Underestimated Too (23 page)

“He just worries about, uh, Nicky,” I said, pulling
the bristles from Nicholas’s mouth for the tenth time. He squealed, kicked his
little legs, and resumed the drumming to the tin pan. “This house is full of
cameras too, by the way,” I reminded Alicia.

“Oh no, it’s not. I had them all taken out except
for the ones needed for security.”

“Drew just worries, it’s who he is.”

“He does more than that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. It’s none of my business and my wifey has
already warned me to keep my big mouth shut. It’s your life.”

“You think he controls me too much,” I stated more
than asked.

“No. I think he’s a dictator.”

“He is not. I make my own decisions,” I argued, telling
a complete lie.

“Sure you do. Just like the other night when I
wanted to help you set up a Facebook page. I thought he was going to have heart
failure.”

“Why do I need that? I didn’t want that anyway.”

“Because everyone has a Facebook account. Because
you should be posting baby pics of Nicholas growing up and bragging your ass
off at how cute he is. Because it’s a social networking site. You know how many
book recommendations you can get from there?”

“You give me plenty of those. Have you finished reading
Plentiful
yet?” I asked changing the subject.

“No, Celeste had other things on her mind last
night. I didn’t read and don’t tell me. I’ll finish it tonight. Did it have a
happy ever after?”

“I’m not telling you, but the killer is going to
surprise the hell out of you.”

***

“Happy Birthday to you,” I softly sang to my big
boy, happily waiting for someone to come and get him out of his crib. Pulling
himself up by the rail, he bounced up and down, happy to see me.  

“He can’t be one yet,” Drew protested, wrapping his
arms around me and taking Nicky from his crib. I’m not sure how this baby thing
works. Maybe it was a male bonding thing. I don’t know, but when I entered the
room I got a happy smile, which by the way I loved, I just didn’t understand
it. Drew walked into the room and got a crazy excited baby that couldn’t get to
his daddy fast enough. I was the one that did everything for him. I spent the
hours playing and reading with him while his daddy stayed locked in his office
with Celeste, graphs, charts, conference calls, and figures. Why didn’t I get
that response?

Squeezing from between my two boys, I picked up
Nicky’s new outfit. “Drew, look isn’t this adorable?”

“Um, no. What’s that for?”

“His party on Saturday. What do you think it’s for,
and what do you mean
no
?” I pouted. I loved his new outfit.

“It looks like something a gay baby would wear.
Powder blue? Really, Morgan? He’s not wearing that.”

“Yes, he is. How can you not love this?”

I smiled at my hands-on husband, tossing Nicholas in
the air and dropping him to the changing table for a diaper change. “Gay baby?
You’re so stupid sometimes. He’s wearing this for his party.”

“Oh, no, I’m not, Mommy,” Drew said, coming after me
with a squealing Nicholas. He laughed loudly, screeching with excitement as
Drew tossed him to me. “I’ll get him something while I’m out of town.”

“Out of town? You never told me you were going out
of town,” I accused, taking Nicky only to have him turn and reach for his daddy
again. What the hell?

“That’s because Celeste just called. We have to go
to New York to finish up with the transfer.”

“We’re not seeing Deidra today? When are you going
to be home? We have the birthday party Saturday.”

“Yes, we’re seeing Deidra. I’m leaving right after
that, and I will be home Saturday morning. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t miss it for
the world.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” I whined.

“I’m leaving so I don’t have to leave anymore. After
this we won’t have to go back to New York.”

“I don’t want to see Deidra today. Let’s cancel,” I
tried. Drew and I had been doing great and had the most amazing sex before
getting out of bed. I didn’t want to ruin that. It seemed like one of us always
left her office pissed off.

“Get ready, we’re going,” Drew dictated.

***

“Okay, so we’re half way into the marriage. Drew
pretty much mostly works and only talks to you when he wants sex? Is that
correct?” Deidra asked me.

“Yep, that pretty much sums it up.”

“And Drew, it was only you and Morgan at this point?
No more Skyler or Valerie?”

“Well, sort of. I mean no more Valerie. I did see
Skyler one more time.”

I shot Drew a dirty look. Three years of being at
his beck and call and he was still fucking Skyler.

“Tell me about that.”

“Yeah, Drew. Tell us about that,” I smartly
mimicked.

“I guess that’s when I knew I didn’t want Skyler. I
wanted Morgan,” Drew began, walking towards the window.

Oh boy. This was going to be good. He walked to the
window when he was about to talk about something and couldn’t look at me.

“I was watching Morgan on the camera read a recipe
with her finger on the page from California one evening when my phone rang,”
Drew began his habitual narration. “I hadn’t talked to Skyler in months, maybe
even a year. I answered my phone, sitting up and smiling at Morgan when she
made a funny face tasting the batter, she’d obviously left out an important
ingredient,” Drew explained, smiling back at me.

I smiled too, surprised that I amused him with my
cooking endeavors. I actually remember that day. He was gone for over a week
that time, and I knew he was in Los Angeles. I was making chocolate chip
cookies.

“I was pleasant to her, asking Skyler, ‘Hi, how are
you?’

‘I’m doing well. I just got off the phone with Jena.
She told me you were in Los Angeles.’

‘Yes, been here for almost nine days now, leading
daily negotiations for this store here,’ I replied, wondering where she was
going with this. It was kind of random for her to just call. I’d seen her
around a few times over the past year, but we barely spoke. It was best that
way. I seemed to always go home and take it out on Morgan when I talked to her.

‘I’m in LA too. Meet me,’ she requested.

I looked back to Morgan, stirring chocolate chips
into the bowl that I was now sure were cookies. I hadn’t been with anyone but
Morgan in almost two years. I wasn’t really sure I needed to. Jesus. What was I
thinking? Of course I needed to. ‘Okay, where?’ I replied. We set up a neutral
location at a place she’d recommended to eat.

I smiled, entering the restaurant, and seeing Skyler
in red. She did that for me, I was sure. Her lips didn’t feel the way I’d
remembered when she stood on the tips of her toes and kissed me. It felt,
awkward kissing her, foreign, not Morgan’s lips maybe? I don’t know, it was
just different.”

Good, stupid little tramp.

“We sat at a dark corner table and discussed our
lives and what we’d been doing.

She looked disappointed when I told her that I was
still married and Callaway was doing well. She had been living in France for
the past couple years, almost got married, she explained with a sad smile. ‘Seems
like somebody else always wants my man,’ she stated, sipping her wine.

I wasn’t really sure how to respond. I felt bad for her
and didn’t want her to feel rejected or second best, but Morgan didn’t really
choose me. Morgan would have never chosen me.”

You got that right.

“I couldn’t believe I was saying to Skyler, ‘Don’t
be so hard on yourself. You’re beautiful, some lucky guy is going to come along
and sweep you clean off your feet. You watch.’ I was actually okay with that. 

‘But it’s never going to be you, is it, Drew?’

Looking down, I circled my water glass with my
finger. ‘I don’t know, Sky.’ I didn’t know. I didn’t know what the hell was
happening to me. Something was transpiring, leaving me with an uneasy feeling
that I didn’t know how to deal with. I had never felt it before the last few
months, and I was fighting with myself more and more to get a handle on it.

‘Can I stay with you tonight?’ Skyler asked, placing
her and over mine.

‘Yes,’ I answered.”

Dumb hussy.

“Excusing myself, I told Skyler, ‘You can pour us a
glass of wine.’ I didn’t really need to go to the bathroom. I needed to see
Morgan. It was crazy. I had Skyler in my room, miles from home, miles from
Callaway, and I was thinking about Morgan. I opened my laptop and instantly
smiled seeing her laying on the sofa, book on her chest. I snickered when I
watched her sit up, shake her hands anxiously, and bite on the end of her bright
pink nail. Why she read those books was beyond me? She always seemed so on edge
when reading them.

‘You okay in there?’ Skyler called.

‘Yes. Coming,’ I called back, closing the laptop.

The entire night was somewhat of an awkward mess.
Everything I did, every body part I touched, I was comparing to Morgan.
Morgan’s nipples were smaller. They matched her small soft breasts. Skyler’s
were firmer, bigger and the implants caused her nipples to stretch. Morgan’s
hip bones stuck out more, digging into my waist when I fucked her. Skyler’s
tongue danced in rhythm with mine. Morgan didn’t really kiss me back. What the
hell was I doing? My dick was inside of beautiful Skyler, and I was thinking
about Morgan. I moved the guilty thoughts to the back of my mind. They were
absurd. I wasn’t really cheating on Morgan. I didn’t love her. I loved Skyler.
Didn’t I? It wasn’t really cheating, not when you were forced to marry your
wife. Was it? Why the hell did I even care? I wasn’t that type of man. I could
fuck anyone I wanted. But I didn’t. It was only Morgan, she was always enough. I
was surely losing my mind. Why the hell couldn’t I get Morgan out of my
thoughts? She didn’t belong there. She’d never belonged there. It was always
Skyler. Skyler was right for me. She came from the same walk of life, money,
power, looks, not that Morgan wasn’t beautiful, Jesus, why did I keep thinking
about Morgan?”

I couldn’t help the boasting going on as my heart
did a happy dance, knowing Drew was thinking about me, obsessing over me, and
choosing me over Skyler.

“Closing my eyes, I tried to focus my attention on
Skyler beneath me. My beautiful Skyler was in my bed, long wavy haired Skyler,
with legs of an angel, eyes soft as cotton, delicate lips, curvy, but thin. Oh,
my god, I was describing Skyler with Morgan’s picture implanted on my mind.
Pumping harder in and out of Skyler, I centered my thoughts on the sex, putting
more effort in it than it should have been. That lasted about as long as it
took me to think about Skyler’s arid pussy which led me to think about other
things. Morgan was always wet for me, maybe she didn’t hate me as much as she
let on.”

“She did,” I assured him. I didn’t mean to interrupt
or say it out loud. It just fell out of my mouth.

Drew snorted with a half-smile and continued, “I
left Skyler sleeping in my hotel bed around midnight. Turning my laptop right
to Morgan’s bed, panic struck briefly while I switched views from room to room,
finding her curled into a little ball on her bathroom floor. I observed her,
wondering what the hell she was doing and then watched her jump up and heave
into the toilet. She was sick. I felt like a real shit. She was home sick, and
I was in LA screwing someone else. Wait. I didn’t care about that. Drew Kelley
didn’t do empathy. I was so fucked up.  I waited for her to finish before
dialing her. She moaned, dragging herself from the floor and plopping sideways
across her bed.  

‘Hello,’ she moaned.

‘Are you sick?’

She didn’t even try to hide the eye roll. ‘Yes, can
I talk to you tomorrow?’

‘What’s wrong with you?’

‘I don’t know, Drew, stomach flu, I presume.’

‘Do you need a doctor?’

‘No, I just need to sleep. Can I please talk to you
tomorrow?’ she begged.

‘Yeah, yeah, if you need anything you have my number,
right?’

The
fuck you
expression didn’t go unnoticed.
‘Yes, I have your number. Bye.’

‘Night, Morgan,’ I quietly spoke to myself.”

My god.
Drew had a photographic memory. He described our conversation as if it was
yesterday.

“I continued to watch Morgan sleep, still dressed in
black slacks and a satin blouse. She stayed on top her covers, running to the
bathroom two more times within the hour. Finally settling down, coiled in a
tight little ball with her arms hugging her waist, she seemed to be resting.”

“I lay on my side of the bed, facing Skyler for a
long time before drifting off to sleep. I warily watched her sleep. I shouldn’t
have been so impetuous. She shouldn’t be there. I wanted to be home and hoped
like hell the negotiations would wind down in the morning. I was leaving Derik
to deal with it if it didn’t. I needed to get home for whatever reason. I was
up before daylight, checking on Morgan. She was back on the bathroom floor
still dressed in her clothes. Why the hell wasn’t Rebecca there taking care of
her? It pissed me off and I walked out to the balcony to call her. What the
hell did she think I paid her for?