The Indecisive Surprise.

Tracey was apprehensive about pressing the enter key. A gnawing feeling was making her drag her heels. John didn’t care anymore, according to her best friend Sinead, whom she trusted implicitly.

Tracey insisted that she knew John better than anyone, and that he would never cheat on her. Now she procrastinated by raising and lowering the leather chair. She sat alone in the office of the spacious country home. He was away with work again.

She had checked all the various nooks and crannies of the house, searching for any clue of infidelity. Tracey came up empty handed. Sinead's assertions were sounding hollow. As a backdrop to everything, Sinead and John never saw eye to eye. She rummaged through his credit card bills and spotted nothing untoward. He had two credit cards and not one transaction stood out.

And now Tracey was about to commit an act of treachery herself, without one shred of proof against her boyfriend of three years. She was trusting her best friend over her lover by even thinking he was adulterous. By pressing the large enter key she was entering into the online world of matchmaking website “Fix Me Up!”

She had entered all her personal details, personal preferences and hobbies. The website was quite detailed, asking for all your interests, no matter how often you did them. It was analysing your personality just so they could set you up with someone who could be like minded.

Her indecisiveness was stopping her now. She had always had a problem making any decisions. John normally made any of the important decisions in their relationship. He certainly was the more dominant personality of their partnership.

Regretting even sitting down now, Tracey suddenly got up from the chair at the office desk. She brushed off something on the underside of the large oak bureau. It scraped her bare knee. She hadn’t dropped the lever on the chair and now a sliver of blood rose to the surface of her skin. She lifted her shorts to stop from getting blood on them. Tracey grabbed a tissue to blot the wound.

Searching with her hand she felt around to see what had cut her. There on the underside of the desk was a single key taped up. Tracey didn’t recognise it and wasn’t sure what lock it fitted. Why would he do that?

Getting up from the office, Tracey walked around the house trying the key in all the locks she could find. It was smaller than many of the locks throughout the house, and as a result fitted nothing.

Returning to the desk, she sighed heavily. Maybe the key was never his as he had only recently purchased the heavy impressive oak desk. It was over sixty years old and had many knots and no doubt had stories to tell.

Maybe this was another that would never tell a tale. It probably had nothing to do with John. She plucked off a fresh piece of tape from the roll on the desk and went to place it back. Getting down on her hunkers, she spotted something that didn't look like it belonged there.

In the cavity where your legs go while seated, she spotted a small drawer at an awkward angle. It had a small lock too. Tracey tried the key. The lock opened.

She pulled the drawer out. Inside it were two folded sheets of A4 paper and reams of cash. She counted out over three thousand in fifty euro notes. Where was he getting this money from? Unfolding the two sheets, she saw that these were bills for a third credit card she knew nothing about.

Tracey ran her finger over each listed transaction. Each restaurant was somewhere she hadn’t visited. Each shop listed purchases that she had never received. Even the names of the florists were alien to her. It seemed to be happening at the beginning of every month - when he was away on business.

Her best friend was right – this bastard was up to no good. She didn’t want to initially believe it - but here it was right in front of her, in black and white.

How could she have been so stupid? Why didn’t she trust her gut and what her best friend had been telling her for months?

No more indecisiveness. She pressed enter on the keypad. Two can play at this game.

The website churned her profile and almost immediately came back with an instant match for her. It held back a picture of her ideal man and she read out his personality profile. He sounded really nice – kind, compassionate and generous. He was local too, which made him even more accessible.

Having read through the profile, she scrolled down to view his handsome image.

Staring right back at Tracey was her current boyfriend of the past three years, John.