TWO

 

 

The day of the accident started like any normal Tuesday. He kissed Jennifer goodbye in their kitchen and then gave Denise a squeeze and a kiss.

He got into his BMW to head to his office in the McClaskel building. He worked there as a corporate attorney, specializing in property acquisitions.

He liked his job, actually. Found it interesting and challenging and rewarding since he and Jennifer never really were short of money.

He also liked his new car and the new-car smell of the leather. He splurged and got himself a new BMW every year, mostly because he could.

His office was a corner office on the sixteenth floor looking over the downtown area of the city. He had two large plants that framed the windows and a large mahogany desk, plus a couch and chair tucked against one wall with a mahogany coffee table in front of them.

It was a beautiful office.

He hadn’t returned to it since the accident.

They were holding his job for him, but he wasn’t sure if he could ever return.

On the day of the accident, everything had gone normally. He had had lunch with two of the other lawyers and three assistants in a nearby pub. He even had a glass of freshly brewed ale. He remembered it tasting smooth and rich and he planned on returning the next day for another glass.

He wasn’t much of a drinker, but he enjoyed a good ale.

Back in the office after lunch, he had worked on two cases, one right after another and by three p.m. he had finished up both.

That was when Anna from accounting came in and asked him for some of his time to figure out a few things about a third case. She had an accounting puzzle she needed his help with.

Now Dan had flirted with Anna a few times, but all innocently. He had never fooled around on Jennifer and had no thoughts of doing so.

He loved his wife and his daughter more than anything in the world.

Anna was about his age of thirty-five, had long blonde hair, and large green eyes. She also had a bright sense of humor and a body that looked like it was out of a swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.

He had heard she was divorced with no kids and was enjoying her freedom, but he didn’t ask her about any of that.

The day of the accident, Anna had on a white blouse that showed hints of a lacy bra under it. She had on a business skirt and had her hair pulled back and tied.

For over an hour, they sat on his couch, side-by-side, going over the accounting ledgers she had brought on the coffee table. They joked and laughed and he enjoyed the company and the challenge of finding what they were looking for.

By 4 p.m. they had finished and were both sitting on the couch sipping on bottles of water, just talking.

And then something happened that surprised Dan and made him feel really powerful at the same time.

Anna leaned over and kissed him.

Her kiss was very different from Jennifer’s tentative butterfly kiss. And as Anna kissed him, she pressed into him and he responded, kissing her back.

And the next thing he knew, he had tipped over on the couch and she was on top of him.

They were both still dressed when the first part of the accident happened.

“Daddy! Look what I bought!”

His office door opened and in walked Jennifer and Denise, both smiling until they saw the scene on the couch.

They both stopped and stared.

Anna scrambled to her feet, grabbed the accounting ledgers from the coffee table and fled while Dan just stood there.

He didn’t know what to say to either his wife or his young daughter.

What could he say?

After a moment, Jennifer had said to him in her cold, angry voice, “We need to talk when you get home.”

He had nodded.

Jennifer took Denise’s hand and they turned and left without another word.

That was the last time he had seen them.

By the time he had managed to collect himself to go home and explain to Jennifer what had happened, the second part of the accident had happened and his wife and daughter were both gone.

Dead.

Fifteen minutes after leaving his office, Jennifer had drifted into the oncoming lane of traffic and was hit by a large semi-truck.

Both Jennifer and Denise were killed on impact.

Dan knew he had killed them because Jennifer must have been crying while driving and she had never been that good a driver as it was.

He had no memory of the funeral.

He had little memory of the last six months sitting in his dark empty house.

He was as good as dead as well.

He just hadn’t stopped breathing yet.