The kind of place you didn’t just crash at because you were tired. I knew this because I’d looked into booking a room there for our anniversary last year before deciding it was too expensive.
Something wasn’t right. Actually, everything wasn’t right. I pulled up our bank account on my phone. We had separate accounts for personal spending, but a shared one for household expenses and emergencies.
The credit card linked to it was one we both used. My finger hovered over the transaction history and part of me wanted to stop, to not look, to preserve whatever ignorance I still had.
I looked anyway. There it was. Posted at 11:43 p.m. last night, The Meridian Grand Hotel, $485. But that wasn’t all. At 10:17 p.m. Sapphire Spa and Wellness, $340. And earlier at 7:30 p.m.
Russo’s Fine Dining, $218. I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. This wasn’t some impromptu decision to grab a room because she was too tired to drive home. This was planned.
The spa package, the expensive dinner, the luxury suite. This was a date night. Just not with me. I stood up, my coffee-deprived brain trying to process what I was seeing.
Over a thousand dollars in one evening. While I’d been sitting at home worried sick, calling hospitals, she’d been having a spa day and eating at one of the most romantic restaurants in the city.
My phone buzzed again. But this time it wasn’t from my wife. It was a notification from Instagram. Someone had tagged her in a photo. Normally I didn’t pay much attention to her social media, but given the circumstances I opened it.Home security systems
The photo was posted by Jennifer Kim, one of her coworkers I’d met a few times at company events. The caption read, Team dinner turned into quite the night. Wine glass sparkles.
Posted at 8:47 p.m. I zoomed in on the photo. There were about eight people seated at a long table at Russo’s. I recognized the restaurant’s signature marble walls and gold lighting.
