Looking out of his office window, he thought back to the first time they had met in the men’s footwear department of Thayer and Company. He remembered the sweat seeping out of his pores when he got up the nerve to ask her to meet him for a drink. When she had suggested a hotel bar, his knees had nearly buckled. Later, over their wine, when her naked foot crept up his thigh, he wanted to take her right there at the table. The air between them was so thick he was more intoxicated by her scent than the alcohol he had consumed. That first time they made love he knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. From that day forward, his only desire was to be in her orbit and he’d do whatever it took to stay there.

Since his affair began, his wife had noticed on more than one occasion that he seemed preoccupied. “Lately, you’ve been in another world,” she had said, her comments jolting him out of the mind movie he was playing of his last sexual encounter with Gabriela. “You’ve been so quiet these past few months. Is everything okay?”

“Work is really intense, that’s all,” he had said to alleviate his wife’s concerns. She had accepted his explanations given his high-pressure job. Whenever he had little pangs of guilt, he distanced himself even more from the woman he had married.

Because of the pandemic, most people had curtailed socializing altogether but it didn’t stop Sr. Bello and Gabriela from their trysts. “I can’t bear being away from you,” Gabriela had purred in bed one evening while drawing a line down the center of his chest with her finger. “When I’m not with you, I feel like half a person. Do you feel the same?”

“How can you ask me that? You know I do.”

“When are we going to be together? I can’t wait anymore.”

“Trust me,” he had replied, her naked body in his arms rendering him helpless, “I’ve put a plan in place.”

When Gabriela had first suggested their only way forward was murder, he had been shocked. But she was a persuasive woman, and he eventually agreed that murder was their only viable path. With the wheels now set in motion, he was in deep and there was no turning back.

A colleague rapped on Sr. Bello’s open office door as he passed, signaling it was time for their meeting. Gathering his files, he stepped out into the long glass hallway, nodding and smiling to several CIG employees walking by. Ahead, at an intersection of corridors, another department head waved to him.

“Morning,” said the co-worker as Bello caught up and the two continued to the conference room together.

“Morning,” said Sr. Bello. “You ready for the meeting?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be. I heard Spaulding’s going to sit in today,” said the co-worker.