-Past-
Delphine wakes up with the movement of the bed when William throws the covers back and sits on the edge of the mattress as he does every morning. He turns the alarm off and makes his way to the bathroom. Delphine checks her phone.
It's Friday.
She used to feel only excitement for Friday evenings, but now it's a combination of anticipation and incapacity. The tension between herself and Cosima is a toxic thing. It gives her a pleasant high, but it's always insufficient and she's always helpless. The longer this thing with Cosima goes on, the harder it becomes to satiate her hunger in other areas of her life. She's been using Will lately, not bothering to push Cosima from her mind.
Delphine hears the shower turn on and almost instinctually gets up to join him. She doesn't notice at all now if William brings girls home or if he comes back late smelling like sex. All of her brain power is put into stretching her imagination, pulling a mask over Will's face and body that's slenderer and softer.
She enters the bathroom and strips, throwing her pajamas on the floor. She hasn't had shower sex in years. William is startled when she lets herself in, but not surprised. She's been all over him every day since Cosima requested her favor last week. The next time she had sex with her husband, she made sure not to think about Cosima, of course. However, thinking about her every other time after that has become commonplace.
William turns to pin Delphine against the shower wall, but she turns again and beats him to it, sick of being submissive. She pushes his chest hard until his back is flat against the wall. He doesn't seem to mind her new domineering approach.
She presses her body against him and imagines what Cosima will be wearing tonight. She squirms when his hands grasp her sides, remembering how soft Cosima's were when she simply grabbed her wrist.
Present
"Why don't you just call her or text her if you're so worried?" Madi suggests to a lethargic Cosima.
"I don't have her number," she responds lazily, handing the joint back to Madi.
"You don't have her number yet?" Cosima just shakes her head. "Dude, Cosima if this were any other blonde chick at the bar, you would have her number, address, and, like, three of her thongs in your apartment".
"She's different," Cosima shrugs, laying back on the same couch Delphine had her pinned down on just two weeks ago.
"Yeah, she's married and straight," Madi scoffs. "Maybe she realized how wrong this was and that's why she hasn't shown up".
"No, that doesn't really sound like her," Cosima looks at the three shot glasses in the little cubby of alcohol, two stacked on top of each other, and one sitting in front of an empty bottle of vodka.
"Because you know her so well," she hands the joint to Cosima.
"Better than you, asshole," she snaps at Madi.
"Dude, this woman is fucking you up," she shakes her head. "She's toxic and she's just playing with your feelings, which a lot of people don't even think you have. You're the player here, you're the one who always has someone in your bed but never calls them back". Cosima rolls her eyes and exhales with irritation. "It's not helping the situation with Jack, either".
"Fuck Jack. I didn't do anything wrong and it's not like this is even relevant to that situation," Cosima sneers.
"Cosima–"
"No, I don't want to talk about this," she interrupts, covering her face with her hands and groaning tiredly. "Think I could take next Friday off?"
"You're actually going to take that chance? You think she won't show up next week either?"
"No fucking clue. I just want to drink. I'll still be at the bar in case she comes in, you know, just…I don't want…I'll be way too distracted up there if she does show up and way too depressed if she doesn't. If she shows up, awesome. If she doesn't, then I'll drink".
"Whatever, Cos. We can get someone to fill in so you can get alcohol poisoning".
"Thanks, man. You're a true friend," Cosima smiles for the first time in what seems like days. It's relieving, even if it's sarcastic. Madi shakes her head and puts out the joint.
Past
"I'm home," Delphine announces, heading straight for the bedroom to avoid William and his coworkers in the dining room.
"Del, honey. Would you come here for a moment?" he calls in the sweet voice he reserves for when other people are around.
"What is it, darling?" She sighs, leaning on the dining room door frame and summoning a smile from somewhere deep inside.
"The audit has been officially announced and we'll all be very busy in a few weeks," he nods to the three extra men sitting around the table. "So how about you take the next couple weeks off and we spend some time together while we still can?"
She knows the reason for this request must be important to say in front of his coworkers. She is the perfect wife, after all. "Shouldn't be a problem".
"That means no Friday nights at the club, either," he raises his eyebrow. Now she knows the importance of this performance. William Black is in control, is not to be disobeyed, is the man in this relationship.
Delphine saunters into the dining room, making her way to Will at an agonizing pace. "Of course, my love," she agrees when she finally steps in front of him. She holds his face and kisses him slowly – a performance of her own.
She smiles at each of the guests as she exits the room. When she reaches the bedroom, she unclenches her teeth and strips down to her bra and underwear to prepare herself a shower. The frustration she endured this evening, hovering over Cosima on a dirty couch, pleading for some kind of release, has done nothing but tighten the knot in her stomach.
As if on cue, a cold hand slides across her exposed torso from behind. "Babe, the next two weeks will be just you and me, this room. Maybe every room in the house, on second thought," he kisses her neck and presses his body against her back. "Don't worry, I'll make it worth your while," he demonstrates his point by sliding his hand between her legs.
"Sounds like quite the vacation," Delphine decides it might be a good opportunity to relieve some of her built-up tension, especially tonight. She is more than willing to take it out on him.
"It will be," Will kisses her neck again. "I'm going to be making some calls tonight so no one will bother us," he smiles and lets her go, leaving her mostly naked, standing alone in the middle of their bedroom.
Delphine exhales harshly, not thrilled that her useless husband only worsened her issue. She starts her shower, locks the bathroom door, and attends to the problem, one particular person in mind.
…
…
…
Monday morning arrives after what feels like two weeks rather than two days. William spent most of the weekend drinking and going through paperwork. Delphine spent most of the weekend wishing she could leave or at least that she had Cosima's phone number. What if Cosima sees that she stopped showing up and loses interest? That's what Delphine should want, but it's nothing close to what she does want.
"Shit…babe? Del?" Will calls from downstairs.
Delphine takes her time finding him. "What's wrong?" she asks indifferently.
"They're, uh…doing home inspections first," he doesn't even look up. Paper, folders, packets all fly around while William digs through every drawer in his desk.
"Who?" she sits on the couch and watches him struggle.
"I don't know – the audit team, they'll be here in half an hour," he answers exasperatedly, glancing at his expensive digital watch.
"Is that allowed?" she wonders. "They can search your home? Shouldn't they at least give you notice?"
"Well, they scheduled home visits last week. I forgot about it until just now. Text reminder. And since so much of my business is off-site and my home is technically partly owned by the company, yeah. And my contract, I think I signed a release for things like this anyways, so I can't really say no," he seems to find what he's looking for and starts shoving things back in his desk. "If they want, they can get a warrant, if they have reason. But it's courtesy to just let them search. If I ask them to get a warrant, it seems like I'm hiding something, then they'll come back with one and look even more thoroughly".
"Embezzling has to do with money. You're not in any finance department. What kind of things would you have to hide here?"
"Uh…Well, that's the whole point. It's not just me doing this, it's a few of us. I have nothing to do with the finance department, so my place would be the best to hide finance things," Delphine notices the condescending tone, as if she had no experience in business. Her resentment for her husband grows every day now – exponentially since he forced her to submit for the sake of the other men sitting in their dining room. "Here, they're not looking for those kinds of records. And it's not like we can get rid of some of this stuff. We might have to falsify some things and do some copying," he adds vaguely.
"Well, that's what you get for embezzling," she shrugs. "Good luck".
"No, wait," he gets up and sits next to her on the couch before she can leave. "Honey, I need you to talk to them when they get here so that I can go through my office upstairs. Just stall them. Be your charming, gorgeous self".
"Fine," she sighs, contemplating the idea of acting like a bitch in front of them, just so they'll work harder to find his errors.
William thanks her ten times with an overwhelming air of relief, and then runs upstairs to start his next task. Delphine wanders until she finds their housekeeper. "Why don't you take the next week off?" she greets when she finds her in the kitchen. "I can handle William's messes," Delphine thinks about the double meaning and smiles.
"Are you sure?" the short woman asks, confused.
"Of course, paid vacation as a thank you for sanitizing the couch," she gives her a warm smile, truly grateful for her services.
"Miss, it's my job," she counters.
"You were hired to keep the house clean, not to handle offensive bodily fluids," she crosses her arms. "Go spend some time with your family," she shrugs at the door.
The housekeeper smiles widely and does as she's told. Delphine has always treated her well which is probably the only reason she hasn't quit. This time, though, Delphine's motives aren't for the woman's rest and relaxation, but so that she doesn't find herself in the middle of the drama Will has created. It's happened in the past to a lesser degree and put far too much stress on the woman.
Twenty minutes go by and Delphine finally hears a knock at the door. She takes her time answering. A single man stands at their doorstep, not a whole team as Will had implied. She leads him to the living room and sits next to him on their couch. Polite questions turn to objective-directed deception with a newly forming goal in mind. The conversation flows smoothly – despite the fact it's poorly improvised – and the man is shaking her hand with a smile in no time. A partnership forged.
"Honey," she calls from the bottom of the stairs, "Mr. Owens is here".
"Oh, lovely. I'll be right down," she hears the nerves in his voice and smiles to herself. He bounces down the stairs, out of breath. Delphine halts him before he enters the living room to straighten his shirt and tie. He smiles, under the impression she cares.
"He's in the living room, love," she says loud enough for Mr. Owens to hear. Her husband nods, and she follows close behind him, only stopping when they reach the entryway to the living room. She looks at Mr. Owens and winks. He nods with a calculating smile and shakes William's outstretched hand.
…
…
…
"I don't know what you did, but it worked. The guy barely glanced at my desk and didn't ask to see any other room in the house," Will laughs, watching the man drive away through the window.
"I asked him to be nice to you," she shrugs.
"Hm," he smiles a dopey smile and wraps his arms around her from behind. "For that, let me be nice to you".
"Sit," she orders, nodding at the couch.
"Oh, maybe the bedroom. Where–"
"I sent her home and told her to take the week off," she turns and pushes Will toward the couch. He complies. Delphine straddles his lap and unbuttons his shirt before turning him and pushing him back once more so that he's laying down. She leans down as well, hovering just above him. "Kiss me," she instructs.
William, unlike Cosima, kisses her immediately. Unlike Cosima, his hands explore the body above his instead of avoiding all contact. She kisses him roughly and lets her shirt be pulled over her head. By now, Delphine needs no effort to erase William from the picture and replace him with someone smaller, more charming. It's a wonder she's even able to differentiate when they're not having sex.
...
...
...
Though it seemed like it would never arrive, the two weeks of their confinement end. By the time their housekeeper came back to work, William was completely worn out from Delphine's spontaneous surrogate sex sessions and seemingly bored. It was with the same woman each time and he's used to variety, she supposes. The rest of their time was spent ignoring each other in separate rooms. Delphine worked from home through her laptop and she imagines Will did the same. A mixture of deep hatred and anticipation is all she can stand to feel around the man after so long isolated with him.
The fact that neither of them stopped working only backs up Delphine's theory that half the reason Will asked her to take time off is so she wouldn't be able to get all dressed up and meet this mysterious friend at the bar. She'd never admit it, but Cosima's absence was nearly unbearable. Even the week of constant sex couldn't take her mind of the girl and it did nothing to satisfy her carnal craving, as Cosima calls it.
Tomorrow night, she'll see Cosima again. Though, she's nervous Cosima won't want to see her – that she too is used to more of a variety and Delphine's absence only reminded her of what she had been missing.