Silently Falling in Love: Lucky Charm THIS IS THE EDITED VERSION

Chapter 3 - Frantic Husband

I replayed the afternoon's events in my head repeatedly. I couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. Once I knew Anjali was meeting a friend at the De Young Museum, I decided to surprise her in the middle of the day. I'd been working long hours at the new Venture Capital firm I'd joined since we moved to San Francisco and I assumed she'd be happy about the surprise.

But I walked into the café and saw her having coffee with a man. The "friend" was a man.

Calmly I walked over to her table and whispered "Surprise" in her ear. Anjali turned around and looked shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to surprise my lovely wife and spend the day with her," I forcefully smiled. I looked up to see her companion and noticed that the gentleman having coffee with my wife was none other than Jordan Kowalski. I'd met Jordan a few times but didn't know him well. Why was he having coffee with Anjali?

"Hello Jordan."

Anjali looked at both of us surprised. "How do you two know each other?"

I answered, "Jordan is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Valley. We're all just waiting to see where he puts his Midas touch next."

Anjali looked at Jordan, "I thought you were an art collector. I had no idea you were in tech."

"After my wife and I separated last year, I took a break from tech to spend time on other things in life, such as art, you know stop and smell the roses. I've been taking a break from tech," Jordan stated with sadness in his eyes.

He got up from his chair and shook my hand. "Anjali, spend the rest of the day with your husband. I'll see you next week at yoga."

Anjali asked, "You aren't coming to my yoga class tomorrow?"

"I'm going out of town for a few days. But I'll be in class next week and I promise to do my sun salutations when I'm not in class. Both of you enjoy your day." And with that he walked away.

Anjali and I stood in place awkwardly. I was trying to make sense of the fact one of the most successful people in Silicon Valley had taken a break from his career and was instead taking yoga classes with my wife and going to art museums. And she had no clue who he was. How had Jordan met my wife and what were they doing meeting in the middle of the afternoon?

Anjali looked at me confused and flustered and kept asking me why I came to see her in the middle of the day. A panic started to rise in her, and she got up and said, "Oh my god" and ran out of the museum.

Shocked at first, I stood frozen staring after Anjali. Why she had run off? I should be the one upset, finding my wife with another man.

As I ran after her she jumped into her car took off. My car was parked further away, and I ran as quickly as I could dodging all the moms with their strollers and the tourists that were visiting the museum. I jumped into my car and drove out of the Golden Gate Park and spotted her car. I followed her for a while through San Francisco and then she disappeared onto a highway leading out of the city. Damn it – if there was one thing Anjali knew how to do – it was to maneuver a car. She could move a car and speed even in a traffic jam. I'd paid enough of her traffic tickets to know she knew how to drive a car and then some; that too after she'd probably sweet-talked her way out of half of the speeding tickets. Not knowing what to do and which direction to go I pulled over.

Why had Anjali run like that? I replayed the morning scenario in my head, yet another time and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Oh god, I didn't like the scenario playing out in my head. Jordan had recently separated from his wife of over 25 years. Was she having an affair with him? Jordan knew her weekly schedule, and it seemed they met regularly.

As her husband I was ashamed to admit I hadn't known Anjali's weekly schedule. When had she started teaching yoga? Rich, successful, recently separated entrepreneur meets a lonely, beautiful housewife whose husband was too busy for her. I knew my wife could still turn heads even at 43!

We'd recently moved to San Francisco after Anjali had lived her whole life on the East Coast. She'd left everything for my job. All of her friends and family were back East. I knew she was lonely, and it was hard starting over again in your forties. But it had been a joint decision for me to take this offer. She had agreed to it. She said it would be a great adventure, and we'd be closer to my family. She had told me she'd always dreamed of moving to California. Was she really that miserable that she would cheat on me?

I didn't know where to go to look for her, so I drove home to see if I could find some clues. Or maybe she was cooling off and would come home soon.

Fifteen minutes later, I arrived home and threw my keys on the table in the entrance. The picture on the table caught my attention and I stared at it. It was from our wedding. It had been a long time since I'd paid attention to the picture.

The picture brought back so many memories. I grabbed the picture and sank into the couch in the living room. I leaned back on the couch and stretched out my shaky legs and remembered the first time Anjali and I had made love. It seemed like yesterday- it had been incredible and unexpected.

We'd been at Anjali's best friend Katherine's engagement party at a swanky restaurant in NYC. Her parents had thrown a fancy party to celebrate Katherine's engagement to Andrew. Anjali was there, and she looked stunning that night. I still remembered the long pale-yellow gown she wore. The right side had a slit up to her mid-thigh and the front of her gown had a V-neck that plunged down enough to let your imagination go wild. Her skin tanned from her recent vacation to the Caribbean gave her a care-free vacation glow about her.

Anjali was so happy for Katherine and in complete celebratory mode and as a result had a little too much to drink. It was the first time I'd seen her so intoxicated. At the end of the night, my job was to make sure she reached home safely. And that was my intention, but I took her back to my place to help her sober up, so she wouldn't hurt too badly in the morning. My dad's hangover remedy always worked. I had planned on sobering her up and then driving her home. I had started out with honorable intentions.

As soon as we walked into my apartment, Anjali took off her heels and sighed relief. She loved and still loved walking around barefoot. Maybe it was the years of dancing and yoga. It was that small gesture of taking off her shoes and walking to the living room windows, sinking her feet into the carpet, and looking out at the NYC skyline that still stuck in my mind even after all these years.

I watched her from behind and admired the big scoop on her dress giving me a view of her dancer's back. It was hard focusing on concocting the hangover remedy when all I wanted to do was kiss her back and explore what was underneath that yellow gown. Somehow, I made the remedy and brought it to her. She had tired of standing so she pulled the pillows off of the sofa to make a makeshift chair near the windows and continued gazing out at the skyline.

I took off my tie and jacket and sat next to her. She drank the remedy, and we talked. What we spoke about I don't remember, but what I remembered was that we talked for a long time. Eventually she stood up and asked me to take her home.

Once I faced her and looked into her hazel colored eyes, I drowned. I was so close to her I could smell her perfume and feel her breath. She was so beautiful and looked innocent standing there and I couldn't help myself; I bent down to kiss her softly on the lips, then across her jaw and then murmured in her ear how breathtaking she looked. Then I kissed her. God, her lips were so soft and tasted like nectar. I still remembered our first kiss. I trailed kisses down her neck and pushed one of her sleeves down, so I could kiss her shoulder. When I pushed her sleeve a little lower, I realized she didn't have a bra on. I was completely lost in her. I continued to explore and kissed her breast. She was so responsive, and we fit so well together. I asked her to stay the night, and she agreed. I took the pins out of her hair so I could feel her thick wavy dark hair and murmured into her ear and finally admitted to her how long I'd been waiting to make love to her. I pushed the other side of the dress down and with that the entire dress fell to the floor and I walked her backwards towards my bedroom.

God, I still remembered the first time we made love, yet I couldn't remember the last time we had made love recently. Had it been that long?