The other woman

Phoning 'home'

"Shall I come over? I'll have to bring the kids but I'm happy to come over, maybe she'll appreciate having a woman to talk to."

Seb shook his head as he walked around Alex's kitchen. He didn't want to sound ungrateful but Gisela coming over was the last thing that either himself or Alex would want. This place wasn't just a home for his PT, it was also their own little haven for them to spend some time alone together. It was the one place they could do whatever they wanted without worrying about anyone catching them in the act. "She's not that kind of person, she doesn't relate more to a woman than she does a man, she won't even speak to Britta about stuff and right now she's not said a word since she was told about it."

"So she's just shut herself up in her room?"

He stopped walking an eyed a stray bread crumb on a countertop, flicking it off with his fingers as he replied, "pretty much, yeh."

"Any idea what time you'll be home? Only I've got to head out and get a couple of parcels sent out to clients. I was hoping you'd be here so I don't have to load the kids into the car."

"I don't know, I just don't feel like I can leave her right now." He started walking again, sliding his finger along the granite surface and collecting a small amount of dust along the way.

"You're taking your role as her boss too seriously and I'm not saying that to offend you. You seem to look after her more than she does you."

He bit his tongue for a second, rattled by her remark and not wanting to raise his voice to his wife and stir up any suspicion. "I'm her friend too and she's got no one else, you know that."

"You spend a lot of time with her just lately and I don't mean just in a professional capacity, don't let her get too reliant on you and remember that you have a wife and kids at home who'd love to spend a little more time with you between races."

The mention of his kids made him feel guilty and saved Gisela from being accused of being uncaring when Alex had just lost her father. He knew that she was right, he'd not been spending as much time with his kids just lately because he was too busy spending his free time with Alex. "I know and I'm sorry. Look, when I'm back from America we'll take them all out somewhere and spend a day together as a family."

"Really? You promise?"

He listened to the hope in her voice and nodded his head, he owed his kids this much at least. "While I'm away, look at somewhere we could take them, maybe we could spend a night in a hotel too and then drive back the next morning."

"Or maybe we could take them camping? You know how much the girls loved it the last time we did it."

"Yeah." He smiled as recalled the memories of a camping trip last summer, in 2020. The girls had had so much fun; himself and Gisela had put up two large tents and Ehren had stayed with him in his tent while Rainah had stayed with her mum and baby brother in the other tent. Spending a night under the stars in the Swiss Alps had been magical and they'd spent the evening sitting around the campfire reading stories, counting shooting stars and toasting marshmallows which had been dunked in hot chocolate. "We'll do that, we'll see if we can go back to the same place again. It'll be cooler but I'm sure we'll still enjoy it just as much."

"That sounds like a plan, the girls will be so excited when I tell them!"

"Maybe leave it for a few days before you do, you know what they're like, they'll be counting down the days."

"I will be too." Gisela replied, her tone softening back down as she added an, "I love you."

"Yeh, you too." He replied quickly, finding that he was now unable to say the words to her. Things for him had changed quite quickly, now it was only Alex who he wanted to say those words to and to say it to his wife felt like he was cheating on Alex.