The Woman Behind The Scenes

Chapter 41 - Passing the Boundaries

"Sister. Eat a lot of dong there is a husband sir, ciyeeeeee!" Danang seduces Dara. This week Tomi and Dara were on shift several times.

"Here do you want me to bribe, Nang?" tempt Tomi to the guy rather clumsy. Danang laughed giggling. His typical laughter is always entertaining and makes Dara laugh.

"What kind of house would Dara be like, bang?" ask Danang curiously.

"Hmmm. Yeah like gini. Busy yourself as the kitchen, the laundry, the online shop," replied Tomi.

Dara was stunned for a moment. Is he busy himself? Is this the reason Tomi keeps a lot of silence and ignores him?

Currently he is busy in his online shop business and almost every day he consistently gets orders. The result is very good, he used to shop for household needs.

"Back of work, yuk?" take Dara to Danang, and the two of them immediately enter the office space leaving Tomi who is still cool with her cellphone. The habit with this phone has lasted 2 months since the incident on that holiday. Dara was eager to know what was going on in the phone, but from some experience checking Tomi's phone, she was always disappointed and left a sore wound when remembered again.

"What kind of kids, Dar?" ask Mira.

"OK, coke. Kayla is active again, soon a year old," replied Dara.

"Why don't you take her to the office, Ra. Kan exclamation. Our office is free, though. We set it up ourselves." the OM voice answered Dara.

All of Dara's co-workers were very kind to her and her children. They love to play with Kayla and Kio, on a few short meet occasions.

"Yes, teteh. Later it should be discussed with his father," said Dara. There's a point to what his OM says too. But with her husband who still likes to 'himself' like this, Dara will definitely be hassles in the office.

"Guy. You guys read the news? There's a new virus in China, right? His name is Corona" Danang said, pointing out an article on his phone.

"Yes, I read. Serem kan, Nang. People spontaneously shortness of breath on the road. He said up to thousands of people," continued Mira asserted Danang's speech, and the topic became warm among them. The new virus is quite unsettling, but there are no signs yet in Indonesia so they can be a little.

Dara sees Tomi's laptop still open, unlocked. Her husband's habit of going with the screen plastered. Dara approached the laptop and was about to close it, until finally saw the WhatsApp web notification. Again he had to fight with his own heart.

Click! Dara finally opened her husband's WhatsApp Web.

A fani? His chest seemed to want to erupt seeing the name was at the top of the message, and it seemed that the writing "typing" was underway. Dara opened the chat, read it one by one. The chat was quite long, so Dara pulled it from the top, right since 3 months ago.

Tomi and Fani's jolts look so familiar, occasionally giggling with emojis that even her husband never sent her. Tomi is so friendly. Dara did not want to waste time, quickly read the message there. There are several messages Tomi commenting on Fani's story about her cooking.

Tomi: [ Hmmm looks good 🤭 ]

Fani: [Come here sometime Kio's father, I masakin 😋 ]

Tomi: [Ah not good with her husband ]

Man: [I am a widow. Divorced. ]

All the messages that Dara read instantly made her head spin, becoming so heavy. Oh God! What else is this?

"Slide. I want to work" Tomi's voice behind her was startling. Oh no! Dara didn't even close the tab. He resigned, with a flat face and a racing heart he shifted.

Tomi was seen closing the WhatsApp tab, knowing his wife had read almost the entire message. The two were silent, not speaking a word, even Dara no longer dabbled in the chatter of her friends. He took his headset pretending to listen to something, when in fact he did not want to be questioned by anyone. He fell silent and tried to finish his work in 2 hours before returning home.

"Honey. Do you know how to reply to emails like this? It looks like a refund?" Tomi suddenly romantically calls his wife. Her heartache was still so pronounced, making Dara not want to answer whatever her husband asked. He pretended not to listen.

Tomi pats her shoulder, Dara releases her headset.

"You're not? About refund," asked Tomi again.

"No. Just ask your supervisor" Dara lied, then went back to work. Dara knows a lot about the procedures in her office, and Tomi has been very dependent on her. But this time, the pain after reading the chat made him not want to help Tomi at all.

"Let's go home!" said Danang with enthusiasm after the hour showed five o'clock in the afternoon. Dara tidied up her bag, then walked quietly away from the office room. Tomi is still busy chatting with a few short topics and laughing with some office friends before finally catching up with Dara on the elevator.

"Dad. ASI Kayla is over. Tomorrow can be brought again frozen. Dadaa Kayla," Fani spoke to Tomi with her smile, as if ignoring the presence of the biological mother of the two children. Tomi doesn't answer much, just agrees and leaves with his son's wife.

Dara still did not talk all the way, just listening to the conversation Kio and Tomi on the bike. Upon their arrival, she lulls Kayla to bed, and bathes Kyo in warm water, then cooks dinner.

"Let's eat. It's ready." he invites Tomi to dinner, but in a cold tone.

Tomi hurriedly carried Kio towards the dining table together. Dara looked like she used to serve her husband was eating, taking rice and others for Tomi. He still did not speak, since noon not a single smile that he showed.

"Mama. I want one more," said Kio pointing at his mother's potato patio. Dara took another pedal for her son, then spontaneously stroked his head. What is this feeling? Strange, it feels so tight, and it hurts. Dara was flooded with tears, and her sobs just broke at the dinner table. Tomi looked at his wife, Kio moreover. The boy looked surprised to see his mother.

"Mama, cry? Why?" innocently the boy, stopped Dara's cry.

He stroked his son's head again, then fed the boy to finish.

"Mama sprains fish bones. But now the bones are gone. What was it doing at school?"

"Singing song. Abi teh ayeuna .. mmmm Kio forgot, mama," the boy laughed after not being able to connect the song he learned at school. Dara quickly cleaned Kio's mouth as soon as he finished eating, and carried him to the room, leaving Tomi who was still sitting down to eat dinner. Kio looked tired, surely he was very excited to play all day with friends.

The sound of the door opening. Dara immediately took a sleeping position because she felt so devastated.

"You talk? You why?" ask Tomi while sitting next to his wife.

Dara made no comment..

"Come on. You why?"

"Why??? Can you still ask why??? Ask yourself. Why am I like this?" dara answered sharply and then got up from her bed standing in front of Tomi.

"It's not because of me and Fani's chat, is it?"

Dara laughed cynically, as if she could not believe what she had just heard.

"Your chat is awesome. You can be friendly and laugh with other women for months. It's good to be busy with your HP, that,"

"You read all that? Read no?"

"Conscious demon!" answer Dara.

Tomi exhaled, as if confused about composing a word.

"Fani is the babysitter. He was closer to the kids than the others. It's natural for me to communicate with him, isn't it? Most of you see, mostly because he was told about the child," Tomi said trying to dismiss his wife's negative thoughts.

One more cynical laugh from Dara then he said, "Is taking you to his house part of his responsibility? What kind of woman takes a man's husband to go eat his cooking. Have you ever praised my cooking at home??" Dara sounded very emotional, but the tears were no longer seeping.

"That's a nice talk, Dara!" Tom defended himself.

"Fabies??? Up repeatedly? Repeat for months?"

"You're jealous of the nanny. It doesn't make much sense. You're overstepping." Tomi attacks Dara.

Dara seemed to run out of words, not knowing how to explain her husband that what he did was wrong. Obviously they are committed not to inflict slander with things like this, and that's what Dara did when she replied to some messages from friends of the opposite sex. But it seems Tomi doesn't understand, or pretends not to understand...

"I'll see him tomorrow, I teach him how to communicate politely.If there's anything he has to say about the children, it should be to me, I'm the mother. Why even to you? He is also a Muslim, right? He should understand!" Dara is completely out of patience this time, and intends to approach Fani the next day.

"Don't be ashamed! If you don't like it, okay I won't chat him. I'll have him chat you!" tomi answered lightly and then pulled the blanket and went to sleep.

Dara patted her chest trying to relieve her pain. This time she felt her husband was overstepping her limits, repeating the same thing, which she obviously did not like.