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Chapter One

Cameron

The couple looked like they were in about their mid-fifties Well, he looked about that old The wo with her are I watched them She wasn't dressed for work—not the kind that he did, in any case She wore stilettos and a chic camel trench coat Not the most practical work outfit, but then it probably depended on what your job was It is none ofhioddamn discreet about it

TheThe woman? Hadn't seen her a day in h They stood on the sidewalk, kissing furiously His name was Kirk Lourd He drove a Mercedes, and he and his wife had three kids She was a stay-at-home parent They had probably sat at the sa breakfast Hours later, and here he was, ht outside his place of work He had soood or bad thing Guess it depended on who you asked

I couldn't i to do that shit, didn't you at least have enough shame to do it behind closed doors? Anyone could see them What if his wife happened to come by? What then? What the hell did you even say? They finally separated, and he opened the car door for her He patted her ass as she turned to get into it, saying soh to hear What could that have been? It’s you I want to be with, I swear I’d leave her if we didn’t have the kids Yeah, or some other lie like that He slaone, he turned and walked back into the building Just like that

You knohat, Porter? She probably knows, I thought Even better, she probably doesn't care I shook round It was cold out; I could see my breath form clouds in front ofI had been outside the building almost twenty minutes I wasn't late yet, but ten more minutes and I would be The whole scene with Kirk and that wo about that all day Or how about just forgetting it? It's none of your business anyway Shit, he isn't your husband If you had been inside, you wouldn't even have seen anything Just pretend like it didn't happen

That would have been nice Just not giving a fuck and pretending everything was fine What was that like? Kirk seee and kids had never happened It looked like that woman could pretend to be attracted to Kirk so he'd bankroll her, unless their love was real and it was just a sha bad He had absolutely been at least thirty years old by the ti her into the world I liked to reserve odda with some people?

It felt like a movie sometimes, because all the parts had already been written A ets rich He gets hiether They live in a beautiful hoo on beach vacations in the su holidays in the winter You'd think that would be enough; it sounded like a pretty good way to live to me

There were rules though, apparently Once you hit a certain tax bracket, there was a certain car you had to drive You had to get your suits from a certain place You had to be unfaithful to your wife It wasn't just the men; it was everyone To make a play work, everyone had to play their role That was just how the systeot their script and acted their part Whether it was a role you chose for yourself or one someone chose for you didn't matter You just did it

The whole street was on the o A role to fill A job to do The ht about it, the more I wondered how many people did what they did because they wanted to and not because they believed they had to or had been forced to believe that they had to

Did it evento his wife So what? He wasn't the first person to ever do it and wouldn't be the last either What he ate didn’t make me shit It wasn't any of my business in any caseuntil I had a wife and a couple kids and it was