The Mistress, Part Two (5 page)

              Preston had been in the city for days and she hadn’t dared to contact him. The kids had asked about him, but each of them had a phone – so she supposed he kept in contact. Sophie would talk about the multitude of gossip the two of them embarked upon via text message, so Marissa thought it really was a safe bet he was keeping in contact.

              Lucas, on the other hand, had mentioned not wanting to talk to him. So even if he had tried to contact him, she wasn’t sure he’d respond. And she wished she could have said that she wasn’t going to push him to do so – but she couldn’t. She
could
understand his anger. Hell, she was angry herself – but he was still their father. She wanted them to speak; he hadn’t betrayed the kids, after all. This had nothing to do with them.

              As she looked to her son gobbling down his dinner hurriedly, she decided – while he had food in front him, while he was happy – she was going to push. If only just a little, she wanted to prod. She felt like she needed to.

              “Don’t you think it’s time to talk to your dad?” Marissa asked before twirling her fork around in a circle to entrap the spaghetti noodles.

              “He ruined my life,” Lucas responded flatly.

              “That’s a little harsh – not to mention dramatic, don’t you think?” Marissa replied.

              “How so?” Lucas spat, and pieces of garlic bread flung out of his open trap.

              “This has to do with
our marriage
. Not the two of you. He loves you –”

              “He loves
US
? He doesn’t love anyone – only himself,” Lucas interrupted, slamming his fork to the table.

              He stormed upstairs, leaving Marissa bewildered and even a little upset. She was upset because of the situation, yes. She hated Preston for what he did – but she also couldn’t imagine ever hating her father. No matter what. She tried to put herself in Lucas’s shoes, but it was difficult. Her parents had never fought over something as big as this. Their marriage was steady and grounded and there sure as hell wasn’t any cheating – at least, none that she knew of.

              She tried to think how she would react if her own father had slept with someone other than her mother. She’d be livid, sure. She’d even be pissed. She’d want to smack him in the face. But she wouldn’t hate him. She couldn’t. She never would have been able to do that. She wouldn’t cut ties. She loved him so much and missed him more and more every day that he was gone. But then again, she had to think of the relationship Lucas and Preston had; they had never been outstandingly close. They had grown apart over the years, and it was obvious Preston had a better relationship with Sophie.

              She sighed, saddened by it all. She was going to fix this. Maybe not her marriage – that was out of her control for the moment. But she could try and salvage Lucas’s relationship with his dad. She could try. She had to try.

~~~

              This idea would probably be looked at as some sort of lame and/or desperate attempt at trying to mold a perfect family, but she wanted to think of it as trying to keep her family a
family
despite the looming cloud that waited.

              To an average onlooker her current actions could be misconstrued as getting a couple of toddlers together to go on a day trip as she quickly packed two insulated lunch bags with various snacks and beverages. To her it was over-compensating for the day that
did
await her children. Family fun day!

              Only, not with her. With Preston. And only Preston. She still wasn’t ready to speak to him, nor was she ready to even look at his face for longer than a few seconds. In fact, she had taken down all of their photos together and stored them under their bed for the time being. She would deal with them later. She would deal with them after she dealt with whatever the hell was happening with her marriage. But just because she couldn’t see him, didn’t mean the kids couldn’t.

              “Lucas, Sophie! Come here down here!” she called from the kitchen’s doorway, hoping that they could hear her from whatever hiding spot they were in at the moment.

              She took a deep breath and prepared herself for what Lucas was going to say about the situation. She was sure that Sophie would be ecstatic to spend the day with her father, but Lucas on the other hand – she knew it was going to be a hard sale.

              She heard the pitter-patter of their feet and knew that they’d soon be present. She smiled. It seemed just like yesterday that those pitter-pattering feet were much lighter and she was greeted by the faces of smiling toddlers. She missed those days. Everything was much simpler.

              Their steps approached the kitchen, each coming from a different direction, one definitely in front of the other. She was nervous all of a sudden, and she had to turn away from the doorway. She was
not
ready to see which one of her kids came first.

              “Are we going on a picnic?” Sophie exclaimed as Marissa’s back was turned. And then she heard stronger movement until she saw the girl running in her peripheral until she was in front of her, excitedly clamoring over the all the snacks prepared on the kitchen island.

              “Sort of,” Marissa responded. One down, one to go – the hardest one.

              “Mom…That blows. I wanted to stay home today,” Lucas replied from the doorway. There it was. There was that infamous Lucas reaction she was waiting for. She turned around to look at him.

              “Well, you’re home all the time, Luke. It’s time to get out and enjoy this weather. School is letting out soon and you’ll be home all the time.”

              Lucas sighed and rolled his eyes vividly, and then looked to her, as if awaiting further clarification as to what they were doing. And then she wasn’t sure she could give him the news. He already looked pissed – and she hadn’t even told him the best part!

              When Marissa didn’t respond right away, he dramatically hit his head against the refrigerator and spoke between hits, “Are you going to tell us what the three of us are doing or are we just supposed to be surprised?”

              Marissa walked to the boy, grabbed him by the shoulders, and shifted him away from the appliance. She couldn’t stand how much like Preston he really was sometimes, so dramatic and annoying. “Well, it isn’t the three of
us
,” Marissa replied.

              “Mom, I don’t want to see Haley,” Lucas responded, annoyed.

              “I do!” Sophie exclaimed, obviously unfamiliar with the situation. There was the answer to the question she had been asking herself for days. The girl likely didn’t know about what happened – not the whole story, at least.

              “Well that’s great, Luke – because you’re not seeing Haley,” Marissa said simply before Lucas’s eyes widened and face – she could swear – turned a few shades redder.“We’re going with Dad? You’ve got to be shitting me!” Lucas responded before he threw his hands in defeat and walked out of the kitchen.

              “Language!” Marissa screamed in exasperation. She hated teenagers.

              “Well, I’ll be happy to see daddy,” Sophie responded before grabbing some crackers and shoving them in her mouth. At least she had
one
happy kid. “Never become a teenager,” Marissa said simply, smiling at her smiling baby girl. Sophie giggled and continued eating her crackers.

~~~

              Marissa continued getting the kids’ stuff ready to go, while Lucas sulked about playing video games on his phone. She was glad he was getting out of the house, if she had to be honest. She was really dreading summer and school being out. She would be happy to see them a little more, and happy Lucas didn’t have to endure whatever he was enduring at school – but she also couldn’t help but feel dread.

              Haley wasn’t around. Hell, neither was Preston for that matter. That meant that the only person the two children would have on a regular basis would be her – and to be honest, she didn’t know how the hell she was going to deal with Lucas’s growing nuisance all day, every day, all of summer. And she knew she couldn’t deal with that idea now – she had other matters to deal with first, but it didn’t mean she hadn’t thought about it.

              She walked through to the living room and stepped over the young boy’s outstretched legs which, annoyingly, lay atop her coffee table. She hated feet on the furniture, but she decided to pick her battles and resist from bantering with him further. She gathered up his earbuds from off of the arm of the sofa and put them into their respective pouch and tossed it to him.

              Then, with a twinge of annoyance, she continued gathering. She walked over to the arm chair where he had lazily tossed his jacket and backpack and gathered those up as well, before she mirrored her past motion by tossing those to him. He was almost thirteen and couldn’t even pick up his stuff. She knew he was doing it on purpose, though.

              “Anything else you guys need?” she asked, trying to stay positive.

              “A noose,” he replied flatly. She rolled her eyes and glared at him. “How long are we going to be there? Why do I need my backpack?”

              “You might get bored and it’d be nice to get some homework done. And you may want to stay the night, but if you don’t, I will gladly come pick you up,” she replied. “Now, let’s go.”

              He rolled his eyes and slumped through to the living room and into the kitchen with his jacket and bag in tow – his nose basically pressed into the screen of his phone. She wanted to pull her hair out with the way he was acting, but she couldn’t blame him. She hadn’t really thought about what this was doing to the two of them. No one really thought about how much of a betrayal it had to feel like to the kids.

              No, he hadn’t cheated on the kids – if that would even be possible. They weren’t his wife, and they weren’t the reason he strayed – but the fact remained that he
had
cheated with
their nanny
. Haley was their best friend, their aunt, of sorts. She was everything to them. They loved her. Lucas, being the only child that seemingly knew about the affair, had to be confused.

              She heard his footsteps stomp across the tile and stop before she heard the garage door fling open and bang against the wall. She cringed. Thank goodness for door bumpers. She heard Sophie skip down from her barstool – the place Marissa had left her – and go out, most likely gleefully, to join her brother in the garage. She really hoped they’d have a good time. She needed to get her mind off of this horrific disaster and onto something more productive.

~~~

              She dropped the children off – much to Lucas’s continual and obnoxiously voiced dismay on the ride to the hotel. Finally she seemed to get him to calm down, though. She promised she would come and get him in a few hours, if he wanted her to, and after he sadly agreed, she left.

              And with that Marissa decided to be productive and go in to the bakery, even though she knew Joseph and Rachel were holding down shop. She had to get there though. She hadn’t had much of the chance to work since everything had transpired with her dad and now with Preston.

              She took a long look around, taking it all in. She loved the environment; the atmosphere was something she had – in her own mind, at least – perfected over the years. This was her oasis. Her home away from home. Her dream.

              She saw Joseph immediately. He was working the front counter, and as he handed an older man, dressed in a nice beige suit, his scone, he looked up at Marissa and smiled. She reciprocated the gesture, and bid the man he had given the scone to a “good day” when he walked past her towards the front door.

              She could tell by the askew tables and chairs as well as a few littered tabletops that they had had a busy morning and afternoon. She was sure Joseph was welcoming the break as he wiped the obvious sweat from his brow with his apron and flew back into the kitchen. She knew where he was going. He was going to turn on the Bluetooth stereo now that the rush had simmered down. Seems like she made it just in time.

              Now, they had a bit of a break. There may be a few stragglers in between, but they wouldn’t have a huge rush of people until after work hours. That was how every day went until the weekend – and then it was chaotically busy throughout their business hours. She smiled at his predictability when she heard the rock music begin to blast through the shop.

              Before he came back out, she figured she would make her way over to the ordering counter and around the corner so that she could take a look at the glass counter’s shelves. It was her managerial duty to ensure that they had kept up a satisfactory pace for stocking their various baked goods. It looked like they had done well despite their busyness. There was still a few of every item left, and there was more likely being made. At least, she hoped so.

              She smiled as she heard the kitchen’s door open suddenly and the music coming from within get louder. Joseph. He strutted out of the kitchen like a runway model and wrapped his arms around Marissa from behind. He smelled good. Spiced rum cake mixed with a masculine musk. It was almost intoxicating. It reminded her of Preston’s vanilla spice scent, and she warned herself not to store the smell away as a source of desire.