The XOXO New Adult Collection: 16 Full Length New Adult Stories (276 page)

“Well, at least we know it’s her house,” Telly said.

“Yeah.”

“If they had a four o’clock appointment she wouldn’t have just come back from the store,” she said.

“True.” I was trying to get a handle on the discrepancy.

“Unless,” she started slowly, “she just got back from their appointment at his office.”

“Maybe, but he primarily does house calls.” I checked my watch again. It was only five after.

“Didn’t he say her appointment was at eight?” Telly asked.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s get something to eat, then come back later. Besides the sun will be down and we’ll be able to go up to the house without being noticed.” I stared at Shanna’s house, hoping that if I looked long enough James would suddenly appear like one of those magic eye pictures. Reluctantly, I agreed with Telly and we left for dinner.

We returned to Shanna’s neighborhood by eight with two large, or rather, Venti lattes from Starbucks. Telly drove up the street to look for James’ SUV. This time it was parked right in front. She pulled forward and parked about half a block away. I retrieved a pair of binoculars from my purse and studied the outside of the house. The first floor lights were on, but the second floor lights appeared to be off.

“So, what do you wanna do?” Telly asked, waiting for an assignment.

“Nothing yet.”

“You don’t wanna go up to the house and get a better look?”

“No, I think we should stay here and see if anything happens.”

“Like what? Watch James leave? That won’t prove anything.”

“It will if they leave together.” The truth was I really didn’t have a plan. I figured when I arrived I would know what to do. My hope was that Shanna and James would emerge from the house with their hands all over each other. Then, I would have undeniable evidence, but who knew how long that would be. I was prepared to stay all night.

“Okay, you’re the boss,” Telly said as she sipped her latte. I sighed and relaxed in my seat.

“So, how’s Will?” I asked, trying to pass the time.

“Good. We’ve actually been spending a lot of time together.”

“It’s not serious though, right?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to put a label on it. It is what it is.”

“Which is?” I drew out the question.

“Like I told you before. We’re having fun and enjoying each other’s company. Nothing more, nothing less.” She gave me a stern look as if to tell me to stop with the questions.

“Okay. That’s cool.”

“Can we talk about something else?” Telly asked.

“Sure.” I kept my eyes steadily on the house. Telly scooted around in her seat and curled her knees to her chest. “You know what this reminds me of?” she asked.

“What?”

“The night we spied on my landlord. Do you remember?”

“Yes!” I snapped my fingers, recalling that evening.

Telly and I went out to a gay bar one night, and it happened to be the same night as their weekly drag show. We were having a blast—cocktails, sexy chiseled gay men, and drag queens galore. Telly recognized one of the drag queens introduced as Fuchsia Turner. She was convinced that he was her landlord, but didn’t want to approach him in case he was private about it. ‘I’m not going to shit where I sleep,’ I believe were her exact words.

The following night, after dinner and cocktails at her house, we took the opportunity to spy on her landlord who lived in the same building as Telly. He left his apartment around eight-thirty. We followed him by car keeping a safe distance until we finally ended up at the same gay bar. He entered through the back of the building with a duffle bag. To me it was enough evidence to convict, but Telly needed more. “Reasonable doubt,” she said.
Lawyers
.

We waited until we saw another guy enter the back of the building and stopped him before he made it inside. Telly asked if he knew Charlie Jones, her landlord’s name. He said he did and that he would be performing tonight as a she. He asked if we wanted to go backstage, but we refused.

To this day, I don’t know why Telly was curious enough to follow her landlord to prove he was a part-time drag queen. I only wanted to support her, which is exactly what she was doing by dressing like le spy, sitting in a dark car, and watching an unknown house.

After about forty-five minutes, I became restless. “Do you wanna go up to the house?” I asked.

“Yes. Let’s go.” We climbed out of the car trying not to make any noises that might trigger a nosy neighbor or barking dog. We made our way to the fenceless yard, walking like ninjas in the night, and found a deck attached the back of the house. It was completely dark except for the light coming through the windows. Telly kept a look out while I made my way up the deck. The windows were too high for me to see into. I climbed the back stairs, leaning over to the window, but it was still too far away.

“Can you see anything?” Telly whispered.

“No, it’s too far.”

“Try that lattice.”

To my left was a vine-covered lattice attached to the house much closer to the window. I walked down the steps and gave the lattice a good pull to see if it would hold. Seemed sturdy enough. Putting one foot in front of the other, I climbed up about three feet to see the window. I peaked in through the kitchen, which had a view of the living room. Trying to keep my head low, I saw James rise up as if he was getting off of the ground or getting off of Shanna. He appeared to be dressed, but I couldn’t see much more. I climbed another foot higher and saw Shanna lying on the floor fully clothed. He was doing some kind of floor work with her. I waited to see if he or she would make any sexual advances, but I waited too long. There was a snap and the vines rustled.

Uh oh . . .

The lattice detached from the house. My body slammed against the deck.

“Oh, shit!” Telly whispered. She ran over and pushed the lattice off of me. “Are you okay?”

I winced in pain but mostly shock. “Yeah, I’m okay.” Telly helped me to my feet.

“We have to go. Now,” she said.

We rushed out of there as fast as we could and sped off in the opposite direction of the house in case they heard us, which I was pretty sure they did. On the way back to my apartment, I told Telly everything I saw, which was nothing of note.

“Well, it was a good try,” she said.

“Yeah,” I sighed. My hand was burning and I noticed that I had a pretty gnarly scrape that needed attention. I hissed at the sight of it. Telly grimaced, and I wasn’t sure if she was more concerned with my scraped hand or getting blood on her upholstery.

“Spying is fun and all, but next time let’s leave it up to the professionals.”

I thanked her and told her I would call her later. Safe inside my apartment, I tossed my hat somewhere in the living room and went to the bathroom to shower and clean my hand. I imagined washing the events of the night away as I washed my hair. Looking back, it wasn’t the best situation to be in. I wondered how long I would have to keep it up.

Exhausted, I settled in my pajamas and made a cup of hot tea. My body was a little sore from the fall, and I knew it would be worse in the morning. At almost ten, there was a knock at my door and I had no idea who it could be. I peered into the peephole to find James and opened the door. He scooped me into his arms and gave a relieved sigh as if he hadn’t seen me in months.

“Are you okay?” I asked, his hold as tight as possible.

“Yeah. I’m glad to see you.”

“What happened?” I asked, wondering if it was guilt he was feeling.

“I was in the middle of my appointment when we heard this loud bang coming from the back. I went to investigate and saw that her lattice was broken. I think I got a glimpse of someone running away.”

“Oh, my God,” I said, genuinely looking stunned, but for a different reason.

“We called the police and answered a few questions, but they said there wasn’t much to go on.”

I continued to gape at him. “Someone tried to break in?” I asked.

“Looks that way.”

“I wonder who it was.” My nerves were in overdrive, but I calmed myself down by remembering that I wasn’t in any criminal database.

“Who knows? It shook me up a little, and I wanted to check on you to make sure you were okay.” He hugged me tightly again.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He pulled back and took my hands, then looked a little closer at my left one.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I, uh, tripped when I was running earlier. Just a scrape. You know me, I’m a klutz.” I smiled innocently and he returned it.

“I can’t stay. I have the children’s hospital in the morning.” He kissed me and told me that we would catch up the next day after he got off work.

That night, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, then at my scraped hand. That had been a close one. Too close. Who knew this venture would be so dangerous? I guess in this game you have to get your hands dirty sometimes . . . and scraped.

––––––––

T
he Shanna incident convinced me to take a break from my spying gig. Though I waited patiently for the opportune moment, nothing presented itself. I researched other methods only to discover one dead end after another. Three weeks passed and I was running out of options, forcing me to weigh in on the only two I had left—wait it out or give it up.

One afternoon, I wandered out of my office for a break after completing a session with a violently arguing couple when I ran into a sobbing woman in the hall. She was in her late forties, perhaps an executive in her tailored suit and bobbed haircut. She was alone, and as a therapist I felt compelled to stop.

“Are you alright?” I asked. She glanced at me from behind her tissue.

“Yeah, I’ll be okay.” She waved me on as if I shouldn’t bother with her silly tears, but there was something all too familiar about her cry.

“Is there something I can do? Would you like me to call someone?” She blew her nose into the tissue.

“No, really I’ll be . . .” Then she lunged at me, letting out a resounding cry. I caught her in my arms while she sobbed on my shoulder, and I tried to comfort her as best as I could. Minutes later, she calmed down and pulled herself together.

“I’m so embarrassed. I don’t even know you,” she said sniffling.

“Don’t be. I’m a therapist. I see a lot of crying,” I said with a sympathetic smile. “What happened?”

“I’m getting a divorce.” She struggled to restrain new tears.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah,” she inhaled her sadness. “He had an affair.”
Surprise, surprise.
“And the worst part is I have a complete written account of what happened.”

“Really?”
Go on . . .

“It’s so detailed. I keep reading it over and over again. The things he did with her are unbelievable. I can’t believe I was married to someone like that for sixteen years.”

“How is it that you have a detailed account of this affair?”

“Man Test,” she said with a straight face.

“Man Test? What’s that?”

“It’s a service that sends a woman to seduce your husband. If he falls for it, you get a complete report the next day.” My jaw dropped.
What a brilliant idea!
How did I not know about this? The wheels in my head were spinning so fast I could no longer focus on her or her situation. “That bastard,” she whispered under her breath.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Connie.”

I handed her my business card. “I’m Marin. I work in this building. If you need someone to talk to, please give me a call.”

“Thank you.” She accepted the card.

“Hang on, I have another one,” I said pulling out Telly’s card. “If you need a divorce attorney, this one is great.”

“I really appreciate this. Thank you, Marin.”

“You’re welcome.” She took the cards and turned to walk away.

“Connie,” I called after her. “You wouldn’t happen to have a business card for that Man Test service would you?” As luck would have it, she did.

I sauntered into a restaurant that evening where I met Telly for dinner. We hadn’t seen much of each other over the past few weeks since she was shacking up more frequently with Will, a man I still couldn’t warm up to.

“What’s going on with you?” she asked as I wiggled into my seat.

“The most amazing thing happened to me today.” I beamed.

“Did you win the lottery?”

“Nope.”

“Did you get a great deal on shoes?”

“Nope.” I shook with anticipation.

“Did you catch James cheating?” A laugh squeezed through my lips.

“No, but I will!” I screeched with the same sorority girl enthusiasm as Rachel. Telly waited for me to finish. I pulled out the business card and gave her a run down on Man Test.

“So, it’s like escorts with ulterior motives,” she said.

“Exactly.”

“Why didn’t I think of this? With all my client’s cheating spouses, probably wouldn’t be admissible in court though. Are you sure it’s legit?”

“Who cares? It is brilliant! They’re very discrete and work only on a referral basis. They don’t want the word to get out or else every husband and boyfriend will think they’re being set up and won’t be themselves and go for it. Which, now that I think about it, could actually be a good thing.”

“Probably not too good for business.” She looked the card over a few times. “So, what are you going to do?”

“Set it up, of course.”

“When?” she asked sipping her drink.

“As soon as possible. I look at it like this, I could play this game with James for who knows how long or I could send in the bait and watch him catch it like a stupid fish. I’m tired. I want this to be over so I can move on with my life.”

“Do you think he’ll go for it?” A dumb question in my opinion.

“Of course he’ll go for it. Cheating is all about opportunity. When a man encounters a discreet, mess-free opportunity to have sex with a woman he won’t say no. It’s in their DNA. There are always opportunities, especially for eligible guys like James. This is the ultimate test, finding out if he can resist opportunity.”

“So, you’re pretty much setting him up to fail?” she asked as if there could be another result.