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rudely on a Sunday.
    During the drive home last night, he’d stopped his daydreaming long enough to realize that Julie was as angry with him about the evening as he was with her. It hadn’t helped that he’d stalked into the house, leaving her outside to say goodnight to her friends. He and Julie had taken a vow on their honeymoon never to go to sleep angry with each other. More often than not, they’d kept that vow. Last night they’d broken it. Neither giving an inch, they’d tossed and turned for a while before falling asleep. It was no wonder he’d woken with the sun blazing in his eyes.
    He continued down the stairs toward the kitchen. Julie had probably been up since dawn, waiting to chew him out. Even if he’d only dreamed the weird part of last night, he and Julie would still argue over the real part. And if the weird part had happened, he felt sure Julie had noticed. Face it, Old Man, you’re screwed .
    Typical for a Sunday morning, Julie sat at the table in the breakfast nook, the newspaper spread out before her, a section held in one hand and her coffee mug in the other. Lindsay was not in sight, but then what eighteen-year-old wouldn’t sleep till noon any day she could get away with it?
    “Morning.” Tom poured himself a cup of coffee. He grabbed the sports section and took his usual spot across the table from her. The only response from Julie was a flash of angry eyes over the top of the Arts & Entertainment section. He sighed. “All right, what did I do now?”
    “Do you have any idea how rude you were last night?” She slapped the paper on the table. “If you weren’t even going to try to enjoy it, why did you agree to go?”
    “In the first place, I agreed to spend the evening with you alone. You know I never enjoy being with Patricia. And that Eddie! How could you even think I could tolerate a creep like him?”
    “I wasn’t expecting them to drop by. And I didn’t actually invite them to come along. They just . . . assumed. Anyway, that’s no excuse for sitting silent all night. You embarrassed me, Tom.”
    He took a deep breath. He really didn’t want to fight with her this morning—especially if it had anything to do with Patricia. “I wasn’t silent all night. I just didn’t have much to say about the movie.”
    “You had nothing to say about the movie. You had nothing to say about anything . Your mind seemed to be somewhere else. Back at the theater maybe?”
    Her vehemence alerted him she was more upset than his behavior last night warranted. Despite that heads up, her mention of the theater caused a thrill to ripple up his spine. “What are you—”
    “Did you think I didn’t notice you staring at that woman in the ticket booth?”
    Before any reaction could show in his face, Tom jumped to his feet and retraced his steps to the coffee maker for a refill. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t even remember seeing the person in the ticket booth.”
    The smudge of guilt from those lies quickly washed away with a surge of relief. The confusion vanished. Again, images and emotions from the night before flashed through his mind. Confirmation that he’d had such a strange experience made him uneasy, but he couldn’t deny it also excited him. The Woman was real. Julie’s voice, now surprisingly calm, shattered his reverie.
    “What was it you whispered when you saw her, ‘Oh, my God’? Did you think I—and Patricia, by the way—couldn’t hear that?”
    Shit . Tom closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Julie, I don’t remember saying anything . I had a headache, and I wasn’t exactly thrilled that our date night had turned into a double date. That’s all .”
    “Is she someone you know? Someone you never expected to see there?”
    Tom sighed. Not trusting himself to face her yet, he remained at the counter. “What are you insinuating?”
    “I’m not insinuating anything; I’m asking directly. Did you have—or are you having —an affair