The Wife (12 page)

“You’re late,” Rita says jokingly, trying to lighten the mood with sarcasm.

“Hi girls, how is everyone?” I ask, trying to keep the conversation focused on anything but me.

“I couldn’t be better.” Lee takes a sip seductively on her straw, in her usual dramatic fashion.

“I’m guessing things have been going well with Frank?” Although I’d rather do anything but talk about things related to Jamie right now, I’m glad that the focus is at least off me.

“It’s all she’s been talking about all week.” Rita sighs playfully. “Frank is so kind. Frank is so funny. Frank is so sexy. I’m seriously going to barf if I hear anything else about Frank.”

“Fine.” Lee flicks her straw at Rita. “How was your trip?” she asks, extending each word.

I try to hide my true feelings and the disastrous way it ended and smile brightly. “It was great. The kids were swimming and playing nonstop, and Mike had magnificent dinners and nights planned for us. It was a great time.”

I notice Lee and Rita look at each other and notice how quickly their faces changed. Their sarcasm and banter was as much as a mask as my smiles have been. There’s something wrong and they aren’t able to hide it.

“What’s wrong?” I ask as they both seem to be trying to silently urge each other to break whatever news they have to me.

Rita looks down at her cup regretfully and then back up at me with tears in her eyes. She places her hand on mine and gives it a light squeeze. “I want to start by telling you I have gone back and forth about whether or not to come to you about this. I have really tried not to get involved in what’s been going on between you and Mike and be a support for you. I know how much you value marriage and your family. It’s one of the things I respect most about you.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head as if she’s pushing away a horrible thought.

“I appreciate your support during this time. Rita, I really do. You’ve always listened to me and been an ear instead of pushing me to leave him. I need someone like that in my life.” I look over to Lee, who knows her approach has been quite different, and the shame in her eyes makes me pause and take her hand too. “I love you both and don’t know how I would get through this time in my life without you here at my side to hold me up in these times when I feel so down.”

I sit back in my seat and prepare myself for what Rita is about to say, although I’m sure it’s not going to come as much of a surprise for me. Nothing does these days, it seems.

Rita keeps looking to Lee as if she can’t find the words. Lee shakes her head at Rita. “This one’s on you, Rita.”

She sighs again sullenly. “Pete and I have been fighting lately over this, and it’s the only reason I didn’t say anything right away. He told me something that he made me promise to keep to myself, but I just can’t. I can’t keep this from you after watching everything you’ve done for the bastard and seeing the crappy way he treats you and makes you feel like you’re some crazy person. Every time you ask him about work or his late nights, he jumps down your throat and acts like you’re accusing him of something, I’ve seen it, and I don’t like it. It’s like he tries to make sure Pete and I witness a fight every time we’re together so he can make you seem like you’re a jealous wife.”

I nod, trying to hold back the tears. I hadn’t realized that my crappy marriage wasn’t only affecting me and my kids, but now even my friends. “Rita, I would never want anything in my life to get in between you and Pete. He is nothing like Mike and never will be. I promise that whatever you tell me will be kept between us. It will just be another thing on my list to help me make my decision.”

“Okay,” she says, mentally preparing herself to what she’s about to say. “About two weeks ago, Mike was golfing with Pete when he kept getting phone calls that were interrupting their game. It was really pissing Pete off.”

“Jesus, Rita, she doesn’t give a shit—just spit it out.” Lee’s nervousness makes me even more edgy.

Rita shakes her head and continues, as if each thought is too painful to put into words.

I reach over and take her hand. “It’s okay. I can take it.” It’s only then that I wonder whether I should tell her that I know Mike cheated on me, but she continues and I let her.

“Anyway, the more the day went on, the more irritated Mike became by the phone calls and Pete got about him answering them. By the time they were in the clubhouse, Mike was a belligerent mess, and when his phone rang again, Pete took the phone and answered it himself to find a woman on the other line.” Her face winced as if in pain. “Before Pete could identify himself, the woman…” She pauses again. “She said that she couldn’t wait to pleasure him later and make everything all better. Pete told me that Mike has been hooking up with other women for a while, but he seems to be seeing someone serious now, and that’s why he told me about this.”

“Pack your things and get out, Alexa. You have the proof: he’s been a dick forever. You’ve done enough. You’re freaking Mother Teresa as far as I’m concerned.” Lee’s face was red with anger.

I sit back in my chair and take in everything she’s saying. The incessant calls Mike received on our weekend all seemed to aggravate and upset him. This I know. The fact that he had been cheating on me I also knew. But something about that message made me almost as pissed as the information about him cheating on me does. It’s the fact that whoever the woman was, she also knew about the things in his life that were upsetting him, and I still knew nothing. Mike said things were over between him and whoever that woman was, but that simple sentence makes me doubt it even more now.

I look at my friends and take their hands in mine. “Thank you for telling me. I promise I won’t let Mike know that you said anything.” I aim my next remark at Lee. “Please just give me time. I need more time to make sure that leaving him is what I really want. I need to know it’s what’s best for the boys.”

I walk away from them and the doubt on their faces is mirrored in my heart. Thinking about everything I’ve learned in the past few days makes me realize that as much as I tried to build our marriage on a solid foundation of respect and honesty, it’s only been built on a weak mound of lies that is eroding away.

“I
t’s just a big misunderstanding.” Mike tossed his suitcase into the back of my beat-up Jeep and kissed my forehead. “They needed a scapegoat and as president of the fraternity, I had to take the fall.”

I was shocked by how calm he seemed about being kicked out of his fraternity for money laundering. “Mike, this could affect your future! Don’t take the fall for something Paul or Buddy got into. You’ve worked too hard. What if they decide to press charges?”

Mike pulled me into his arms, folding me into his soft NYU sweatshirt. “My dad’s already taken care of everything. No one is pressing charges. It’s not even going on my permanent record. My dad made a hefty contribution; I stepped down; all will be forgotten by tomorrow, I’m sure.”

Mike’s confidence always settled me, but tonight was different. I only learned about all of this last night, and his dad already had this all worked out? Something was up. “How long have you known about this?”

Mike took my hand in his, walked me over to the side of my car and picked me up, placing me in the passenger’s seat, and ignored my questions, like he always did. “I don’t want you worrying your beautiful face about this for another second. I love you. I will always protect you from shit like this. Let’s just go back to your place…our place now…and forget any of this happened.”

He leaned into my neck, kissing me in the place he knew unhinges me, and slithered his hand between my legs.

“Why do you always try to distract me with sex?” I asked playfully.

“Because it always works.” His voice filled with desire as he pressed himself between my legs and placed one last deep kiss on my begging lips. “Now let’s get you home and out of those clothes, roomie.”

Mike was sound asleep next to me, exhausted from an evening of lovemaking, providing the perfect distraction from the stresses that filled the day. My mind couldn’t stop racing with questions and doubt about Mike’s situation. I wish, just this once, he wouldn’t have put his friends first and just thought about his future. Although I had no doubt his dad would be able to make this all disappear in time, it still bothered me that Mike’s name would be linked to something like this in the first place. Mike was known by everyone to be an honest person. It was a large part of why I was starting to fall in love with him. Honesty was the most important thing to me when I started a relationship with him, and Mike was often honest to a fault. He had proved himself time and time again to be one of the most honest people I’ve ever met, and now his named was tarnished with an ugly crime of dishonesty.

It’s true, most of the other brothers in his fraternity would not have gotten as lucky as Mike, and none of them had a father who was attorney general of New York, like Mike’s was. Even so, I didn’t want people questioning his integrity, and I didn’t like that a little voice in my head was doing it too.

The stuffiness of the room made me feel claustrophobic. I slid out of the bed, trying my best not to wake Mike, and grabbed a sweater that was tucked away in the corner before I snuck out the door. I loved going to the rooftop of my apartment building in Manhattan on cool spring nights and looking at the bustling city below. It made my tiny apartment feel a part of so much more. It was one of the few places I felt at peace. The instant I opened the white metal door, I felt a wave of calm come over me as the warm breeze ruffled my hair in a lively way that made me smile. I walked across the roof, admiring the herb garden my best friend Lee had started only a few weeks ago. She always amazed me with her determination to improve everything she touched.