An affair? Are you thinking of having an affair? A flash fiction very short story by Rob Hopcott.

"Claudia! Have you been thinking of having an affair?"

The question was out, almost inconsequentially.

She stared ahead more intently at the open road, eyebrows slightly arched.

Then she shifted in her seat. The knees that I'd always loved peeked out from beneath her chic black dress, but now they were pointing away from me. It was a simple, small, defensive movement but it filled me full of fear.

The Ford still smelled new but now, instead of filling me full of pride, it made me want to retch.

She reached up and pulled her raven hair into a pony tail. In the half light, my eyes were drawn to her delicate ears and swans neck that I still longed to kiss.

Outside, suburban street lights glittered. All around, the rush hour traffic hummed indifferently with fellow travellers rushing home from work.

Still no reply.

She reached into her hand bag and checked her face from a small mirror, then applied a delicate touch of lipstick to the most kissable mouth in the universe.

Were those the lips she now dreamed of pressing against another's? Why didn't she reply? Was her silence already an implicit confession?

She gathered her hair again into a pony tail then let it cascade free across her shoulders. Were these the shoulders that soon she hoped would be caressed by a new lovers hands?

"Claudia! Why don't you reply? Have you been thinking of having an affair?"

Her voice drifted across to me, faintly, as if it had been travelling for a thousand miles.

"Yes!"

The End

Copyright Rob Hopcott 2007. All characters in this and other flash fiction or very short stories on this site are fictitious and no reference is intended to any person living or otherwise.