The Other Other Woman (35 page)

As we sat there, he completely covered his eggs in hot sauce. “Like things a little spicy there, do ya?” I teased.

“Yes, ma’am, especially tasteless ones like these.”

“They do have that cardboard buffet taste about them, don’t they? Coffee’s not too bad though.”

“What are you going to do for the rest of the day, sweetie?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. I guess I’ll go get the girls, maybe take them to the park or something.”

“Did you get everything you wanted at the outlets yesterday?”

“Yeah, I think so. I didn’t have time to go in Banana, but I got way too much at Ann Taylor.”

“Will you have time to go back today? I’d like to buy you an outfit for work if I could.”

“No, thanks. I’m good.”

“No… You’re not.”

“Really, you don’t need to do that, babe.”

“Um, I know that, but I want to,” he insisted.

“You’ve done enough!” I said very matter-of-factly.

“Mallory…” There was that exasperated tone.

“I don’t need anything else.”

“Just let me do this. You said yourself you needed work clothes. Quit being so damn stubborn.”

“Stubborn has nothing to do with it, Matt. I just don’t want you feeling like that’s why I’m with you or what I’m about.”

“I know that, Mal,” he said, pausing. “You are obviously with me because of my awesome hair,” he said, patting down his curls on the side of his hat.

“You are stupid,” I replied, shaking my head.

“Look, I know you aren’t like that, sweetie,” he said as he stood up. “But I like buying you things, and I’m buying you an outfit, so I guess you’re just gonna have to deal with it, okay?” He walked across the room and shoved what looked like a couple of hundred dollar bills in my purse.

“Turkey.”

“You’re welcome.”

We had a little staring contest and both busted out laughing at the same time. He pulled me into his lap and I sat there with my head against him and my arms around his neck for several minutes. Three weeks suddenly seemed so far away.

“Are you going to take a shower before you go, Sugahdaddy?” I asked him, running my hands over his face.

“Hahaha. Yeah, just a quick one, but you can join me…”

“Well, it will save time…”

We headed into the shower. As usual, he complained the water was too hot. Wuss. For once, there was no funny business. For the longest time, he just held me close to him, my arms wrapped around his shoulders and my head against his chest as the water rushed over both of us. It was really nice, very soothing. He washed my hair for me and I washed his back for him. I may have skimmed my hand over his ass a couple of times and kissed his muscular back as I washed it, but no harm, no foul. I didn’t even drop the soap. We finished up, kissed a little more, and got out to dry.

And so began the silence. Or quiet, I should say. I packed up everything except for my toiletries and my clothes for the day. I tidied up the room because I clean whenever I’m nervous. It’s probably the only time, actually. I wasn’t intentionally trying to ignore him, but I felt like if he so much as looked at me the wrong way, with any hint of sadness or longing in his eyes, I was going to burst into tears. I wanted to stay right there. I didn’t want to go back to normal.
Normal
where I barely heard from him until late in the day.
Normal
where he never flirted with me anymore.
Normal
where he was just. so. busy. and had so many people pulling on him and stressing him out. Our
normal
fucking sucked.

When we only had about 10 minutes left, he came up behind me as I was cleaning up the trash from breakfast and put his hands on my shoulders, nuzzling my neck. “Are you going to leave when I do?” he asked quietly.

“No, I’ve still got to fix my hair and put on makeup,” I responded, trying my damndest not to cry. “I’ll just wait until after you go.”

“Okay, come here, sweetie… sit with me.” He reached for my hand and pulled me over into the chair with him.

NOOOOO
, I silently screamed, not the chair! I could already feel the waterworks coming. He held me tightly in the chair and kissed me. My face fell into his hands and he stared at me for a good minute or two before saying, “Mal, I had a great time with you. Last night was just incredible. Dinner was just spectacular, the food, being outside, and most importantly, the company, and just… well… everything. It was one of the best nights of my life, babe.”

“Me too,” I said. “I wish you didn’t have to go.”

“I know, I don’t want to either, but I have to,” he said, kissing me again. “But I have Grandover in three weeks so it won’t be long. You probably won’t even have time to miss me.”

“I miss you already.” There it goes. One tear escaped.

He quickly wiped it away and held me tighter, kissing my cheek.

“Thanks for coming all the way up here, Matt, and getting the room, and dinner, and everything…”

“It was my pleasure, sweetie.”

He looked at his watch. It was past nine. “Okay, I really have to go, baby, big kiss…”

I could kiss him one million times and it would never get old. He could still set me on fire with one slow pass of his tongue over my lips. It was almost cruel how much I needed it.

“Three weeks,” he said.

“Three weeks,” I repeated softly. “Be careful driving. Let me know when you get home.”

“I will. Bye, sweetie. I’ll see you soon.”

He didn’t tell me he loved me. I guess I could safely assume he didn’t. And with one more quick peck and a hug, he was gone.

Chapter Thirteen

The quiet in the hotel room was suddenly deafening. I couldn’t stand it. I quickly got my things together and just left. I didn’t feel like shopping anymore so I decided to go straight home. I called Jules on the way.

“Well, hey!”

“Hey.”

“What’s the matter? Everything going okay?”

“Oh yeah, he’s gone now. I’m just heading home myself.”

“Already? I thought you guys were going to hang out for a while?”

“No, he had to head out early to go to Durham and then get home for some family birthday party.”

“Well, everything went okay, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was fucking magical, actually. Probably the one of the best nights in my entire life. But, I don’t know. I already feel like it’s going to turn to shit once he gets home. I hate this part of it. I don’t want him to be married. I don’t want him to be six hours away. I can’t stand the way he changes once he’s not with me anymore.”

“I can imagine so. He turns back into a toad.”

“I’ll be curious to see what he says to Brooke, if he says anything at all.”

“So, um… who won the bet?” she said, chuckling.

“Well, you see, that’s complicated.”

“Oh, really? How so?”

“Well, there was a little trouble. I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this. Um… it would seem that perhaps Mr. Wynne may be using performance-enhancing drugs if you catch my drift.”

“Oh my God, seriously? Like something of the little blue pill variety?!”

“Well, he
is
48…”

“So, did he tell you this?”

“Oh nooooo.”

“Bwhahaha! That doesn’t sound good. How did you find out?”

“Basically he just had an issue with his wang not working when I first got there, but then suddenly it was working extraordinarily well after we went out for food and wine. I had gotten up to use the restroom, so he could have easily taken something. Then, the same thing after dinner. But when I tried to be spontaneous, very early this morning… it was pretty obvious that he was having trouble, err… maintaining.”

“Well, damn. You think he’s been using it all along?”

“Yeah, I do. I mean, it makes perfect sense. Why he could last so long, for one thing. I really don’t mind, but he could have told me, you know? I feel bad that he doesn’t feel like he can, but you know how weird they are about their penises. For what it’s worth, I did
try
at least four times, so had it worked, I definitely would have won the bet.”

“Haha, at least it did eventually work, and everything else went okay, right?”

“Oh yeah. He was so sweet, Jules. I just wanted to eat him up with a spoon. We just had so much fun together. It was just so… so…
good
.”

“Well, I’m glad you had a good time. At least it makes up somewhat for that bullshit he pulled with Miami. But it would be nice to see him follow it up with a little consistency for once.”

“I know. I’m supposed to see him in three weeks, when he has that meeting in Greensboro. I feel like I’m going to lose my mind until he comes back. Ugh… I really love that asshole.”

“I know you do. Did you tell him that?!”

“Oh hell no. I wanted to, I had a few weak moments… but no, I stopped myself,” I replied. “And he didn’t tell me either.”

“Gah. He so doesn’t deserve you.”

“I know. And I know the whole thing… it’s so wrong. But I just can’t shake him.”

“Yeah, I’d like to shake him…”

He called me late that afternoon just as he was pulling into Atlanta. He told me he had a nice, albeit short, visit with Tess. I had to laugh because she gave him a bunch of presents for coming to see her. A baseball cap, some trinket for his bike, and a bottle of wine.

“Wow, babe,” I said. “Look at that, you travel six hours to come see me and all I do is cost you money. I didn’t give you shit!”

“I know! What’s up with that?!” he laughed. “Sweetie, you know seeing you is present enough.”

He could have knocked me over with a feather. I was so hopeful that this weekend could be the fresh start that we needed. But of course, I didn’t hear from him on Sunday at all. Thank goodness for the same old fucking same old. I went shopping and spent his money to make myself feel better. He texted me Monday morning with a friendly message.
Good morning, Mal, hope you had a good day yesterday. How are you?

I’m good. I did. I was able to find some more cute clothes with your help.

Let’s see ‘em…

You are in luck because I just happened to take some pics for Brooke.

Brooke loved to shop as much as I did. Whenever we went shopping we would take photos from the fitting room and let the other person decide if it was a good item to buy. It was kind of like we were shopping together, only… not. I sent him the photos. I had bought two new dresses for work and a fall jacket.

Everything looks great to me, really like the first dress.

I got some cute pictures of you Friday with your fancy Euro-hair, wanna see?
I sent him the one of him sitting across from me at the restaurant.

Wow, that photo is horrible! I need a haircut! And a lot less gray!

Then I sent him the one I took of him in bed, which was my favorite.
Well, I like this one better, very sexy smile. But I still think you’re cute in the first one.

OMG, even worse!

YOU ARE SO DUMB.

LOL, talk?

Yes, please.

He called me and we once again discussed his refusal to cut his hair. I told him I can’t help those who aren’t willing to help themselves.

For the next couple of days, I was feeling pretty good about us. He was texting me each morning again instead of waiting until afternoon. He was calling more often. He was even flirty with me a couple of times. Brooke told me that when she asked him how his weekend was, he was gushing all over the place, saying what a great time he had with me. She knew this already, of course, because I had told her. But she mentioned several times that he was still walking around acting all giddy and stupid.

So you can imagine my surprise when that Thursday I was talking to her and she casually mentioned he had already left for the airport.

“What?”

“Yeah, girl, he’s gone.”

“Gone where?”

“What do you mean, gone where? He’s on his way to Miami, ya dummy!”

“He didn’t tell me he was going to Miami.”

“What? Are you sure? He told me last week!”

“No, he didn’t mention it. I would remember that. I pay attention to that sort of thing, Brooke… obviously.”

“What the hell? He’s just making his usual business trip and staying the weekend like always. Are you sure he didn’t tell you?”

“Positive.”

“Well, he’s probably getting to the airport now.”

“All right,” I sighed, so tired of this. “Let me see what kind of bullshit he’s up to this time.”

Here we go again. I tried to make excuses, but there were no good ones for not telling me, we talked every day that week, sometimes twice. I wasn’t going to come out with guns blazing exactly, but I was going to get to the bottom of it. I suppose it was possible that I had my dates mixed up, but I highly doubted it.

Were you gonna fill a girl in that you were jetting off to Miami today?

Well I did tell you a couple of weeks ago that I was planning it. I have a free place to stay after all!

No, you didn’t tell me. If you did, I wouldn’t be asking you.

Did I mention that I’m about finished with work for October?

He had a very big ticket at the beginning of the week that basically covered an entire month’s worth of pay. Hard worker that he was.
Yes, I am aware that you are useless for the rest of the month, but wouldn’t you want to know if I was going somewhere?

Well, what are your plans, dear?

Forget it. Communication breakdown.

Taking off so I can’t talk. I am in Memphis next week. GB in two weeks. MIA first week of Nov, Orlando around Nov 10, MIA again Dec 1, Ukraine Dec 16.

What the hell is wrong with you, Matt?

What?
He shot back.

You don’t need to be shitty. I’m operating under the assumption that since you just spent most of Friday inside my vagina that we are close enough that going away for four days might be something you would mention in passing. You know, since we talk every day. But I guess I’m the crazy one for thinking that. If I was going somewhere you would definitely know about it, because we are friends, and I’m not an asshole, so I would tell you. You just love to keep me on my toes, don’t you? God forbid I think we have something good for one single second.