Seven
“Oh, my sweet Jesus! Could it be? Was it really him?
“Hey, Eve.”
Yes! Adam’s voice sent a flood of wild emotions, ranging from elation to seething rage, racing through me with his sweet, sexy Yankee accent. It was a voice that I had lain awake night after night on a tear soaked pillow waiting to hear and had consumed multiple bottles of anti-depressant because I wasn’t hearing it. Was it really the man who had gleefully purchased me a one-way ticket to hell? The man who had caused me to question my very existence on this earth?
“What are you doing home on a Saturday night, Eve?” He may have asked the question, but it didn’t sound like he cared one way or the other what my answer might be. Couldn’t he at least sound just a little freaking happy to be talking to me!
“I thought you might be on a date tonight with our buddy, Deebo.”
But wait! Miracle of miracles! Could he be jealous? If so, it was a pathetic attempt at emoting. I took a deep breath, tried to sound as casual as possible under the circumstances, and took the liberty of embellishing the truth just a little. “I have been on a few dates, but nothing serious.” There was total silence on his end, so I took the opportunity to question him. “Why aren’t you with Chia? I was of the opinion that you two were joined at the hip.” Shoot! Now I was the one sounding jealous and, unlike his, my voice carried the appropriate depth of emotion.
“I ended that.” He was falsifying information again. “She wasn’t what I wanted, Eve. The girl was trying to get too serious and you, better than anyone else, should know I’m not ready for a commitment.”
God, he was lying through his teeth! He wanted to get serious and commit to Chia more than he wanted the winning numbers for the next Mega Million Jackpot. I about chewed my tongue off to keep from blurting this out. Not ready for commitment my dimpled ass!
“Being with her made me realize what I really wanted.”
The way he spewed this lie might lead one to believe he was referring to me, when we were both painfully aware that wasn’t the case at all.
“Can I come over and talk to you, Eve?”
At that moment, I would have given all my worldly possessions just to be in his arms. But I wasn’t blind to the fact that if Adam could be anyplace of his choosing right now, it certainly wouldn’t be with me. He would be joyously ensconced in Chia’s arms, if she weren’t already draped across lover boy Eric like a rebel flag. Somehow the victory wasn’t as sweet anymore.
“Sure, come on over.” My short-lived joy was being rapidly replaced by miserable defeat.
He was there before I could comb my hair and apply lipgloss or even consider changing into something sexy. Not that it mattered. I swear the man resembled someone who could just as easily have marched in a funeral procession. Still, when I opened the door I almost collapsed at the sight of him standing on my threshold, just like old times. Somehow, against all odds, I held myself aloof.
“Can I at least have a hug?” he mumbled, not seeming overly excited at the prospect, but rather pitiful and disheartened.
“Sure.” He drew me into his arms and I immediately felt safely home again after a long dangerous journey into the abyss. It felt so right to be back in his arms where I belonged. I didn’t want to let go. Ever. Why couldn’t he just love me?
“I have missed you so much, Eve. You don’t know what I’ve been going through, worrying that I had lost you forever.”
Not a whole hell of a lot, I would imagine! “When did you find time to miss me, Adam, when you were spending every waking moment with Chia?” Suddenly, thinking back over the months of agonizing pain he alone had caused made me angry enough to spit in his adorable face.
“I was confused, Eve.” Taking my hand, he led me to the sofa and pulled me down beside him. “I was chasing the wrong dream.”
I’ll say! How many nights had we sat on this very sofa, when I had erroneously believed the love we felt for each other was equal and would last through eternity?
“What’s wrong, Adam? You seem fairly depressed.” I was thrilled to the core that he was feeling exactly as I had months ago. Exactly as Lady Wonder had foretold he would feel, in fact.
“It’s been a rough couple of days, Eve.” His eyes were red and puffy as if he had actually been crying over the floozy and his poor fingernails, which were in even worse shape than mine, had almost been chewed to the nub.
Well, I just bet it had! What with the ever-randy Chia undulating with Eric on her waterbed and ignoring both him and his phone calls. That wasn’t a good feeling! I should know! He was finally getting a taste of his own medicine and Mary Poppins couldn’t make it go down without choking him.
“I was just thinking about all the bad choices I’ve made.” He put his arm around my shoulder and drew me close until our faces were only inches apart. His breath carried the ever-present fragrance of Budweiser. “I realize now what a horrible mistake I made, Eve. I should never have cheated on you with Chia.”
I pulled away from the suffocating nearness of lips that were begging to be kissed. Not far enough! Scooting forward I perched on the edge of the sofa and absently twiddled my thumbs.
“I made mistakes in the past, Eve. I’ll be the first to admit it. Would you believe me if I told you that when I was with her, I was thinking of you?”
Not no, but hell no! Great balls of fire! I didn’t think it was possible for him to ever top some of the outrageous lies he had told me. But he just had! I could almost hear Teri’s outraged reaction when I repeated that lie to her. “You will never know how much it pleases me to learn that I crossed your mind during your frequent romps with Chia, Adam. But I’m curious.” Now it was my time to twist the knife a little. “What happened? Did you just decide you didn’t want to see Chia anymore and break it off with her? Why, it must have broken her confused little heart.”
“Oh, yeah! She cried and screamed and threw a little tantrum, but I ended it with her nonetheless. I just couldn’t take her jealousy and her need to be with me every single day.” He threw his head back on the sofa for emphasis as he tried to persuade me of what a trying ordeal her alleged dumping had been. “To tell you the truth, I was getting tired of her.”
Truth? Here we go again! “Don’t worry, Adam. There are plenty more Asian women at Castle and Avery. She shouldn’t be too difficult to replace.”
“I don't want another Asian woman!” Adam turned to me with a maniacal glint shining in his eyes. Good grief, was he on drugs? If so, it was the hard stuff. Talk about a mood swing. He seemed as close to slipping over the edge as I had a few weeks earlier. “I want you, Eve!”
I realized that I should probably humor him and not agitate him further until he calmed down, but I’ve never really been a shining example of when to hold ones tongue.” How can you sit there and lie with a straight face, Adam?” His vast array of untruths was about to cause me to throw a minor tantrum as well. “You’re only attracted to Asian women. Neither of us can deny that! You can’t make yourself be attracted to someone you’re not. Is sex with them that much better than with an American woman?”
Then he felt the need to eclipse every lie he had ever told. “No, actually Chia was pretty boring. She had a tendency to just lie there and make me do all the work. She’s not nearly as exciting in bed as you are.”
The lying bastard! Never had there been born a more compulsive liar! I didn’t scream, talk dirty or perish the thought take it up the rear. For a split second, I wondered if Chia had found him as boring in bed as I had. Maybe it had taken lover boy Eric to bring out the hidden tigress in her. No, that wasn’t the case at all. Even Lady Wonder had mentioned that’s why Adam was so crazy over Chia. The fireworks in the bedroom.
“I love you, Eve.” He had a forlorn look in his eyes that was almost believable. “Actually, I didn’t think you would date while we were apart.”
“No, you didn’t.” I picked at a nonexistent hangnail on a perfectly manicured nail. “You expected me to sit around, waiting patiently for you to tire of Chia, and come crawling back.”
He grabbed my nervous hands and clutched them between his. “Yeah, something like that.” He actually had the nerve to confess it? He was either drunk or had been slipped a vial of truth serum. “I was wrong, Eve.”
“I’ll say.”
“Would you give me another chance?” With an urgency bordering on desperation he pulled me into his arms. “I promise, you won’t regret it.”
I will admit to you that being in his arms almost caused me to forgive his past discrepancies. Never had anything felt more wonderful! It felt so good to be home! However, I was far from convinced as to the authenticity of his murmured declarations of love.
“I could never trust you again, Adam. You know that! Every day when you left for work I would suspect you were on the prowl again. From what I hear you hit on every Asian female who walks through the door at Castle and Avery.”
“That’s a lie!” Dropping my hands, he stood and sauntered into the kitchen. A cork popped and he returned with a bottle of Chardonnay and two wineglasses. He filled the glasses with shaking hands and handed one to me.
“Thank you.”
“I’ve told you people are jealous of me and love to start rumors. Haven’t I told you that all along? If I so much as speak to a girl at work, within minutes the rumors are spreading like wildfire throughout the plant that I’m sleeping with her."
I moved to stand in front of the fireplace. Mistake. The rug brought unwanted memories scrambling through my brain of the nights during the first couple months of our courtship when we had made love on the rug, leaving me with severe carpet burns on my knees.
“Eve, give me one more chance!” He moved to stand in front of me, slowly as not to spill his precious wine. He took my glass, placed them both on the mantle and drew me into his arms.
Why did he insist on having me in his arms, when he knew the position made it impossible for me to think straight?
“I can earn your trust back, Eve.”
“I doubt it.”
“I could find another job.”
Oh! Those words instantly succeeding in grabbing my full and undivided attention. “Adam, you have been employed at Castle and Avery for fifteen years. You aren’t going to find another job that pays as well.” We both knew plants were closing in North Carolina at an alarming rate.
“I would quit my job tomorrow if it was the only way to get you back.”
He had me by the shoulders now and unshed tears glistened in his brilliant blue eyes. Oh! I did love a sensitive man who wasn’t afraid to let his emotions show! “You would?” My steady resolve began to melt as quickly as the pumpkin spice scented candle burning on the mantle. “Really?”
Adam was warehouse supervisor, a status that required years of ladder climbing to achieve. I found it difficult to believe he would leave his job, or the large supply of female Asian employees, for me. That had to mean something! But what? Could it mean that Adam had been doing some deep soul searching? Had he perhaps finally realized that there was more to life than great sex with Asian women?
“Yes. I will put in my notice Monday.” He held my face to gaze deeply into my tear filled eyes. “I love you, Eve.”
“Oh, Adam, I love you too!” Every last defense shattered as I fell into his waiting arms and prayed that this time his words could somehow be true. “I never stopped loving you for a second.”
“Will you give me another chance?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “Of course I will, Adam.”
Then he kissed me and I swallowed bile as I forced myself not to think of where his lips had recently been. He kissed me for several minutes, until I was dripping with desire, then he grabbed the wine bottle and taking my hand led me to the bedroom.
Let’s just say the encounter skidded downhill from there. No butterflies in the stomach. No tightening of the nether region. No waves of raging passion racing through my veins. Actually, there wasn’t a whole lot of feeling at all. But that would all return in time, I was sure. He just had a lot on his mind, plus, he had downed the remaining wine from the bottle before crawling into bed.
Afterward, Adam kissed me on the cheek, rolled over, and asked me to rub his back until he fell into a restless sleep leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Lady Wonder had it going on. As I lay with my hand on Adam’s shoulder, constantly touching him to assure myself that he was really there, I realized that she hadn’t missed a beat. She had foretold that Adam would call within 3 weeks, after his beloved Chia had fallen head over heels for another man. Eric. “Don’t answer the phone,” she had strenuously cautioned me. “Ignore him.” Thank God, I had ignored her instead.
It was impossible to ever love another man with the intensity I felt for Adam, so why bother trying? Sliding my hand around to cradle his steadily increasing beer gut, I snuggled contentedly against the warmth of his back and breathed a contented sigh.
Having a great sex life wasn’t a critical factor for a successful relationship was it? I was 49 and Adam was 44. Naturally we weren’t going to be burning up the sheets every few hours like someone in there 20's. Laughter was the glue that held our relationship together, although I couldn’t really remember the last time I had heard a robust belly laugh from him. Bottom line, I couldn’t live without him, nor did I want to. At long last, I had him lying next to me and felt the pain and hurt of the last couple months slowly fading into oblivion, hopefully never to return. Sighing contentedly, I closed my eyes and slept blissfully even though that darn whippoorwill returned to his new roosting spot on my windowsill.
The next morning, I awakened feeling all was right with this wonderful world of ours. I wanted to stay cuddled up to Adam and just kiss, well maybe one or two more things, for the better part of the morning. Unfortunately from the look of things, there wouldn’t be sweet kisses or anything else. Not with Adam. He was snoring loudly. I giggled, expecting the ruffled curtains to lift and flutter like they did in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.
I got up to make coffee and channel surfed until I found Joyce Meyer. The woman is a hoot and knows her Bible front to back. I poured a cup of coffee, added French vanilla creamer and sat back in my recliner to listen to Joyce preach the gospel, with a healthy dose of laughter thrown in for good measure. If she weren’t such an outstanding preacher she would make a great comic.
Adam rolled out of bed around noon, resembling a zombie from one of the Night of the Living Dead movies, with a hangover. He made the motions of going to the kitchen to pour a cup of black coffee without the evidence of a clear focus.
It was painfully obvious that the haggard man beside me had some heavy stuff on his mind and wasn’t in the mood to convey these thoughts, or any others, to me this morning. Leaning back on the sofa he breathed a heavy sigh with a woeful expression that suggested he might be feeling exactly as I had after catching him with another woman. I couldn’t recall ever seeing a more pathetic sight, except… well… maybe in my own mirror.
How could he still be thinking of Chia, when he had irrefutable proof that she was with another man? Duh? Who was I to ask such a foolish question? The answer was, evidently the same way I had still yearned for him during his Chia phase. Could he still be in love with her? Was I just someone to pass time with until she tired of Eric? I couldn’t think about that right now. Fiddle dee dee. I would think about it tomorrow or I just might plunge into the ranks of the stark raving mad.
“Are you really going to work a notice next week?”
“Yes, Eve. I told you I would, didn’t I?” He sounded much less sure of his plan than he had the night before. Of a sudden, he seemed to be having troublesome second thoughts about his hasty, alcohol induced decision to quit his job. “I just don’t know how I will keep my house.”
Did he have to lay every ounce of guilt for his resolution to quit at my feet? It had been his idea, not mine. Maybe that was the cause of his obvious distress this morning. Odds were he wasn’t even thinking about Chia. Surely, he was more concerned with the nagging question of how to keep his house and pay the bills that arrived like clockwork, than with a piece of ass.
If he truly loved me, as he so adamantly professed to do, wouldn’t he be able to withstand the slanted eyes of temptation at work? I couldn’t risk Adam losing everything he owned on account of my jealousy. That wouldn’t bode well for either of our futures. So I took the opportunity to ease his troubled mind. “You don’t need to quit your job, Adam.”
This caused a beaming smile to light his boyishly handsome face as his blue eyes fair danced. “Do you mean it, Eve? I’ve got to admit I’m shocked! What brought about this sudden change in you?”
“Just hearing you say you would was enough for me.” I hoped this would elevate his mood and we could have a good day. “I would be tearing my hair out if I didn’t have a job and a way to pay my mortgage next month. How could I ask you to put yourself in such a stressful situation?”
He glanced over his coffee cup for a long, appraising look and reached to caress my cheek. “You are one of a kind, Eve. Do you know that?”
Was that an actual tear twinkling in his baby blues? Had he finally seen the light and realized the error of his ways?
“You won’t regret this, Baby.”
God! Please! Don’t let me regret it! “Just promise that you’ll keep those roving eyes to yourself at work.” I laughed with a sound that lacked even the smallest trace of humor.
“That is one promise that will be easy to keep.”
At times he could sound so sincere.
“I only have eyes for you now, Eve.”
That was surely a first!
“Okay, that’s settled. What’s on the agenda for today?” I reached under the counter for the frying pan. Bacon and eggs over easy with buttered toast was his favorite breakfast.
“Get dressed and let’s go to Charlotte to the mall.”
Huh? I had feared earlier that I would need to fetch a walker to help his weary body struggle down the hall, and now he was feeling spry enough to go gallivanting around a mall? What was the reason for this sudden burst of enthusiasm? I wouldn’t allow myself to dwell on the possible causes of his unexpected jubilation. It couldn’t be attributed to the fact that he would continue to see the enchanting Chia every day at work. Could it?
“Don’t cook breakfast.” He stretched and grabbed me for a bear hug and a quick kiss before heading to the shower.
Whew! Talk about morning breath! The man knows I have a weak stomach!
“I’m taking you to lunch at your favorite restaurant.”
On the ride to Charlotte, I couldn’t help but wonder how many times Chia had plopped her plump fanny in my passenger seat and caught myself glancing around for any lingering long black stray hairs. No, stop that! Don’t ruin the day obsessing over that foreign adulteress.
After an hour drive, Adam pulled his fancy little sports car into Olive Garden reveling in the admiring glances the car received. In all aspects of life he tended to choose things that stood out from the rest of the pack. Don’t even bother asking how my plain Jane self fell into the lineup.
Adam was his old self again, laughing and making his usual terribly corny jokes. He chatted with the couple in front of us in line as if he had known them all his life and especially enjoyed when Southerners commented on his heavy Yankee accent.
I sipped a delicious Bloody Mary while we discussed a cabin that he wanted us to build in the woods in the spring. Then I ordered Fettuccini Alfredo and he ordered Ziti and held my hand while he rambled on and on about the bait and tackle he needed to purchase at Outdoor World. He didn’t release my hands until the best salad to be found in Charlotte arrived. Honestly, after salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden you can forego the entree and, as usual, I had to request a take out box.
At South Park Mall he purchased jeans at Nordstrom’s and shoes at Finish Line. I picked up a couple of cute shirts at The Gap. We were standing in line for Aunt Annie’s homemade pretzels when he said something that left me puzzled and slightly uneasy. “Let’s shop separately for awhile, Eve.”
“Why?” I cried, unfortunately drawing the rapt attention of several fellow pretzel lovers. My suspicious mind immediately leapt to the worrisome conclusion that he was trying to slip away and make a clandestine phone call.
“Would it be too much to ask to do a little shopping in private? Look around you, Eve.”
Humoring him, I gazed around the mall and saw red hearts hanging from the ceiling and taped to every window. Oh! How had I missed it? “Valentine’s Day!”
“Yes, Valentine’s Day is Tuesday,” an attractive sixtyish gentleman in front of me said and chuckled. “Now can he have some privacy to shop?”
“If I was you, I’d give that man all the time he needs and point the way to the jury store,” a charming elderly lady behind us joked.
“You take all the time you need,” I assured Adam as my mind raced with possibilities.
Wasn’t it nothing more than a thrilling coincidence that we happened to be standing a few doors from a jewelry store when the sudden need for privacy occurred to him?
His Christmas present, a Lucky Brand blue jean jacket, was hidden in the back of my closet. I was glad I hadn’t relented to the relentless urge to watch the jacket go up in flames. I would change the Christmas wrapping paper, making it the perfect Valentine’s gift. Before I turned the corner toward J C Penney’s I glanced back to see Adam walking into a jewelry store.
Oh my God! What if he was getting an engagement ring at this very moment? He was! I just knew it! Why else would he insist on privacy to enter a jewelry store? I was too excited to shop. I couldn’t think about anything except the possibility that I could be receiving an engagement ring in as little as two days. In a determined effort to calm down, I took deep breaths, bypassed J C Penney’s, and headed to Starbucks for a Grande Mocha Frappachino, my second greatest weakness in life. Even my mailman probably knew that Adam currently held the tarnished trophy.
When we met later, Adam carried a little white bag with gold lettering from Jared's Jewelry Store. Yep, you read it right, JARED’S JEWELRY STORE. To say my excitement was hard to contain would be a gross understatement. I could have easily joined the nearest cluster of scantily clad teenaged girls and giggled and discussed my possible engagement with them for the next several hours. I so wanted to snatch the bag from Adam’s death grip and take a quick peek inside. Curiosity could definitely kill this kitty!
“What’s in the bag, Adam?” As hard as I tried I couldn’t suppress the urge to ask.
“Just something to show someone how very much I love her.” His tender words caused my heart to restrict painfully. “I hope the contents of this bag will finally prove that my heart belongs to her forever and ever.”
Oh, I wanted to break into Oprah’s ugly cry right there between Abercrombie and Hollister! I would surely blubber like a blithering idiot when he placed a sparkling diamond on my finger. I determined right then and there to watch my salt intake over the next two days. Good Lord, what if I swelled up like a toad and the ring refused to fit my finger? Why did I have to eat that salty pretzel?
However, I also warned myself not to get overly excited about a supposed engagement ring and go jumping to all manner of conclusions, as I was very prone to do. It may be entirely too soon after. . . what’s her name. I also couldn’t allow myself to get too disappointed if it was a bracelet or necklace or even God forbid earrings. With Adam, who knew? I’m sure his credit was shot, what with the looming foreclosure, and I knew he didn’t have a few thousand lying around for frivolous expenditures. Life was so unpredictable with the man.
Having more bags than we could carry comfortably we returned to his snazzy sports car—which I secretly hated, give me a comfortable sedan any day-- where he made a point of locking the little bag securely in the trunk. Surely, at this advanced age, I was too old to even consider sneaking into the bag while he was asleep, wasn’t I?
“What’s so funny?” he asked, as I struggled to keep from chuckling at the absurdity of the thought. So I told him.
“So, in other words, I need to sleep with my keys under the pillow tonight?”
“It probably wouldn’t hurt,” I admitted as he reached over to kiss me. Good Lord, the man could kiss!
“We could visit Teri while we’re in Charlotte, if you want? Doesn’t she live close to the mall?”
I had to think fast. “No.” Adam didn’t want to be the victim of one of Teri’s severe tongue-lashings anymore than I wanted him to be. As strong as her absolute disgust was for him, who knew what type of misery her conniving brain might conjure up with him actually in her domain instead of having to plot his demise from afar? “No, I’m exhausted. Let’s go home. I told you Lawrence, her husband, can barely tolerate company at his age.”
“Would you marry a man for money, Eve?”
“I might consider it, if he had a bank account similar to Lawrence’s.”
“It would just be a consideration and we both know it.” He reached for my hand and brought it to his lips for a soft kiss that sent shivers curling down my spine. He stopped at a stoplight and leaned over to kiss me, leaving me breathless. “You are a hopeless romantic and would never marry for anything short of true love.”
I found it to be more than just a mind-boggling coincidence that he was discussing the concept of marriage shortly after placing a package, from a jewelry store, in the trunk of his car.
Oh! Believe me! It was a beautiful, sunny day in the hinterland.
At home we made a batch of fudge and popcorn and plopped down in front of the fire to watch one of those boring action flicks that failed to hold my interest long enough to keep me awake. Sometime during the night he woke me and we went to bed.
And to sleep! I just bet if he were crawling into bed with Chia, he wouldn’t roll over and proceed to snore like a lumberjack! Nope! I wasn’t going to think about that right now. I snuggled up to his back, breathed a contented sigh, and was asleep in seconds.
Adam came stumbling down the hall the next morning around 11:00. After his requisite two cups of coffee he mumbled, “I’ll see you tonight after work, Eve. That damn whippoorwill kept me awake half the night. Next time I come I’m bringing my shotgun.” Then he kissed me on the cheek and left. The poor thing would never be accused of being a morning person.
I called him at 12:00, then 1:00, and then 2:00 to ask if he wanted me to buy steak or chicken to grill later tonight, but he didn’t answer. What could that mean? Was he on the phone and not accepting my call? No, he had most likely crawled in bed to take a nap before work.