Who I Did on My Summer Vacation

The First Week Back

Tammy wondered if she would have the nerve to tell Elizabeth about what had happened during her weeklong vacation at Myrtle Beach. She could hardly believe it herself. Tammy needed to tell someone, and of course, this was something that her husband Bradley must never hear about.

A musical number that had buried itself in her memory came to mind as she left work to meet Elizabeth at their club for their regular Monday night, beginning of the week wind down. It was from the third or fourth season preview of the Showtime series Dexter. The lyrics stated that, 'Two can keep a secret when one of them is dead.' Two people knew already, thought Tammy, but Dewain would not be a problem she assumed, because he had as much to lose as she did.

So, why do I want to tell Elizabeth about this she wondered? Because she is my best friend, and if this had happened to Elizabeth, then she would tell me, I'm sure of it. The only problem is I just don't know if I could keep such a big secret from Bradley.

Bradley and Elizabeth's husband Eddie were friends, good friends also. If Elizabeth did tell on her to Eddie, would Eddie go and blab to Bradley? Surely not, reasoned Tammy, surely he wouldn't be that stupid.

"By the way Brad, Liz told me that your wife Tammy got herself fucked by a black man down at Myrtle while you were at that seminar."

No way would he do that, Tammy told herself, no fucking way would he be that insensitive. Tammy resolved herself to make Eddie pay for such an egregious breach of confidence. A bullet in the head would not be punishment enough, assuming Bradley didn't murder me first.

I'll just demand that Elizabeth swear to me first that she won't tell Eddie. I wonder where I can find a stack of Bibles.

As Tammy pulled into the parking lot of The Chaise Lounge, she changed her mind for the sixth time about confiding in her best friend Elizabeth. If I tell her, I just know she'll run straight to Eddie and even if Eddie doesn't tell Bradley, he will tell Joe or Steve or Charlie, and they'll tell all their friends and then sooner or later, it will get back to Bradley and I'll be murdered for sure.

*****

"You didn't!" gasped Elizabeth.

Well, it's out now, thought Tammy, as she took another sip from her Chablis.

Elizabeth waved at their server to order another round of drinks and once the order had been placed, she turned back to Tammy and said, "Okay, I need to hear all the details. Start from the very beginning, and don't leave out a single juicy tidbit either dammit!"

"Okay," said Tammy, relieved that the big news was already out of her closet. "If I start at the very beginning, that was about four weeks ago, no wait... six weeks ago. Bradley and I were making plans to spend the week down at Myrtle Beach since we hadn't been there in a couple of years."

"I like Myrtle," commended Elizabeth, I wish Eddie would offer to take me sometime soon, the bastard."

"Hush, let me get started at least," warned Tammy. "Well, like I was saying, Bradley and I were making plans. It was actually his idea but it sounded like fun and I told him that I agreed that we deserved a nice getaway and some beach time."

"Sounds like you got away all right," Elizabeth snickered.

"Hush," said Tammy again. "Well anyway, Bradley went online and booked a room at one of those fancy hotels right on the beach for the entire week. We would check in Monday morning and then stay all the way though Saturday night with us checking out Sunday morning."

"Nice," said Elizabeth, "so what happened?"

"Well, two weeks after Bradley made the reservations, his boss called him in and told him that the company had signed him up to attend a week-long presentation on some new software the company had bought to manage the company payroll. And of course, Bradley had to be the one they sent since he is the only one that knows anything about software and technology."

"Ah huh," said Elizabeth.

"When Bradley came home that evening, I remember it was a Tuesday, he said, 'Forget about fixing dinner,' and he took me out to my favorite Italian restaurant. That's when he gave me the bad news."

"But, didn't Bradley already get approved to have that week off?" asked Elizabeth.

"He did! But his boss said that he didn't have any control over when the seminar was going to be scheduled, and that Bradley needed to go because the new program was scheduled to be installed right after he got back."

"I'll bet you were pissed off," observed Elizabeth.

"Actually, no I wasn't. I mean; I wanted to go and I had been looking forward to it but I understood. It was Bradley that was upset because he didn't want to spoil my fun."

"So, what happened next?" asked Elizabeth, growing impatient for her friend to get to the juicy parts.

"He told me that after he had met with his boss and got the bad news, that he started thinking about our plans. He said that in a way, he was still going to get a week's vacation because the seminar was taking place down in Tampa, Florida in a beach front hotel."

"So, why didn't you just go to Tampa with Bradley?" asked Elizabeth.

"Actually, that was what Bradley originally thought of too when he was sitting in his boss's office. Then, not ten minutes later, his boss emailed him and said that he wanted Bradley's new assistant, John, to sit in on the seminar also and to save on expenses, they had changed Bradley's reservation to a double room. Of course, that meant I couldn't go."

"So you just decided to go to Myrtle by yourself?" asked Elizabeth.

"No, that was Bradley's idea. He said that I deserved my vacation too. He told me he thought that I should just go ahead and use that reservation we had already made down at Myrtle because he would be tied up all day long and some of the evenings anyway."

"So, it's his fault that you ended up getting yourself laid," laughed Elizabeth.