. My fiancée\' has recently picked up the hobby of designing gowns, so, knowing that you were in the fashion industry, I decided to come here and sell her first piece that she ever created.\"

Sora\'s heart took an unexpected dive. \"F-fiancée\'?\"

\"Oh...uh...yeah. It\'s Mimi,\" Tai acknowledged, anxiously adjusting his tie. \"We met up a few years ago in New York, and now we\'re engaged. Pretty cool how things worked out, huh? I mean, first you and Matt, and now me and Mimi.\"

Sora\'s eyes clouded over at the mentioning of her husband and his alleged mistress, but, like a piece of ice on a hot plate, the look melted away as soon as it had come. \"Yeah,\" she finally agreed, \"it really is......and I really like the dress. Mimi\'s very talented since she managed to make a gown all by herself.\"

\"Yeah, well she almost convinced me to model it out for her, but she luckily found somebody else for the job,\" Tai conceded, smirking sheepishly in spite of himself.

Sora laughed loudly at this. \"Now that I\'d like to see! Tai Kamiya...the world\'s next Cindy Crawford!\"

Tai smiled, yet it never quite reached his eyes. Something was deeply troubling him, and he felt that if he didn\'t come out with it very soon, he just might burst due to all the built-in tension.

\"Sora,\" he began, apprehensively twisting the gown about between his hands, \"how\'s life in \'paradise\' goin’, nowadays? I haven\'t heard from either you or Matt in years, so...\"

\"This isn\'t the time or the place to discuss this type of thing, Tai,\" Sora immediately reprimanded, regarding him with a look that would cause most men to piss their pants.

Tai, however, was not like most men. Reaching out his hand for her to accept, he urged warmly, \"Well if that\'s how you feel, we\'ll just go on out and grab a bite to eat...just you and me. There\'s a big special goin\' on down at the Blue Cod, so it\'s my treat!\"

Sora smiled, gingerly taking his hand in her own as her acceptance. How could she say no?


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\"It was really sweet of you to take me out like this, Tai.\"

He shrugged. \"It\'s nothing...just chalk it up as a sudden whim of insanity, if you\'d like. It\'s just that I haven\'t seen you in so damn long, so I felt as if I had to talk to you and see how you were holding up.\"

\"Oh...well that\'s very sweet of you, too,\" Sora decided, absently tracing her finger along the rim of her wine glass as she felt herself slipping further and further away.

Why was she so uncomfortable with discussing her life and marital issues with her best friend? She and Matt loved each other very much, so surely there was nothing to hide....

\"You\'re trembling.\"

Sora immediately looked up. \"Excuse me?\"

\"You...you\'re trembling,\" Tai elucidated softly, regarding her with a look full of genuine concern. \"Are you sure you\'re ok? You really don\'t look so hot.\"

\"Well thank you very much,\" Sora teased, suddenly taking an unexpectedly generous sip of her wine before signaling to their waiter for another bottle. \"I always knew deep-down that you didn\'t find me to be very attractive....it\'s such a shame how you\'ve lied to me so many times over the years up until now.\"

Tai let out a grunt of frustration, then immediately shook his head. \"Sora, Please!,\" he begged, \"tell me what\'s wrong with you!\"

Sora opened her mouth to reply, then immediately closed it, her eyes filling up with tears once Tai reached out across the table and fondly interlocked his hand with her own. \"Please tell me, Sora,\" he tried again, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. \"You know that I\'m here for you, right?\"

\"Y-yes,\" she choked, suddenly turning away so that he could no longer see her eyes. \"And I....I have to go.\"

Tai balked. \"What? Already? C\'mon, Sora....please don\'t go.\"

This was all so wrong...

She immediately stood up. \"I have to,\" she insisted, removing her hand from within his grasp as if she had been burned. \"Tell Mimi I love the gown and that she should expect a pay-check within the week.\"

\"But Sora...\"

\"Good-bye, Tai,\" she cut in, regarding him with large, sad brown eyes before turning from the table in order to make her escape.

It was just so like her to run away from her problems, yet she no longer cared. She couldn\'t now that Matt no longer needed her...


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\"Well you\'re home awfully late.\"

Matt jumped as if he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, his deep blue eyes narrowing significantly once he came to rest them upon his troubled wife. \"What, so now you\'re keeping track of how long I\'m out?,\" he demanded, tossing his overcoat onto the back of the easy chair in front of the TV before plopping down upon it. \"Be a doll and make me somethin\' to eat, will ya?\"

Sora stiffened. \"That\'s an awfully demanding request, considering the fact that you don\'t even spend any time with me, anymore.\"

\"Aww, c\'mon, don\'t give me that crap right now!,\" Matt moaned, clapping a hand over his forehead as he sank down even further into his easy chair. \"All day long I\'ve got my boss breathing down my neck about getting things done in time, so on top of it all I really don\'t feel like coming home to a bitchy wife givin\' me the cold shoulder!\"

Sora winced as if she had just been slapped. \"What\'s happened to you, Matt?,\" she whispered, all the while fighting back burning tears of utter pain and bewilderment. \"You used to be so romantic and sweet....don\'t you love me, anymore?\"

Matt sighed. \"Sora...\"

\"Oh, no...don\'t you Sora me!,\" she warned, waggling her finger back and forth before threateningly placing her hands on her hips. \"If you really cared, you wouldn\'t be staying out all night with Mimi!\"

Matt choked, then released a sudden fit of raucous laughter. \"What?!,\" he wheezed, shaking his head in utter disbelief. \"Are you kidding me? Who told you that?!\"

\"Nobody had to, idiot! I read your phone bill!,\" Sora wailed, trembling like a leaf as her husband rose up in order to overcome her current height advantage. \"Please, Matt,\" she tried again, shaking, \"please tell me the truth. Only then can I be the loving wife that you so desire.\"

Sighing, Matt took Sora within his arms and breathed in her heavenly scent, acknowledging breathlessly into her ear, \"Sweetheart, you know that I would never intentionally hurt you by doing such a terrible thing.....you\'re my whole world. How could I possibly let something as precious as you slip through my grasp?\"

\"Oh, Matt,\" Sora whimpered, burying her face within the crook of his neck, \"I love you so incredibly much.\"

Matt smiled, yet it never reached his eyes.

She was a fool, all right, but she was his fool, and he’d have to live with that mistake for the rest of his life.