Significant Others (22 page)

“There is nothing going on between Trisha and me,” Marc said. Then he added, “Okay, she thinks I’m a big deal. She doesn’t know any better, but at least she looks up to me. You know, the way you used to.”

I had to admit that I hadn’t felt that way about my husband in a long time. I was self-sufficient. I really didn’t think I needed anybody. I frankly didn’t have time for anybody, but I hadn’t realized, until now, that it even bothered my husband, who I thought was just as independent-minded as I was.

I looked up at him. He really did look sorry for what he’d done. Not that I would ever forgive him.

“You know, every time I call you you’re not in the office,” I accused. “Have you been with Trisha all those times?”

Marc turned away. But he looked more nervous than guilty.

“Marc, what’s wrong? You used to be able to tell me anything. Is there something else you’re not saying?”
Oh God, please don’t let Trisha be pregnant. Anything but that.

“It’s embarrassing,” Marc started.

“More embarrassing than being caught with your pants down in front of our daughter?”

“That’s not what happened,” Marc insisted.

“Well, tell me, please, what did happen?”

“It’s about work.”

“What about work?” I said, annoyed.

“You have no idea how much pressure I’m under,” Marc began.

“You’re a partner in the firm. You shouldn’t have to be working hard at this point in your career.”

“I’m still responsible for 2,200 billable hours a year.”

“That’s no different than it’s always been,” I said.

“The firm’s M&A activity has dried up,” Marc said. “There’s nothing for me to do. They’re keeping me on, but I just go into the office and sit there. It’s humiliating not to be productive. It’s driving me crazy. They’re going to vote me out at the next partners’ meeting.”

I was stunned. This came directly out of left field.

“Are you sure?”

“Grant wasn’t supposed to tell me, but he’s a good friend, so he gave me a heads-up.”

That was why Vicky wouldn’t say anything to me.

“When is the vote?”

“Right after Christmas,” Marc replied.

“Is there anything you can do?”

“Not really. There’s going to be an incentive for me to leave quietly. When I turn sixty-two, I get insurance and a pension—an annuity.”

“Well, I guess you could retire,” I suggested.

“And do what?”

“Watch ‘The Talk’ and eat ice cream in your bathrobe?”

“Very funny.”

“What can I say? I’m a funny girl.”

But this situation demanded a serious response. “Why didn’t you come to me before?”

“And tell my super-successful, high-powered wife and her dynamic family that her husband is a failure? You’d just be ashamed of me.”

“What?” I said, completely baffled.

“You won’t even use my name. Honey Palladino. That’s what you call yourself. But you’re Honey Palladino
Bronstein.”

“I didn’t know that bothered you,” I said sincerely. “Now let’s get back to your problems at work.”

“I thought about changing firms, maybe moving out of Atlanta, but I know you’re tied to Palladino Properties and you can’t leave. I’ve tried to tell you a million times, but then the phone would always ring and it would be the office or a client or the bank or something about the funeral or your mother. You never have any time for me, for us. And you never listen.”

Was he right? I hated to admit it, but some of what he was saying made sense. Was that why he was encouraging my mother to sell Palladino Properties? Because then I’d have more time for him? Or was the reason more sinister? Even I could put two and two together. And the more I thought about it, the more his actions added up. I was starting to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Marc, why did you really encourage my mother to sell the company?”

Marc didn’t hesitate.

“Because she doesn’t want to run the business anymore.”

“
She’s
not running it,” I said, and I could feel the resentment creeping into my voice. Had it been there all along? “Why didn’t she tell me that herself? Why did she have to come to you?”

“Because she’s told you a hundred different times in a hundred different ways, but you weren’t listening. Didn’t have time to listen.”

I took a deep breath. I didn’t like what I was about to accuse my husband of, but I had to know.

“I have a question for you, and I want an honest answer. Did promoting the sale have anything to do with your problems at work? A nice fat, juicy deal would go a long way toward cementing your position at the firm.”

Marc’s eyes opened wide and his mouth dropped. I think he was truly blindsided.

“Honey, I would never do that. I can’t even believe you’d think that I would take advantage of you and your family that way. I was just trying to help your mother.”

I blew out a breath. Okay, I was way out of line. But I was still mad.

“Then tell me why you lied about your business trip to New York. Did it have something to do with the sale?”

“How did you know about that?”

“I’m asking the questions here.”

“I went there for a job interview,” Marc admitted. “And I got an offer, a good one. I wouldn’t be a partner. I’d have to work my way back up. I’d be what they call Of Counsel until I could prove myself, again.”

“A job offer?”

“That’s one of the reasons I was encouraging your mother to sell the company. I figured if it was a done deal, you’d have no choice but to go to New York with me.”

“So you lied when you told me you were going to your firm retreat?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t tell you the real reason.”

“Did you take Trisha?”

“On a job interview?”

“Well, I thought, I mean, when I called the office they said Trisha was out too.”

“You were checking up on me?”

“Well, after I saw this,” I said defensively, handing him the 4X6 of Naked Trisha I had just taken out of my purse.

“Christ, Honey. Where did you get this?”

“It was mixed in with our family Thanksgiving pictures. Look familiar?”

Marc looked truly surprised. “I loaned Trisha my camera so her boyfriend could take pictures of her. Then I forgot about it.”

“If there’s nothing going on between you and Trisha, then why was she at our house, prancing around half naked?”

“She was typing my resume and cover letters to send out to prospective employers. I didn’t want her doing it at work.”

“Hannah said she was topless at our pool. There’s no computer out there.”

“She said she wanted to work on her tan. I didn’t even notice. Honey, I went to New York alone, I promise you. Since I was going to be gone, I gave Trisha the day off.”

“Are you telling me the truth? There’s nothing going on between you and Trisha?”

“I’ll be honest. She did come on to me, but I set her straight.”

I blew out a long breath. You can get a lot of exercise jumping to conclusions. So my husband didn’t go to New York with another woman. If I could take him at his word.

“Marc, I’m sorry about your job, really,” I said and meant it. “But I wish you had come to me. We could have worked something out. You’re an adult. You need to act like one. I was drowning, I still am, and your answer is to slap me in the face by bringing your temp home in the middle of the day? And why were you wearing your bathrobe?”

“Honey, I didn’t even go into the office that day. I was so depressed, I just stayed home. I didn’t think you would find out.”

“Oh, now there’s an original answer. That’s right up there with the ever-popular, ‘Everybody does it.’ ”

“I have to admit, having someone her age interested in me made me feel good, young again. For God’s sake, I’m almost sixty.”

“You’re not almost sixty. You’re fifty-five, and I’m right there behind you. I know getting old is the pits. But it’s much worse for a woman, and I really believed you were sleeping with her. Vicky and Grant and who knows how many other people at the firm knew about your little luncheon rendezvous, but I didn’t. It’s humiliating. And you let them think you were sleeping with her, didn’t you? Why? Because it was good for your reputation?”

Marc hung his head. Apparently he had no answers. At least not the right ones.

“I’m supposed to be able to depend on you and trust you. You’re my husband. How can I ever do that again? I don’t even know what I ever saw in you.”

“You said you were attracted to my big brain,” Marc teased.

“I was. Until you stopped thinking with it.”

“Honey,” he said, reaching out to stroke my hand. I shivered involuntarily. He could still get to me, and that’s because I was still in love with the bastard, but I wasn’t going to let him know that, so I pulled my hand away.

“I told you nothing was going on between Trisha and me.”

“I work hard to lose weight and then you hook up with some lard ass,” I whined indignantly.

“She does have a big butt,” Marc admitted, looking at the photo again. “And a pretty small brain. I mean, how smart can she be if she’s hanging out with an old loser like me? She probably doesn’t even know I’m on the way out of the firm. I guess the gossip hasn’t reached her yet. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be wasting her time.”

“And what does that say about me? I married you.”

“I’m glad you did, and I prefer your butt,” Marc said, smoothing his hands around my ass, trying to get on my good side.

“Cut it out,” I spit, pushing him away. “And we’re not done here. Are you telling me that with the least bit of encouragement you would have jumped on the opportunity—or her?”

“She made herself available,” Marc admitted, “but I wasn’t biting.”

“Sounds like a fish story, the one that got away.”

“Honey, you can’t see it, but you’re totally stressed out,” Marc said. “You’ve got to stop internalizing everybody’s angst. You have enough angst of your own.”

“I think I have a right to my angst, after what you did. And in case you don’t know, selling a house is one of the most stressful situations that exist. I admit it. I worry about my listings. I care. It bothers me if a deal falls through. I worry about my people.”

“You see, there, you worry more about your people than you do about your own family. Sometimes you stress out about things in the business you have no control over. You’ve paid your dues. And you’re still taking calls at midnight. You’ve got to draw the line. Your mother doesn’t let the job run her life.”

“Right now my mother isn’t
doing
the job. And my mother has her own style of doing things. I feel I need to be accessible at all times.”

“Maybe you need a bigger team,” Marc suggested. “Hire another personal assistant. You certainly have the volume to support that expansion.”

“We’re getting squeezed out by all the mega-firms,” I said.

“A merger could change all that,” Marc sulked.

“But there isn’t going to be any merger, thanks to you. My mother is just going to sell the business and Donny and I will be out of a job. And there will be no more Palladino Properties. All my father’s hard work—gone.”

“I told you I thought if she sold you’d be free to come to New York with me. It was selfish, I know. I’m sorry. I was only thinking of us, of myself.”

Marc grabbed my hands.

“Come on, baby,” he coaxed. “Give me another chance.”

“I’ve already moved on,” I said stubbornly.

“What do you mean?”

“While you were off meeting your temp, I met my significant other.”

“Your what?”

“I met someone. We’re going on a Christmas cruise.”

“Unbelievable. Honey, you can’t be serious. You just got here. What’s his name?”

“Max,” I said stubbornly.

Marc rubbed his hand over his face. “He lives in Boca?”

“Right here in Millennium Gardens, down the hall, as a matter of fact. It’s very convenient.”

“Oh, so he’s an old geezer.”

“He has all his working parts,” I argued, trying to keep a straight face. “And he thinks my butt is perfect.”

“Okay, that’s it. We’re going home, right now. Pack your bags. I’m getting you and Hannah out of here. We need some alone time to work things out.”

“You can’t give me orders any more. Barbara said—”

“Barbara is a barracuda. She thrives on other people’s misery. I don’t give a damn what she said. The only lawyer you need to listen to is me. You and Hannah are coming home with me. You’re my wife, dammit.”

“I don’t know if I still want to be,” I whispered, and suddenly it was all too much and I broke down.

“Oh, Honey, sweetheart, please don’t cry,” he said, and took me into his arms, kissing the tears away from my face. “I’ll do anything, anything you say, if you’ll just forgive me and take me back. I know I lied to you, but I didn’t do anything wrong. I know what it looks like, and it’s unforgivable what I put you through. But I’ll make it up to you, somehow, I swear.”

“Words, Marc,” I sniffled. “They’re just words.”

“I won’t give up,” Marc insisted. “A wise man once said, ‘persistence pays.’ ”

I squared my shoulders at that reference to my father and continued, “I have something else in mind. I want you to transfer half of your portfolio to me, now. Barbara will handle the transaction. Think of it as a trial separation—of assets.”

“I never heard of that.”

“I just made it up.”

“You’re just about to sell your family business for millions. What about that?”

“That’s mine,” I asserted. “What’s mine is mine. And half of what’s yours is mine. I hope Trisha was worth it. Maybe when I’m completely financially and emotionally independent, I can think about whether to forgive you and judge your sincerity. And, there’s one more thing. I was serious about wanting temporary custody of the Gold Wing.”

“But you don’t even know how to ride a motorcycle,” Marc sputtered.

“Well, then I’ll have to learn or you’ll have to teach me.”

Marc exhaled and then looked resigned.

“Agreed, to everything you say. Honey, I said I love you, and I mean that. I never stopped loving you. You know that, don’t you? We just got off track. I am going to get rid of Trisha, find her another job with another firm, something. I don’t ever want to see her again. God, when Hannah walked in, I felt so low that she had to see me that way. What a loser I am. You should have seen the way she looked at me. She hates me.”