Authors: Kitty Margo
Midsummer's Eve (15 page)
“
I could never trust you again,
Adam
. You know that! Every day when you lef
t for work I would suspect
you were on the prowl
again
. From what I hear you hit on every Asian female who walks through
the door at Castle and Avery.”
“That’
s a lie!” Dropping my hands, he stood and sauntered into the kitchen. A cork popped and h
e returned with a bottle of Chardonnay
and two wineglasses. He filled the glasses with shaking hands and handed one to me.
“Thank you.”
“I’ve told you people are jealous of me and love to start rumors.
Haven’t I told you that all along
? If I so much as speak to a girl at work, within minutes the rumors are spreading like wildfire throughout the plant that
I’
m sleeping with her."
I moved
to stand in front of the fireplace. Mistake. The rug brought unwanted memories scrambling through my brain of the nights during the first couple months of our courtship when we had made love on the rug, leaving me with severe carpet burns on my knees.
“
Eve
, give me one
more chance!” He moved
to stand in front of me
,
slowly as not to spill his precious wine. He took my glass, placed them both on the mantle and drew me into his arms.
Why did he insist on having me in his arms, when he knew the position made it impossible for me to think straight?
“I can earn your trust back,
Eve
.”
“
I doub
t it.”
“I could find another job.”
Oh!
Those words instantly succeeding in grabbing my full
and undivided attention. “
Adam
, you have been employed at Castle and Avery for fifteen years. You aren’t going to find
another job that pays as well.”
We both knew
p
lants were closing in North Carolina at an alarming rate.
“
I would quit my job tomorrow if it wa
s the only way to get you back.”
He had me by the shoulders now and unshed tears glistened in his brilliant blue eyes. Oh! I di
d love a sensitive man who wasn’
t afraid to let his emotions show!
“
You would?” My
steady resolve began to melt as quickly as the pumpkin spice scented candle burning on the mantle. “Really?”
Adam
was warehouse supervisor, a status that required years of ladder climbing to achieve. I fou
nd it difficult to believe
he would leave his job, or the large supply of female Asian employees, for me. That had to mean something! But what? Could it mean that
Adam
had been doing some deep soul searching? Had he perhaps finally realized that there was more to life than great sex with Asian women?
“Yes
. I will put in m
y notice Monday.”
He held my face to gaze deeply into my tear filled eyes. “I love you,
Eve
.”
“Oh,
Adam
, I love you too!” Every last defense shattered as I fell into his waiting arms and prayed that this time his words could somehow be true. “I never stopped loving you for a second.”
“Will you give me another chance?”
“
Yes,” I whispered. “Of course I will,
Adam
.”
Then he kissed me and I swallowed bile as I forced myself not to think of where his lips had recently been. He kissed me for several minutes, until I was dripping with desire, then he grabbed the wine bottle and taking my hand led me to the bedroom.
Let’s just say the encounter skidded downhill from there. No butterflies in the stomach. No tightening of the nether region. No waves of raging p
assion racing through my veins.
Actually,
there wasn’
t a whole lot of feeling at all. But that would all return in time, I was sure. He just had a lot on his mind, plus, he had downed the remaining wine from the bottle befo
re crawling into bed
.
Afterward,
Adam
kissed me on the cheek, rolled over, and
asked me to rub his back until he
fell into a restless
sleep leaving me alone with my
thoughts.
Lady Wonder had it going on. As I lay with my hand on
Adam
’
s shoulder, constantly touching him to assure myself that he was really
there, I realized that she hadn’
t missed a beat. She had foretold that
Adam
would call within 3 weeks, after his beloved Chia had fallen head over heels for another man. E
ric. “Don’
t answer the phone,” she had strenuously cautioned me. “Ignore him.” Thank God, I had ignored her instead.
It was impossible to ever love another man with the intensity I felt for
Adam
, so why bother trying? Sliding my hand around to cradle his steadily increasing beer gut, I snuggled contentedly against the warmth of his back and breathed a contented sigh.
Having a great sex life wasn’
t a critical factor for a successful relationship was it? I was 49 and
Adam
was 44. Naturally we weren’
t going to be burning up the sheets every few hours like someone in there 20's. Laughter was the glue that held our relations
hip together, although I couldn’
t really remember the last time I had heard a robust belly laugh
from him. Bottom line, I couldn’
t live without him, nor did I want to. At long last, I had him lying next to me and felt the pain and hurt of the last couple months slowly fading into oblivion, hopefully never to return. Sighing contentedly, I closed my eyes and slept
blissfully even though that darn
whippoorwill returned to his new roosting spot on my windowsill.
The next morning, I awakened feeling all was right with this wonderful world of ours. I wanted to stay cuddled up to
Adam
and just kiss
,
well
maybe one or two more thing
s
,
for the
better par
t of the morning. Unfortunately
from the look of things,
there wouldn’
t be sweet kisses or anything else. Not with
Adam
. He was snoring loudly
. I giggled, expecting the ruffled curtains to lift and flutter like they did in the
Tom and Jerry
cartoons.
I got up to make coffee and channel surfed until I found Joyce Meyer. The woman is a hoot and knows her Bible front to back. I poured a cup o
f coffee, added French vanilla c
reamer and sat back in my recliner to listen to Joyce preach the gospel, with a healthy dose of laughter thrown
in for good measure. If she were
n’t such an outstanding preacher she would make a great comic.
Adam
rolled out of bed around noon, resembling a zombie from one of the
Night of the Living Dead
movies, with a hangover. He made the motions of going to the kitchen to p
our a cup of black coffee
without the evidence of a clear focus.
It was painfully obvious that the haggard man beside me had some h
eavy stuff on his mind and wasn’
t in th
e mood to convey these thoughts
,
or any others
,
to me this morning. Leaning back on the sofa
he breathed a heavy sigh with a woeful expression that suggested he might be feeling exactly as I had after catching
him with another woman. I couldn’t
recall ever seeing a more pathetic sight, except
… well…
maybe in my own
mirror.
How could he still be thinking of Chia, when he had irrefutable proof that she was with another man? Duh? Who was I to ask such a foolish question? The answer was, evidently the same way I had still yearned for him during his Chia phase. Could he still be in love with her? Was I just someone to pass time with until she tired of Eric
? I couldn’
t think about that right now. Fiddle dee dee. I would think about it tomorrow or I just might plunge into the ranks of the stark raving mad.
“
Are you really go
ing to work a notice next week?”
“
Yes,
Eve
.
I told you
I would, didn’t I?”
He
soun
ded
much less sure of his plan than he had the night before. Of a sudden, he seemed to be having troublesome second thoughts about his hasty, alcohol induced decision to quit his job
. “
I just don’
t know how
I will keep my house.”
Did he have to lay every ounce of guilt for his resolution to quit at my feet? It had been his idea, not mine. Maybe that was the cause of his obvious distress this morning. Odds were
he wasn’
t even thinking about Chia. Surely
,
he was more concerned with the nagging question of how to keep his house and pay the bills that arrived like clockwork, than with a piece of ass.
If he truly loved me, as he so adamantly professed to do
, wouldn’
t he be able to withstand the slanted eyes
of temptation at work? I couldn’
t risk
Adam
losing everything he owned on acco
unt of my jealousy. That wouldn’
t bode well for either of our futures. So I took the opportunity to e
ase his troubled mind. “You don’
t need to quit your job,
Adam
.”
This caused a beaming
smile to light his boyishly handsome face
as his blue eyes fair danced. “
Do you mean it,
Eve
? I
’ve got to admit I’m shocked
! What brought a
bout this sudden change in you?”
“
Just hearing you say you would was enough
for me.”
I hoped
this would elevate his mood and we could have a good day
. “
I would b
e tearing my hair out if I didn’
t have a job and a way to pay my mortgage next month. How could I ask you to put yourself in such a stressful
situation?”
He glanced over his coffee cup for a long, appraising look and reached to caress my cheek. “You are one of a kind,
Eve
.
Do you know that?”
Was that an actual tear twinkling in his baby blues? Had he finally seen the light and realized the error of his ways?
“
You won’
t regret this, Baby
.”
God! Please! Don’
t let me regret it!
“
Just promise that you’ll keep those r
oving eyes to yourself at work.”
I laughed with a sound that lacked even the smallest trace of humor.
“
That is one promis
e that will be easy to keep.”
At times he could sound so sincere.
“I only have eyes for you now,
Eve
.”
That was surely a first!
“
Okay, that’s settled. What’s on the agenda for
today?”
I reached
under the counter for the frying pan. Bacon and eggs over easy with buttered toast was his favorite breakfast.
“
Get dressed and let’
s go to
Charlotte to
the mall
.
”
Huh? I had feared earlier that I would need to fetch a walker to help his weary body struggle down the hall, and now he was feeling spry enough to go gallivanting around a mall? What was the reason for this sudden burst of enthusiasm?
I wouldn’
t allow myself to dwell on the possible causes of his unexpected jubilation. It couldn’t be attributed to the
fact that he w
ould continue to see the enchanting Chia every day at work. Could it?
“
D
on’
t cook breakfast.” He
stretched and grabbed me for a bear hug and a quick kiss before heading to the shower.
Whew! Talk about morning breath! The man knows I have a weak stomach!
“I’
m taking you to lun
ch at your favorite restaurant.”
On
the ride to Charlotte, I couldn’
t help but wonder how many times Ch
ia had plopped her plump
fanny in my passenger seat and caught myself glancing arou
nd for any lingering long
black
stray
hairs. No, stop that! Don’
t ruin the day obsessing over that foreign adulteress.
After an hour drive,
Adam
pulled his fancy little sports car into Olive Garden reveling in the admiring glances the car rece
ived. In all aspects of life he tended to choose things that stood
out from the rest of the pack. Don’t even bother asking how my plain Jane self fell into the lineup.
Adam
was his old self again, laughing and making his usual terribly corny jokes. He chatted with the couple in front of us in line as if he had known them all his life and especially enjoyed when Southerners commented on his heavy Yankee accent.
I sipped a delicious Bloody Mary while we discussed
a cabin that he wanted us to
build in the woods in the spring. Then I ordered Fettuccini Alf
redo and he ordered Ziti and
held my hand while he rambled on and on about the bait and tackle he needed to purchase at Ou
tdoor World. He didn’
t release my hands until the best salad to be found in Charlotte arrived. Honestly, after salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden you can forego the entree and, as usual, I had to request a take out box.
At South Park Mall he purchased jeans at Nordstrom’s and shoes at Finish Line. I picked up a couple of cute shirts at The Gap. We were standing in line for Aunt Annie’s homemade pretzels when he said something that left m
e puzzled and slightly uneasy. “
Let’s shop separately for awhile,
Eve
.”
“Why?”
I cried, unfortunately drawing the rapt attention of several
fellow
pretzel lovers. My suspicious mind immediately leapt to the worrisome conclusion that he was trying to slip away and make
a clandestine phone call
.
“
Would it be too much to ask to do a little shopping in private? Look around you,
Eve
.”
Humoring him, I gazed
arou
nd
the mall
and saw
red hearts hanging from the ceiling and taped to every window. Oh! How had I missed it
? “
Valentine’
s Day!”
“Yes, Valentine’
s Day is Tuesday,”
an attractive sixtyish
gentleman in front of me said and chuckled. “Now can he have some privacy to shop?”
“If I was you, I’d give th
at man al
l the time he needs and point the way to the
jury sto
re
,” a charming elderly lady behind us joked.
“
You take all t
he time you need,”
I assured
Adam
as my mind raced with possibilities.
Wasn’
t it nothing more than a thrilling coincidence that we happened
to be standing a few doors
from a jewelry store when the sudden need for privacy occurred to him?
His Christmas present, a Lucky Brand blue jean jacket, was hidden in the back of my closet. I was glad
I hadn’
t relented to the relentless urge to watch the jacket go up in flames. I would change the Christmas wrapping paper, making it the perfect Valentine’s gift. Before I turned the corner
toward J C Penney’s
I glanced back to see
Adam
walking into a jewelry store.
Oh my God! What if he was getting an engagement ring at this very moment? He was! I just knew it!
Why else would he insist on privacy to enter a jewelry store
? I was too excited to shop. I couldn’t think about anything except the possibility that I could be receiving an engagement ring in as little as two days. In a determined effort to calm down, I took deep breaths
, bypassed J C Penney’s,
and headed to Starbucks for a Grande Mocha Frappachino, my
second
greatest weakness in life.
Even my mailman probably knew that
Adam currently held the
tarnished trophy
.
