Lipstick

‘Peter, Peter’ Lucy said as
she shook her husband to wake him up.

‘mmm, what?’ he mumbled.

‘get up, it’s after eight!’
she said with unease as she looked at the screaming black digital alarm clock
that sat on top of the pale wooden bedside locker beside the lava lamp.

They both had been at their works
Christmas night out the night before. Before getting up, Lucy sat on the edge
of the bed and scrunched her toes on the thick white shag carpet.

As she made her way to the
bathroom, Lucy had to step over the clothes that were discarded in the throws
of passion from both her and her husband the night before. Her head was
thumping from the amount of alcohol she had consumed at the party. She rummaged
amongst the clothes for her phone and, as always, she turned on her favourite
playlist which hooked up to the Bluetooth speaker that resided on top of the
cistern of the toilet.

She opened the shower door
and entered as the water heated up. She was singing away, her eyes closed, to
the song ‘Titanium’ by Sia, and jumped as Peter opened the shower door and
joined her. She could smell the alcohol exude from his pores.

They often shared a shower
together but there was no time for hanky panky that day. They were both due in
at work for nine. Both of them were criminal lawyers.

After the song was over and
her hair had been thoroughly rinsed, Lucy let Peter wake up properly under the
water.

The bathroom was full of
steam and Lucy wrapped up her hair and her body with two separate blue fluffy
towels before wiping the mirror with a third. She saw herself in the mirror,
bags under her eyes, and got a fright at how rough she looked. As she brushed
her teeth she saw a glimpse of her mother staring back at her.

Lucy made her way back into
the bedroom as Peter was singing along to ‘Chandelier’. She started to pick up
the discarded clothes and tossed them in the hamper in the corner of the room
next to the full length mirror. The last item of clothing she picked up was the
shirt Peter wore the night before. She took a double take at the collar onto
which was a smudged purple lipstick mark. ‘That’s weird,’ she thought as she
wore red lipstick to the party.

Lucy held onto Peter’s
shirt, unable to take her eyes off the lipstick smudge. ‘The dirty bastard’ she
muttered under her breath.

‘You ok Luce?’ Peter asked
as he exited the adjacent bathroom and tied a towel around his waist.

‘What’s this?’ Lucy said as
she turned around and confronted her husband. Peter had cheated on Lucy before
with another co-worker so her jealousy was justified.

‘Luce, I can explain,’ Peter
said as Lucy hurled the shirt at him. She threw a pair of tracksuit bottoms and
an old hoodie on and stormed out of the bedroom.

Peter followed her, one leg
in a pair of pants, screaming her name. He got to the living room and heard the
front door slam. He was in the dog house and he knew it.