Dear Adam (30 page)

She answered with a dissatisfying "Sort
of."

“
Sort of? I’m asking
because I think someone’s interested in you …” she said in a
sing-song voice.

“
Who?” Eden asked although
she had a strong suspicion. She had seen Lisa and Beau, the newbie
cop, talking in the hallway half an hour before, their heads close
together. They suddenly became quiet and had strange smiles on
their faces when she passed by.

“
Why don’t you come to
Denali’s tonight and find out.” Lisa grinned and winked at her.
“Get your drink on, girl!”

“
Oh, I don’t know.” Her
phone vibrated in her hand. A text message from Adam. She had to
restrain herself not to open it in front of Lisa, who was looking
at her with great curiosity. “I have to get home to my
kid.”

“
Oh, that’s too bad. Maybe
next time?”

“
Yeah,” Eden said,
mustering some vague enthusiasm. “Maybe.”

"Are you my boyfriend?" Eden asked Adam
without preamble that night. She told him about Lisa's question. It
had been bothering her all day.

Adam started laughing. "I'm moving to
California to be with you, Eden. I think I can be called your
boyfriend. Even though that seems a grossly inadequate label."

Eden didn't see what was so ridiculous. "You
haven't actually asked me. I've been waiting for you to."

"You ... want me to ask you to be my
girlfriend?"

"Why not? I know you think it's silly, but
..." she trailed off. "It's only proper."

She imagined him incredulous at the other
end, mouth hanging open.

"I've never asked anyone that question." He
sounded bewildered.

"I need to be asked," she replied primly.

"Okay," he said slowly. After a moment's
pause, he cleared his throat. "Eden, if you don't mind eating
amazing food all your life, having your every desire fulfilled,
ruling my heart and my bed, and being the happiest of happy, will
you be my ... girlfriend?"

"Yes," she answered after a surprised moment,
suddenly breathless. "Thank you."

"I suppose that was good practice for me.
Asking you a very important question."

She could tell he was smiling on the other
end. She was smiling too, a wide smile of unbelievable
happiness.

"And good practice for me as well. Saying
yes."

Chapter 15

It’s for you, Adam. It’s all for you.

My god, Eden, you're a wet dream in those
boots. You MUST wear them when we meet. Bind me, torture me, then
make love to me while wearing them.

Eden smiled to herself. She had read Adam's
iMessage earlier when he first sent it, but she was missing him so
much she indulged in a secret pleasure of re-reading his words. She
had gone shoe shopping that afternoon but didn't tell Adam what she
had purchased.

"Why no pictures, darling?" he pouted in one
of his texts.

When she got home from the store, she changed
into a black slip and black stockings, wore the tall, high-heeled,
lace-up boots she had just bought, and sent a picture of herself.
She had overcome any sort of shyness or lingering inhibitions about
sending Adam more intimate pictures of herself. She was never
unclothed or graphic. But it was exciting to buy sexy lingerie that
wasn't too revealing, yet revealing enough so that Adam was very
happy to see her in them. ("You make me want to jump out of this
bed and crawl to San Francisco.")

The racy photos were a promise, an enticing
prelude to when they would finally be together.

In exchange, he had sent her pictures of his
hands, which were big, powerful-looking. Then his muscular arms,
with shirt sleeves rolled up, a silver watch round his wrist. His
stubbled jaw as he was shaving. They weren't conventionally
titillating in the least, but nevertheless, seeing parts of the man
she was in love with was sexy as hell, a private, prolonged
striptease just for her. She had elaborate fantasies about wearing
boots and a black corset and shaving him with a sharp razor while
he was bound and helpless. Often she dreamt about his hands cupping
her, stroking her ...

"Yoo-hoo, what are you smiling at over
there?" Vivian teased.

Eden looked up guiltily. She was supposed to
be having a girls' night out with Vivian, Sue, and Regine. Yet here
she was absentminded and far away.

Vivian was her childhood friend, the one who
knew her longest and best out of all her girlfriends. She had just
gotten back from a business trip abroad and had gathered everyone
for a dinner. She was the gregarious one, the glue. If it weren't
for Vivian's social get-togethers, Eden would probably never go out
at all. She now looked at Eden curiously.

"Nothing," Eden said, slipping her iPhone
back into her purse. Putting it away caused her a physical ache.
This must be what it feels like to be addicted, she realized.

"You weren't
texting
were you?" Vivian
exclaimed in exaggerated disbelief.

Vivian had teased her often about being a
troglodyte and for her adamant refusal to text ("I can feel my
brain cells dying with every LOL and purposely misspelled word.")
If Vivian knew the extent of Eden's texting, Skyping, and
extracurricular activities, she would never hear the end of it.

Eden shook her head slightly and inclined her
head towards Regine and Sue. Vivian raised an eyebrow but said no
more.

As soon as Eden excused herself to go to the
restroom, Vivian got up as well and followed her.

"Alright, what is up with you?" Vivian asked
as they were washing their hands. "Brand new phone, you're acting
all distracted. You and Troy are back together aren't you?"

"Troy?" Eden was confused, momentarily
forgetting who Troy was. Then she remembered. He seemed like a
lifetime ago. "Oh, god, no."

Months ago she had been resolute but sad over
their breakup. And now she couldn't even remember what it was that
attracted her to him in the first place.

"Well?" Vivian was expectant, hand perched on
her hip.

Vivian was a twice-divorced, worldly
businesswoman. Her love affairs were the stuff of legend and had
Eden hanging at every detail whenever Vivian recounted them. She
dallied with the semi-famous and the rich, frequently jetting off
to Belize or St. Tropez and other exotic places with her lovers.
She lived a life that Eden only read about in novels.

But now Eden had exciting news of her own,
for once. Although Vivian was always supportive of Eden, especially
after her bitter divorce and then her sudden breakup with Troy,
Eden didn't know what or how to tell her. She wanted to confide in
her so badly. It would be such a pleasurable relief to talk about
Adam with someone. But Eden knew how Vivian would react if she
found that Eden had never met Adam, never even knew what he looked
like.

"Okay," Eden said, after a long, indecisive
silence. "I can't tell you yet. But I can, in late December." Adam
said that it was likely that their first meeting will be a month
from now, and by the time late December rolled around, she would be
able to tell Vivian that yes, she had met Adam, and yes, she knew
what he looked like.

Vivian looked intrigued. "Why late December?
Why not now?"

"I can't say right now," Eden pleaded. "But I
will, I promise. Late December."

Vivian appeared as though she wanted to
imprison Eden in the ladies' restroom and grill her until she gave
up her secrets. She gave her an indulgent smile instead.

"Alright. I'll wait. But I will definitely
hunt you down in December."

Eden felt guilty for keeping something so
important from her friend.

"His name is Adam," she burst out.

Vivian's eyes widened. "Adam?"

Eden smiled and headed for the door. "And
that's all I'm going to say."

Vivian groaned as she followed her
behind.

When they got back to their table, Eden was
shocked to see Regine, usually so tranquil, was now red-faced and
on the verge of tears. She glanced at Sue, who was sitting next to
Regine and had her arm around her. Sue shrugged at both Vivian and
Eden as if to say that it was a long, ugly story.

"Regine, are you okay?"

The tears that Regine had been holding back
spilled. "No," she sobbed. "I'm not okay. I'm sorry, Viv. I know
this was supposed to be a fun night out but I can't hold it in
anymore."

Vivian and Eden gave each other a look. Then
Vivian motioned to the waiter standing nearby and mouthed, "More
cosmos please," while holding up four fingers.

Regine was the sweetest out of all them but
also the one who had the rockiest love life. She had a tendency to
go out with men who treated her badly. Sue on the other hand was
the stable and sensible one, married happily for seven years. She
had the most in common with Eden, in that they were homebodies and
often talked about their children.

"Sweetheart, do you want to talk about
it?"

Regine blew her nose on the tissue Eden
handed her and then proceeded to tell them in pained detail.

"Max was my dream guy. Gorgeous, funny,
smart. He had his act together, too. A successful entrepreneur with
an MBA. So different from all the losers and deadbeats I've been
with. He was always there for me whenever I needed him, listened to
all my problems. I told him things I never told anybody else!"

No one said anything as Regine quietly
sobbed. She looked as if her world had fallen apart.

"I've never felt so close with anyone in my
life. It was like we were made for each other. And when he asked me
to marry him, I said yes. Why wouldn't I? He was everything I ever
wanted. I couldn't believe my luck. I couldn't believe someone like
him would want someone like me. That he existed at all."

Eden listened with dread, waiting for the
other shoe to drop. Regine had mentioned Max before in passing, but
never in detail. That he had been too good to be true was evident
from Regine's tears. Did he turn out to be violent? A cheater? A
jealous, domineering jerk?

Regine had her mouth open but the words
wouldn't come out. It was too painful. At last, she was able to
continue, "I kept asking him, you know, 'When are we going to meet?
We're engaged, but we've never even met.’"

Eden froze.

"Hold on," Vivian said, with an undercurrent
of incredulity. "You've never met Max?"

Regine looked at Vivian, threw her hands up
in a gesture of helplessness then burst into fresh tears.

Sue broke in. "He friended her through
Facebook."

Vivian said, "Oh," as if that explained
everything. Eden alerted to her tone. Implicit in it was judgment.
Regine had fallen in love online. With someone she met in Facebook.
How could she be so foolish?

"He kept making excuses after excuses. He was
always too busy at work, then he was out of the country on
business, then his mother was sick with cancer. Every time I tried
to meet him he had something going on that prevented us from
meeting. It turns out everything was a lie. He wasn't an
entrepreneur at all. He didn't live in New York. He wasn't even
single. He’s an out-of-work electrician in Philly, married, with
two kids. His name wasn't even Max! The picture he used was stolen
from a model's profile!"

"That's how we found out he was lying," Sue
said. Her face was pinched with restrained fury. "When Regine
started telling me about Max, I knew something about this guy was
fishy, but I didn't say anything. Now, I wish I had. After she told
me he had asked her to marry him, I knew I had to do something. So
I looked up his Facebook profile and did what those guys in the
show do, you know, the Catfish show on T.V., and did a search for
his photo in Google Image Search. That's when I found this other
profile, with Max's pictures all over them. Only this other guy was
for real. He owned those pictures. Max had stolen them from him and
pretended they were his own."

"I tried to video Skype a few times, but
there was always something wrong with his computer. After awhile, I
just dropped it. It never occurred to me to wonder, if he's so
loaded, why doesn't he get a computer that works? Or maybe I did.
Maybe deep down I knew it didn't add up, but I rationalized it to
myself. I wanted it to be true so badly. I never asked myself, if
he loved me, why wouldn't he drop everything to be with me, the way
I would drop everything to be with him? I just feel so stupid!"
Regine covered her face with her hands, full of shame.

"You were catfished," Vivian remarked
quietly.

Regine nodded.

"What?" Eden asked. Her voice was faint, as
though it had come from someone far away. Not her own.

Sue turned to her. "From that T.V. show."