The Perfect Life (38 page)

Having only thrown on a silky robe in my haste to discover who in the hell had been banging on the door at the early morning hour, I wrapped my arms tightly around my chest to conceal myself as best as possible while I waited for him to explain his unannounced visit.

“Effie still has my key or I would’ve let myself in, and it’s time to wake up. We have a problem,” he replied tersely, glancing in the direction of the stairs then back at me. His eyes burned something fierce. “Where is Oliver? Is he still here?”

Confused and concerned, I cocked my head to the side and narrowed my gaze on him. “W-what?” I sputtered. “What are you talking about, Seth? What’s going on? What problem?”

Unzipping his coat, he retrieved a handful of daily tabloids he had stuffed inside it and threw them down on the coffee table, a deep scowl etched into his face. “That’s what I’m talking about, Monroe,” he gritted out through clenched teeth, pointing down at the picture on the front page of all of them. “That’s the fucking problem!”

My entire body began to shake and I fell to my knees as a blown-up photograph of me and Oliver from the night before, naked and intimate on the couch, in crystal-clear focus, stared back up at me. With my attention directed straight at the camera, there was no doubt it was me in the picture, and Oliver, who had my breast captured in his hands and his mouth on my neck, wasn’t facing the lens, but his eyes were cut in the direction of the hidden photographer as well. After reading the first two headlines, “Sundance Wife Celebrates Pat’s Win Without Clutch” and “Cassidy Wins on Field, Loses in Life,” my vision blurred with a surge of tears spilling over my bottom lid and down my face.

Seth dropped down next to me and circled his arms around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. “Baby girl, I know you’re upset, but I need you to gather yourself right now. We’ve got a shitload of damage control to do right now. I take it you haven’t heard from Colin?”

I pulled away slightly to answer him, but I was unable to stop my body from shivering, even though my face and stomach both felt like they were on fire. I couldn’t believe it. After the shitty hand I’d been dealt when I was a kid, to persevere and finally find love and be comfortable with my sexuality, all to be violated once again . . . intimate photos of me, moments only meant to be shared with one person, viewed by millions. It had to be a terrible nightmare. The humiliation alone threatened to suffocate me.

“Monroe, stay with me.” He waved his hand in front of my face to get my attention. “Colin hasn’t tried to call that you know of?”

“No, I was going to get a new phone this morning. We were at the hospital all day yesterday, so I didn’t get a chance to replace the one I broke.”

“Where’s Oliver? Still here?”

“I’m right here.” Oliver’s agitated voice cut across the living room as he emerged from the staircase in his rumpled t-shirt and jeans, clipping at a fast pace toward me on his bare feet. “What in the hell’s going on? Why is she hysteric—” He stopped dead in his tracks the moment he saw the magazines, his unbelieving eyes swinging from the photos to me, then back to the photos. “Holy shit.”

Seth stood and allowed Oliver to take his place next to me, cradling my body against his. “Holy shit is right. I went for a run first thing this morning and saw those outside the first newsstand I passed. When you check your phone, you’ll see I tried calling you, but I figured you guys were passed out cold after yesterday, so I sprinted straight back home and headed over here.”

Oliver and I remained speechless. It was if my brain refused to believe the black-and-white evidence lying right in front of me. I didn’t know what to say or do. My world was crumbling down around me and I couldn’t move.

“Okay, guys, we’ve got three separate issues we need to deal with,” Seth continued, thankfully taking the lead. “I’m assuming you haven’t told Colin?”

“Hold on, man. I know we’ve got a lot to talk about, but give us a minute or two to catch our breath,” Oliver clipped.

Whispering sweet sentiments about how much he loved me and how we’d get through everything together, Oliver rocked me back and forth in his arms until I was able to somewhat get my shit together.

“I was waiting until the end of the season so I didn’t add to the stress of everything else he had going on with you guys and then the injury,” I eventually answered Seth’s question as I looked up at him. “After he came back from Miami, he practically moved into the team facility, and now they just keep winning, prolonging it.”

“You don’t need to explain anything to me, Roe,” he assured me, holding his hands up in surrender. “I get why you haven’t, and you also know how I feel about the whole situation. I just needed to know what level of pissed-offness we’re gonna be dealing with when he gets home . . . which is at what time exactly?”

“I think the team plane is scheduled to land early this afternoon, around one or two,” I replied.

Seth began pacing the floor, scrubbing his hands over his face. “Right, okay then. So back to the three issues. First is dealing with an enraged, completely irrational, ready-to-turn-into-the-Incredible-Hulk Colin when he gets home. Second, we need to figure out how someone was able to get that picture from your backyard. We can call the security monitoring service and get the video feed from last night. If you know about what time this was taken, that’ll help. It can’t undo the damage that’s been done, but if you can identify who took it and have evidence he was trespassing, you can press charges.”

“What’s the third?” I asked.

He looked over at Oliver and frowned. “Figuring out how to get him out of here with the media already camped out in the front,” he said solemnly.

“In the front?!” I shouted at the same time Oliver exclaimed, “I’m not going anywhere!”

The pacing stopped and Seth glowered at both of us. “Yes, out front,” he answered me first. “What did you expect? Your face is plastered on the front page of every daily in print and on every news channel you turn to, locally and nationally.”

“But—” I tried to interject, but was immediately shot down.

“No
but
anything! This is a huge fucking story, Monroe. Your husband is the starting quarterback for one of the teams in the upcoming Super Bowl, and last night, while he was off busy winning the city an AFC Championship, you were banging your coworker in your house, using a sick kid as an excuse to stay here with your lover. The whole story is right here.” He picked up one of the papers and hit it with his other hand. “Somehow, they knew all of it . . . about JoJo and everything. They’re going to massacre both of you, your families. Mending Hearts is going to be called into question. I know you’re in shock right now, but I need you to realize how serious this is.”

Turning his attention to Oliver, he shook his head. “I know you want to stay with her. I can see that you love her and you don’t want her to face this shit alone, but you can’t help her here. She’s gotta do this with Colin, however they decide to approach it. You need to alert your family of what’s about to happen, because now that they have your name, it won’t take them long to start staking out your place too. Take them on a vacation or something, the farther away the better, and do it fast. ”

“I appreciate the advice, and I’m sure you know a lot more about this stuff than I do, but I’m not leaving her,” Oliver contended, squeezing my hand the entire time he spoke. “I’ll tell my family to leave, fine, but I’m not going anywhere. I knew the risks before I fell in love with her.”

Seth stalked over to the couch and sat down, lowering his eye level to ours where we knelt on the floor. “Listen to me, Oliver, man. Please,” he implored. “I’m not sure what all you know about her and Colin’s relationship, but obviously you know it’s not a marriage in the normal sense, ‘cause you’d be a real fucking asshole if you thought it was and you were sleeping with some guy’s wife. And I’m pretty sure you’re not a real fucking asshole, because Monroe wouldn’t like you if you were, and I have a pretty good inkling she loves you as much as you love her. So with all that being said, I’m interested in keeping you alive for my girl Monroe’s sake here, but I can promise you, if you are in this house when Colin gets home, he will kill you. He may not mean to. He probably just wants to hurt you really,
really
bad, but he’s a strong motherfucker, and if he gets his hands on you, you’re a dead man. And then, I’m gonna have four issues to worry about instead of just three, and I really don’t feel like adding murder to the list today. So for the sake of everyone involved, please allow me to somehow sneak you out of this house and then get your ass on a plane to Mexico, or Puerto Rico, or where-the-fuck-ever as quickly as possible. It’s the only way any of this has any chance of working out. Please trust me.”

Oliver twisted toward me, cupping my face in his hands and resting his forehead on mine. “Monroe, what do you want me to do? I don’t want to leave your side, but I’ll do whatever you want.”

The hope swimming in his eyes gutted me. He wanted me to tell him to stay, and I wanted nothing more than to be able to say those words to him. But I couldn’t. And it fucking killed me to hurt him.

“I’m so sorry, Ollie, but Seth’s right,” I rasped, my voice cracking. “I need to talk to Colin one-on-one. He deserves that from me.”

“That’s fine. Talk to him without me, but don’t ask me to leave the city. I need to be here for you,” he beseeched.

Placing a gentle kiss on his mouth, I smiled sadly. “I want you here; you know I do. But me asking you to stay is selfish, and I can’t do that. I won’t.”

“Don’t do
this
!” he hissed. “We knew this wasn’t gonna be easy, and the first roadblock we hit, you just want to send me packing? I thought we were in this together?”

“We are! And I’m not sending you packing! At least not permanently!” I scooted back, frustration setting in as hot tears stung my eyes and splashed on my lap. “Please, Oliver, I’m begging you not to make this harder than it already is. Setting aside the incomprehensible level of mortification I feel, and focus on the fact that the entire world currently thinks I used a little girl—who is still lying in a hospital bed fighting for her life—as a pretext to stay home and be a cheating slut behind my husband’s back. That doesn’t even take into account the fallout Allison and Mending Hearts is going to have because of this, and don’t forget about your staff and kids at the Chicago house. I’m sure it won’t be long before they hear you referred to as a home-wrecker, among a slew of other nasty things, on TV or see it on social media. And when they start talking bad about you, I’m gonna lose it . . .” I paused, reaching out to tenderly touch his cheek. “This isn’t just a roadblock, baby. There’s a mountain range sitting in front of us, and right now, we need to focus on meeting on the other side.”

Defeat washed over his handsome face as he stood up. “All right, if that’s what you want, I’ll go.” Turning to Seth, he nodded grudgingly. “Let me get my shoes and stuff from upstairs. Just tell me what to do.”

Twenty minutes later, Seth had devised a plan to sneak Oliver out undetected, and after a single kiss and one last “I love you,” the love of my life was gone. And I had no idea when I’d see or talk to him again.

“nothing brings

to life

again

a forgotten

memory

like fragrance”

–Christopher Poindexter

Oliver

“WHEN YOU TOLD
me she had things tying her to Boston, I didn’t think you meant
a husband!”
my mom shouted through the phone before even saying hello, clearly having either seen or heard the news.

Wincing at her ear-piercing scream, I huddled farther into the corner of the airport where I was waiting for the next standby seat available to St. Louis. “Hi, Mom,” I replied in a low voice, careful no one around could hear me. “Sorry I couldn’t return your fourteen phone calls until now. I’ve had a rather busy morning.”

“Oliver Bradley, I am in no mood for your smart mouth today,” she snipped, and without even seeing her, I knew she had her left hand cocked on her hip. “You better start talking fast, son, because if I have to tell one person who calls that I don’t know what the hell is going on, I may permanently remove your penis so you can never stick it inside any woman—married or not—again.”