The Other Other Woman (25 page)

Once he knew that Ivan had a safe place to call home for a few days, it seemed like a huge weight had been lifted off of him. His overall mood improved dramatically over the next few days.

GM sweetie, what’s up?

Not much, did you see my boy on TV last night?

Who is your boy besides me?! I must have missed it.

Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention!
I answered. I sure was glad to see him refer to himself as my boy though.
Good thing, he might have made you switch teams!

Oh, I like BC, but Barack is no BC!!

I would re-elect that little manwhore 20 times over if they’d let us…

Yes, you see he can compromise, unlike ALL of the current leaders. And he is good at compromising positions too!

Yes, and I have loose morals so that works for me
! I added.

LMAO. Will call you in about 15 if you can talk.

Yes, sir.

When we spoke, he was telling me how the last time he was in Miami he had stocked a bunch of alcohol in the condo for our trip.

“Right now there are four nice bottles of wine, a huge bottle of Grey Goose, and Bacardi Limon. I’ll try to get some good beer on ice for you too.”

“We don’t really drink beer, babe, so what you have already sounds fine. Unless you are planning to drink it with us?”

“I’d like to. I guess I need to see what flights are like.”

I didn’t believe him, and I felt like he needed more convincing, so I made up a little checklist for him on the notepad of my iPhone.

Pros of Matt going to Miami:

1. Hot sex with Mallory

2. It’s MIAMI, dummy!

3. Hot sex with Mallory

4. Good food, lots of wine

5. See also: numbers 1 and 3.

6. Brooke and Mal need a cabana boy.

7. Mallory sleeps naked.

8. No 6-hour drive for numbers 1 and 3.

9. Cough*hot sex*coughcough

10. Matt needs a vacation

Cons of Matt going to Miami:

1. Too much hot sex with Mallory

2. ??

I took a picture of it and sent it to him via text.
Since you seem to be struggling with the Miami issue, I made up a handy dandy list for your viewing pleasure.

He replied:
OMG!!! Love numbers 1 and 3!!!

I don’t know if it did any good, but I loved to make him laugh. Brooke told me that no one could make him laugh like I did. I was also pretty sure that no one else would talk to him the way that I did. He thrived on attention, so I was sure to let him know that I wanted him often. I felt like his wife never made him a priority, and look at what happened to her. I wanted to keep him interested, and I had very few inhibitions left, or at least no shame, I’m not sure which. I just got used to expressing myself in a certain way with him being so far away. I would definitely say things in texts that I probably would not have in person. But I loved the idea of him picking up his phone and being turned on by something naughty I had sent him. Something he could only get from me, especially since I couldn’t see him that often.

GM. What’s on tap for today?

Dat ass.

I had taken a picture of my entire naked backside in the shower that morning for him. I had to admit it was a really flattering photo. It didn’t even look like my butt! The water droplets were hitting it just right… very artsy. I would have to remember the really forgiving lighting in there for future use. I sent it to him with a caption.
This will hopefully be a good start to your morning.

He quickly responded:
DAMN girl! Not good… Incredible!

It’s going to be available for viewing in Miami Sept. 26-30th.

LOL, a live nude model at 3801 Collins Ave!!

I heard it’s quite an exhibit, you probably shouldn’t miss it.

Agreed.

Well, then you know what to do.

I knew that he was going out drinking with Molly and Brooke later that afternoon. They were going to have their team meeting at Lobby so they could have a glass of wine or three. Since I hadn’t gotten one since I saw him a few weeks ago, I asked him to send me a new picture, nothing dirty, just of his face. He normally took forever or avoided my requests altogether, but I was pleased when he sent me one right away.

He looked very serious, almost frowny. His shirt was buttoned a little too high, as always, and his hair had definitely grown out on top, which noticeably aged him. He added
studious man
to the text and claimed it was a bad picture.

It’s not a bad photo, but I do like you more smiley, oh… and naked. But I think that was previously mentioned.

Previously yes. But you look a LOT better than me in all ways!

You still look hot to me, babe. I wish I didn’t want you right now… but I do.

Now that would be so much better than drinking wine with co-workers!!!

Well technically you would be drinking wine with a co-worker. But your co-worker would also be grabbing your naked ass and pulling you very, very deep inside of her.

Sounds really good to me… hey, how can I work with all these thoughts???

You want me to stop?

My day is almost over. It’s all good now, babe! Last time was so awesome. Esp the second time!!!!

Yeah, it felt sooo good that way. I’m having trouble keeping my mind off of it, actually. But next time I want you to prop me up on the counter and stand in front of me and slip it in really, really deep and then pull it completely out, and do that to me again and again, because I think that might be my favorite part, deal?

Mmmm. I do like it when a plan comes together…

That can also be arranged.

I knew they were heading out soon, so I told him to have a great evening and I would talk to him tomorrow. I hoped he had to sit there for a while waiting for his boner to go down.

****

He had appeared to be in better spirits lately. So, it seemed like a good time to talk about “us.” I told him I wanted to talk to him about something, so he told me he would call me once he was out in his car. When the phone rang, I was suddenly very nervous. I don’t know why, it’s not like I couldn’t tell him anything, but I always felt too vulnerable to ask him how he felt about me. He still paid me compliments often, usually on my intelligence, my wit, or my job because I happened to be helping him with a work situation. But he would never just come out and say that he loved me or even that he wanted me or missed me anymore. If I said it to him, he would respond back appropriately, “Me too, babe,” but it wasn’t quite the same as saying it on his own, like he used to, very freely and frequently.

His recent lack of attention and emotion made me uneasy, which was funny coming from someone like me. In just a few short months he had completely stripped me of all my defenses. He had somehow managed to break down all of my barriers and had turned me from a cynical, jaded ice queen into an emotional basketcase. Now I was a crier, a gusher, and a chronic over-sharer. I was also afraid I was going to scare him off or make him think I was too clingy. He knew how independent I was, in general, but now I depended on him for nearly all of my emotional support. But only because he had encouraged me to do so by being so incredibly supportive.

We had conversations in the past about how his wife was always fishing for compliments and how much it bugged him. I didn’t want him to see me like that. But the truth was, I was starving for them. He used to be so sweet and so interested. He wanted to talk all the time and for me to send him pictures every day. Now it felt like I was forcing them on him or being too aggressively flirty, and I had no idea what had changed. He never really let on that there was anything amiss, at least not between me and him. Maybe it was just because we were no longer “new.” I saw him so rarely that he was still new and exciting to me. I still had constant butterflies for him, but now they made me sort of sick instead of happy.

When I picked up, he said, “Hey sweetie, what’s up?”

“Not too much, what are you doing?”

“I’m just on my way to the gym. How was your day?”

We made a little small talk like we always did.

“So, what did you want to talk about, babe?”

“Well, I dunno, I was just thinking…”

“Noooo!” I could hear him rolling his eyes.

“Oh hush!” I fussed. “Everything has been pretty good between us lately, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yes, definitely,” he agreed. “I feel really good about you; feel really close to you, especially lately.”

“Okay, good,” I responded, feeling more relaxed. “I feel the same way about you. But you know I start to get a little crazy when we go for long periods of time without seeing each other.”

“I may have seen slight evidence of such a thing, yes…”

“I just want to make sure we are on the same page as far as expectations go,” I said. “So, I was wondering what sort of frequency works for you, in your mind, ideally?”

“Frequency?” he paused. “You mean like how often we should make love?” (Yes, he did say that, and I didn’t even mind it anymore).

“To put it bluntly, yes. How often we see each other,” I explained.

“Well, ideally, it would be daily or weekly. But with the distance, sweetie, it can’t be much more than monthly right now, you know?”

“No, I know, and that’s basically what I had in mind too. But it hasn’t been monthly.”

“I know, and I’m really sorry about that, but I’m hopefully going to see you in Miami, right?”

“Yeah, but even if you do, that means it will have been another six weeks. And what if you can’t make it, then what?”

“Then I’ll come see you right before or right after.”

“You have your bike race the week before. And right after makes it eight weeks. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“I do, but I’m sure we can work it out,” he promised.

“I don’t want to go for months without seeing you, Matt, it doesn’t work for me. I feel like I’m not important enough for you to make time for me. I don’t like it.”

“I know, but right now I’m planning on probably seeing you in Miami.”

“Probably!? That’s exactly my point. Do you even want to go anymore? If you don’t, it’s okay, I’d just rather you tell me now.”

“Of course I do, sweetie, but you know how it is, I have to go where the clients are and I don’t always know what time I’m going to have available until I have it.”

“Then make me a client.”

“Okay, I get it. I promise we will work it out, okay?”

“Okay.”

I was not okay. I was 99% sure he was not going to come to Miami with us. He kept talking as if he was, but I was seeing no action on his part to make any travel arrangements. I even asked Brooke if I was crazy or did it seem to her like he was still coming? She assured me he was telling her the same thing, so, no, I wasn’t crazy. Not about this, anyway. It was incredibly frustrating because the whole idea had been his in the first place. We never asked him to come. It was as if he just wanted to get my hopes up for nothing and keep them there so he could come along and crush them at the last minute. I found it really mean yet not entirely out of character for him. Because each time he did this, I fell for it completely. His intentions always seemed pure at first, but he just “didn’t want to disappoint me” in the end.

If he didn’t come, who knows how long it would be before I could see him after I got back from our trip. My mother was already watching my kids for five straight days. She would definitely need some recovery time. Plus, I had already asked her to pencil me in for late October when he would be coming up for the Grandover trip.

I knew I would have to come up with some crazy excuse for my mom… I just had to. I had become a slave to the idea of seeing him. It didn’t matter if he acted negligent or even like a complete asshole much of the time that we were apart. I just had to see him, and then everything would be okay. Then surely, he would realize how good we were together, and how much he loved me.

Going through the emails one morning, I was able to see that he had scheduled some meetings in Miami around the middle of September. So basically, he would be there the week before us. He would have to go home for his bike ride event, of course, so there was no way he was going to make it down to Miami the next week. I blew a gasket on the phone to Jules when I saw the emails. As usual, she had nothing but wonderful things to say about him and his behavior (is Foolassery an actual word?), but I didn’t say one word to him. If he wanted to act like it was a still a possibility that he would come right up until the end, then I would let him. I sent him a picture of me in a dress that I had bought specifically for Miami and told him:
I may need help getting in and out of it
. To which he replied,
Looks GREAT, babe, how many times!?

Flames! Flames on the side of my face!

I knew he was looking to buy another property in Miami in the very near future. I think he liked the idea of being some kind of real estate mogul with a ton of rentals under his belt for income and tax breaks. He received emails from his realtor, Sofia, on an almost daily basis with links to apartment buildings or condos available for purchase. I never gave them much thought, really. I knew she had been his realtor for a couple of years and helped him find his other places. But then one day, I noticed a winky face. Realtors don’t usually use those, do they?

___________________________________

From: Sofia Silva (>[email protected])

Sent: Friday, Sept 7th. 8:47 a.m.

To: Wynne, Matt

Subject: 2 bedroom/2 bath beachfront

Hey Matt, here’s a great deal on a 2 bedroom over at the Murano Grande. Remember when we visited that one? ;)