Happy Wife

Cassie walked down into the basement, holding champagne and a couple of glasses. At the last stop, she closed her eyes and smiled. A million, she thought. Her first MILLION!

Turning the corner, she picked up her pace, and the click-clack of her heels sounded like the rat-a-tat of a machine gun. She found her husband watching the monitors, the news of her win on every channel.  On the lips of every talking head. She had gone viral worldwide. Cassie chuckled at her own pun.

“Isn’t it amazing, baby! AHHH!!! Can you believe that I did it!”

She put the champagne on the desk and leaned in to whisper in his ear.

“I’m going to do things to you that would make a nun burn out her eyes so that she would never forget.”

Licking her lips, she spun him around. He wouldn’t look at her. She frowned.

“Benji? Benjamin. What’s going on?”

“I can’t do this anymore.”

She rolled him and the chair away. “Do what?”

“Us.”

“Are you shitting me? Why?”

“He glanced at the monitors.

“What? Oh. You can’t be serious because I hit a million before you. You egotistical jackass. I have supported you for years. YEARS! Every endeavor, every plan. I helped you get all the tiny components to see your vision through, to help you burn so bright. And now, now that I’m more successful than you, you want to leave me!?”

“Look, I -”

“And today of all days! My big day and you ruined it! Had to make it all about you! Such an ungrateful little…I should have seen this coming. Always downgrading my contributions. Happy to take all the credit. Hog all the headlines.”

Benjamin stood and moved toward her, balling his fists. Cassie sneered and jabbed his chest.

“You think you can intimidate me! You saw what I did! The sheer terror my virus has unleashed! Nothing you’ve done compares to that. You’re nothing compared to that. And it’s something you’ll never ever do, you weak-willed little pussy.”

“What are you - ?”

“Never! You and your little explosions. A few bombs here, a few bombs there. Your biggest only took out a couple of thousand. I told you again and again that just because you make a lot of noise doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere near your goal. You wanted to hit that body count, a million souls lost at your hand. This was your game. You set the rules. But I fucking won!”

“If I had gotten that uranium, I could have -”

“Oh, would, coulda, shoulda! It didn’t go your way, and now you just keep whining about it instead of finding a new way to get the job done. Just like a man! You couldn’t get the job done in bed either, but you hear me whine about it? No! Because I can figure out how to get what I want!”

Benjamin pushed her away. She stumbled but planted her heel and held her ground. Grabbing the champagne, she popped the cork, poured a glass, and downed it in one gulp. Fiddling with her wedding ring, she turned it round and round. He watched her leave the diamond in her palm. She slapped him. He only felt the sting of her rebuke and the small drop of blood rolling down his cheek.

Cassie flipped the ring back upright. “We could have done a lot, you and I. A million today could have been a billion if you’d get out of your own way. Or mine. Now we’ll never know.”

Benjamin touched his cheek, still burning from the slap. “Just watch. Without having to waste my time thinking about you - “

“Oh, when did you start doing that?”

“I’ll hit the mark and then blow right past it. So watch out. Because you won’t have any idea of what I’m going to hit. Or where. You'd better always be looking over your shoulder. And under your car.”

“You sound so confident. So efficiently brutal. Almost reminds me of why I loved you in the first place. So sad none of that will ever happen.”

Benjamin wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat on the edge of the desk. “And why not?”

“Because you forgot the number one rule, Benji: Happy wife, keep your life.”

“That’s not how it…,” he tried to say as he fell to the ground, body twitching.

Cassie walked over and kicked Benjamin onto his back. The better to help him choke on his vomit.

“I’m going to savor this for the rest of my life, Benji. I know you will, too.”

He tried to gurgle out a word, “Antidooo -”

“Oh, don’t worry, I took it.”

“Meeee,” he said.

“That’s right, I did give you the antidote. To the old virus. Should have waited for the champagne, sweetheart.”

Cassie poured herself another glass and raised a toast.

“To me, and my next million. And to you, my former love. Thank you for being the first. You’ve made my victory all the sweeter. Have a drink.”

She held his chin and poured from the bottle until he drowned. Crawling under the desk, she flipped a few switches. The monitors showed a countdown.

“Thanks for one final bang. Hope it’s good for you, too.”

Cassie pulled out of the driveway and listened for the basement to explode, then watched their suburban facade implode.

“Oh, Benjamin. I loved you so much. Whatever will I do?”

She stroked her wedding ring.

“You’re right. I have that much more to share with the world. I will fit my passion in a thousand little vials and share them until there’s no one left for me to love. No one but myself.”