Her Substitute Groom

Connor Hughes

‘I know we were going to the hotel’ I scoffed unbelievably and sipped from the glass of wine I’d been drinking for a few minutes now. How could I have made such a big fool of myself going to find her? Why didn’t I just stay back? In my entire life, I’ve never felt so humiliated more than the way I feel now.

“Is she kidding me? Are they going to start dating now, huh? We are still married for fuck’s sake!” I cursed angrily, throwing the glass across the living room and it ended up crashing into pieces. Slowly, I clenched my fingers tightly into a tight fist, glaring hard into space. I felt my throat burn hot down to my stomach, I could feel my blood boiling in rage, and my heart pounded so hard that I could swear I heard the sound of it.

“That bastard!” I cursed angrily. Recalling the way he held Janice’s hand and walked away made me so furious. How they both acted like I was some lunatic lurking around where I wasn’t invited. The thought of the humiliation made me want to strangle him until he breathed his last, but on second thought, I didn’t blame him.

As much as I wanted to stop thinking about her, I couldn’t help myself. It was past 9pm, and here I was, waiting for her and there wasn’t any sign of her coming back anytime soon.

“Just fucking go to bed and stop waiting for her. Why should you wait for her?” My subconscious mind scolded me, but I couldn’t move my body. I reached for my phone and scrolled through it, intending to dial her number and ask if she would be coming home tonight, but I tried to hold myself back.

“Ugh! At this point, I think I’ve really lost it,” I mumbled and tossed the phone beside me on the couch, running my fingers through my hair. I’ve not been crazy before, but the shit mentally deranged people go through was way lesser than the one I was going through now. Do you know that feeling when you know that you are normal but still feel like you are not? That feeling when someone is disturbing your head and makes you think you’ve lost it but deep inside, you know that you are still with your senses? Yes, that’s the worst feeling ever, and the shit I was going through at the moment.

“Rose! Rose!” I yelled out, and her footsteps sounded on the floor as she came running into the living room. Rose is one of my maids here.

“Yes, Sir. Do you need anything?” Her low voice sounded.

“Get me a glass,” I said to her, burying my face between my palms.

“Sir?”

“Get me a fucking glass! You are not deaf, are you?” I yelled at the top of my voice as I rose to my feet. I’m not the type to scold my employees even the least of them which are my maids, although I’m not also friendly with them, but fuck! I wasn’t in the mood to be questioned at the moment.

“Alright, Sir. I will go get it,” She bowed and rushed out of the living room to get it from the kitchen, but I couldn’t wait for her, so I just picked up the bottle and started to drink directly from it.

“Here is it, Sir,” She soon came to give me the glass.

“Take it back,” I said to her, and without waiting for another second, she hurried off.

“Is she going to pass the night with him?” I scoffed when I checked the time and saw that it was almost 10 p. m.

“Is this not alcohol? Why am I not drunk?” I mumbled and checked out the bottle. I’ve drank half of the bottle but still not drunk, and it was messing with my head even more.

Seconds slowly ticked into minutes and after waiting for what seemed like forever, my phone beeped and I quickly picked it up.

‘Hey! I just left the concert now and I won’t be able to come home. Ace said he had a meeting with someone so he couldn’t drop me off this night. I Will just crash at his place for the night and come home tomorrow’ My eyes narrowed as I read through the message.

“Hu… huh? She’s passing the night at his house?” I huffed unbelievably and raised my eyebrows.

“Is she out of her mind, huh? Why would she pass the night at a man’s house?” I yelled at the top of my voice, and waves of anger sparked through me. It felt like I had a deep painful wound that was just stepped on. My heart wrenched so tightly that I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds.

“She must’ve lost her mind,” I shook my head and dialed her number, but her phone rang and she didn’t answer my call.

“Is she ignoring my call now?” I scoffed unbelievably and stood up, pacing restlessly in the living room.

Crashing at his place? He’s a man for fuck’s sake. Is she not scared he might force himself on her or do something crazy to her? Is that how much she trusts strangers? Those questions that weren’t supposed to be my business ran through my mind.

“You are a man too and she’s been living with you. It’s no different. Besides, you don’t love her,” My subconscious mind reminded me, but listening to it was the last thing I would do now.

I grabbed my car keys from the center table and stormed out of the house, heading to the parking lot, and the drive to nowhere started. I had no idea where I was going to look for her, but the only thing on my mind at that moment was to get her ass back here. I couldn’t just allow her to spend the night with another man like that.

“I don’t love her. I just don’t want her to get hurt while around me. She can do whatever she wants when we get a divorce,” I mumbled to myself as I drove on the driveway. Deep inside me, my heart was screaming another thing. My heart was yearning for her, I knew this was fucking jealousy, but still, I couldn’t admit it for some reason. For some reason I was scared of.

About five minutes into driving, I reached for my phone and with one hand on the steering wheel, driving, I used the other hand to check her location which I found on the map to be twenty-five minutes drive from here, but I would get there if I should drive outside the normal speed.

I sped through the driveway in a bid to get there as fast as I could, but I soon regretted doing that when the cops on patrol hauled me down, and I was forced to stop the car. One of them knocked on the window, so I wined down the glass, and as soon as he saw me, he pulled a funny look, staring at me like I was crazy.

“Why is he staring at…” I mumbled, but I stopped when I checked myself out and realized that I was wearing just my robe. Fuck! How come I didn’t know this before I left the house earlier?

“Uhm… Good evening, officer,” It’s crazy how I still dared to smile at the cop when I knew I was in deep shit.

“Is that the smell of alcohol? Were you drunk driving?” The cop asked me after sniffing for seconds, and that was when the realization dawned on me that I was really in a hot soup.

“Uhm…”

“You would have to come to the station with us, Mr.” The cop cut me off, and my heart dropped. Gosh! What the fuck have I done to myself now?