When The Lights Go Down

Cheatin' Songs

For about a week, FP finally felt like he and Gladys were getting back on track. Sure they still had their moments, but things seemed promising. She kept her promise that the two of them would spend a one-on-one night together, no interruptions, and it was one of the best nights they've shared in a while. No arguments, no talk of the tour or other work related things, just a husband and wife and some takeout from their favourite Chinese restaurant.

She opted to stay in bed while he took June to school, and surprisingly didn't fight him when he told her he was going to grab breakfast with Fred and a couple other team members, and would fill her in when he got home.

When he pulls back into their driveway an hour and a half later, he skips up the stairs with a jump in his step. Things are seemingly coming together with the tour, and will hopefully take a bit of stress off of both he and Gladys.

"I'm home!" He announces, tossing his wallet onto the table by the door. Gladys isn't in the living room though, or the kitchen, or anywhere on the first floor for that matter. He chuckles to himself as he realizes she must still be in bed, maybe they can both get a couple hours extra sleep.

He heads up the stairs and pushes open their bedroom door, expecting to crawl into bed beside his wife and catch up on sleep. Instead he finds her tangled in their sheets with some guy. FP stands there stunned as he watches the man press kisses along his wife's neck, both blissfully unaware that FP is standing there, until Gladys turns her head and sees him out of the corner of her eye.

"Shit!" She scrambles to get away from the man atop her and begins to plead with her husband, who's still unmoving. "FP it's not what it looks like-" She hastily searches for her clothes to cover herself.

FP doesn't speak, can't find words anyway, he just stares, not even budging when the man in question stumbles past him, half dressed. He just swallows the thick lump now forming in his throat as Gladys scurries over to him, taking his face in her hands. "Talk to me baby, say something."

He looks down at her, his eyes filled with hurt and tears not yet falling. "Get out."

She blinks in disbelief. "W-what?"

"Get out." He repeats softly.

"We can talk about this!" She insists. "We can work it out."

He shakes his head, feeling his cool start to slip as she grasps at him, trying to keep him looking at her. "Please, just go." He repeats, more forcefully this time, as he turns out of their doorway.

"No, no, FP." She chases after him, dressed in a t-shirt and nothing else, and it makes him feel sick. "We're Gladys and FP, we're Hollywood royalty, we can't quit."

He whirls around on his heels and glares at her. "I'm not the one who quit this, you did the second you got in bed with that guy." He argues. "Now I'm serious, I don't want you here."

"What about June?" Gladys spits. "How am I supposed to tell her that daddy kicked mommy out of the house?"

"We'll tell her together." He decides, trying not to get upset at how she's using their daughter as leverage in their argument.

"She's going to hate you." Gladys tells him coldly, trying to hurt him.

"And if she finds out what you did someday, she'll hate you." He fires back, his face quickly softening as the gravity of the situation hits him like a ton of bricks. "How could you?"

She shrugs. "It just sort of happened."

He scoffs, laughing a little out of sheer disbelief. "That's all you've got? You cheat on me, destroy our marriage and all you can say for yourself is "it just happened"?"

Gladys throws her hands up in defeat. "What do you want me to say, FP? That I'm in love with him? That I got bored and wanted a lay? Both answers would piss you off so really, what do you want me to say?"

"I want you to act like you care! You seem more worried I'm going to yell at you then you are that I just caught you cheating."

"I do feel bad you caught us, I never meant for that to happen." Gladys admits, her voice noticeably softer.

"Yeah instead you just planned to screw around behind my back."

"Can you honestly say we've been happy lately?" She wonders, as if that fact somehow makes what she did better.

"No, but we've been doing better the past few days. And anyway, that shouldn't matter Gladys! You still cheated on me. If you're so unhappy you should've filed for a damn divorce not started an affair."

"But what about the tour?" She brings up, again looking for some kind of leverage.

"What about it? You never seem to care about it any other time."

"A divorce would really bog down ticket sales."

He stares at her and shakes his head, she doesn't even seem to care. "Ticket sales should be the last thing on your mind right now."

"You're the one who's been so gung-ho about it!" She argues.

"Not when it's that or our marriage!" FP bites back, his face crumbling as he stares at his wife. "Who are you anymore?"

She narrows her eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that this, the person you've been lately? It's not the woman I married." He points her up and down and she scoffs.

"People change FP."

"Into an adulterer?"

"Says the alcoholic." She bites, the words coming out with such ease, as if she's been waiting to use that line on him for years.

His face drops at that. It's one thing to fight with him and throw around petty insults, but to throw the one thing he's the most ashamed of, that he's tried so hard to heal from, in his face, hurts. "Get out." He whispers.

"I'm sorry-" She begins to ramble, but he holds his hand up not wanting to hear a word of it.

"Gladys, please!" He stresses. "Just go."

"Fine," She agrees stoically, picking up her jeans from the bedroom floor. "I was planning to meet Lisa later, I guess I'll just stay there for the night."

He doesn't respond, just stands there in his spot numbly. She knows he'll pick up their daughter, that he'll take care of her, she doesn't have to worry about that. So she grabs her purse and her keys and slips out the door, leaving a stunned and sorrowful FP in her wake.