Julia, my wife of ten years, smiled and nodded towards the elevator. I smiled back and stood.
“I’d like to thank you all for coming. Dessert is on its way, as is coffee, tea and cognac. We, uh, we are going to slip upstairs for a bit, but please, stay and enjoy yourselves.”
Our marriage had hit a rough patch. We’d just grown a little stale. She had heard all of my jokes; I had heard all of her stories. TV had replaced conversation and our bedroom was more of a place for sleeping than romance. The restaurant was one of the best in the city and located in a legendary hotel.
We’d celebrated with friends and loved ones, and I’d rented one of the suites on the top floor. This was going to turn us around; I was sure of it. I was nervous, and I sort of liked it. We’d grown complacent. I knew that tonight was affecting her as well. She’d been acting off all week.
When we got in the elevator, I began to kiss her neck.
“Whoa, tiger. Slow down. We’ll be up there in a minute. I have a surprise for you. It’s going to bring a little electricity back to our relationship.”
I gently nibbled on her earlobe before leaning back and looking in her eyes. “Surprise? What sort of surprise?”
“You’ll see in a minute.”
When we got to the top floor, I stepped out. To my right stood Todd Blankenship, my wife’s boss. I turned to Julia, but she moved past me and stood next to Todd. Reaching down, he took her hand.
There was a smirk on his face. “Hello, Chuck. How was your dinner?”
“What the fuck is going on?”
Julia had her lower lip between her teeth before she began speaking. “Charles — ”
Blankenship interrupted her. “Shhh, I have this. Julia and I have decided that we’re going to spend the night together in the other suite. You’ll stay in yours, and I’ll return her to you in the morning. You can reclaim her, or do whatever people like you do, and life will go back to normal. You’ll both have the memory of this night to put a fire back in your belly.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
As I took a step forward, a gigantic hand squeezed my shoulder from behind. I’m not a big guy. I’m not in particularly good shape. Blankenship had it over me in both of those areas. The guy behind me? He towered over both of us.
Blankenship’s smirk turned into a smile. “This is Avery. He’s not a good man, but he’s not cruel. If he has to hurt you, he will, but he won’t enjoy it. Avery, take his cell, put him in his suite, remove the room phone and then watch the elevator.”
I stared at Julia. “This is what you want? You’re going along with this? This is going to destroy us.”
“No, it’s going to put some life back in our marriage.”
“You’re an idiot. I’ll be seeing my lawyer tomorrow about the divorce, and I’ll have both your boyfriend and his goon arrested for false imprisonment.”
Julia sighed, rolled her eyes and turned her back to me. Avery’s grip tightened.
There was nothing I could do. He marched me to the suite door. Avery soon had my phone as well as the one next to the bed.
I haven’t been in a fight since the sixth grade. I’m not some karate guy. Physically, I’m as average as they come. Thirty minutes after I had been put in the room, I grabbed some soda. A minute later, I was out in the hallway.
Avery started coming my way, and I held up the bucket. “Getting ice!”
When he was a few feet away from me, I reached into the bucket and grabbed the pillowcase filled with cans of Coke. Swinging it as hard as I could, I hit him in the head. He stumbled backward, but didn’t fall. I hit him again, and that did the job.
I quickly grabbed my phone from his coat pocket, as well as a key card. The card worked for the other suite and I got five minutes of video of Blankenship and my wife. They were distracted. Heading back to the elevator, I started dialing.
“Hey, Dad? We decided to have everybody up here for a nightcap. Could you grab Julia’s folks and Father Tom and come on up?”