"I just got home from work." Ray yelled.
"Well, I had to pick the kids up from school because you were stuck in a meeting!" Debra yelled back at him.
"All you do is whine and complain!" Ray replied.
"I whine and complain?!" Debra asked angrily.
"You whine about my parents coming here every day, you whine that I never do anything around here and you whine about the children misbehaving!" Ray yelled.
"Your parents come here unannounced all the freaking time!" Debra screamed in Ray's face.
Ray and Debra had arguments before, but over the past few months, their arguments have gotten worse every single day. It was affecting their children as well, with Ally moving into Frank and Marie's house across the street.
"Maybe if you actually did some real work around here, then I would be happy!" Debra taunted Ray.
"Listen, Deb. I work Monday and Friday from 9 o'clock in the morning until 5 o'clock at night. I'm a sports writer!" Ray said, defending himself.
"Oh, don't use that as an excuse for your laziness!" Debra snapped at him.
"Maybe if you weren't such a bitch, you would actually look for a job instead of complaining all the time!" Ray said.
Debra's face turned crimson. How dare he say that to her! But she managed to regain her composure and said, "Just leave, Ray."
And with that, Ray left.
Debra went into the kitchen and threw the tea towel into the sink with anger. She hated arguing with Ray, but she was so stressed out with maintaining the house that she just took it out on him. She knew she wasn't being fair to Ray, but who could she take her anger out on? Certainly not the kids. Marie, maybe. But her every day visits became less frequent ever since Ally moved in with her and Frank, so there really wasn't any point for her to get angry with the overbearing Marie.
Debra looked out the kitchen window. Was her marriage in serious trouble?
For Ray, however, things were much different. He was attracted to the new fashion writer for Newsday, Taiya Goodman. She was around the same age as Debra, but she was African-American. She was so much nicer than Debra. In fact, she treated Ray with the respect he deserved.
So, when Ray was concentrating on his latest sports column the following day, Taiya happened to walk into his office.
"Hi Ray." Taiya said, giving him a warm smile.
"Oh, hey Taiya." Ray said, but his facial expression was of irritation.
Taiya walked over to him, "What's the matter, honey?"
Ray sighed, "Oh, just me and my wife had another argument last night."
Taiya looked at Ray sympathetically, "That sucks."
"Tell me about it." Ray said.
Taiya sat on the edge of Ray's desk before saying to him, "You know, Ray. I have strong feelings for you."
"You do?" He asked her.
"Since the first day I started here." Taiya replied.
Ray got up from his desk and walked over to Taiya. They looked at each other for a few minutes before they slowly leaned towards each other and kissed.
Taiya smiled and replied, "That was good."
"It sure was." Ray smiled back.
And that was the beginning of Ray's affair with Taiya Goodman.
