“Maybe! Who knows?”
A few minutes later, I turned to see her coming down the steps barefooted in tight jeans and a tight long-sleeved turtleneck. Eve could put on rags and still look gorgeous. She went to the kitchen and I followed her. She poured me a mug of coffee.
“Splash of half and half, right?” she asked.
“I love that you remember that,” I said.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you too, but let’s face the facts. We’re in trouble because of it.”
“Want to split an omelet?”
“Sure.”
I’d never seen Eve prepare anything more complicated than sandwiches and I wondered how her food was. She cracked three eggs into a bowl and added water. I’d never seen Eliza add water to eggs. Eliza always used milk.
“Want me to set the table?” I asked. “Make myself useful?”
“Sure. Leave me the plates.”
“So, what do you propose we do about our spouses?” I said.
“Pray that they get over it and never mention it again?”
I took some flatware from the drawer and two paper napkins from the holder and put them on the table that was just outside the kitchen. I saw her spray the frying pan with cooking spray and thought, Oh boy, this is going to taste awful. Eliza always used a pat of butter to cook eggs, not some rank oil—and I knew it was rank because I could smell it as soon as it hit the heat of the pan. But Eve didn’t seem bothered in the least by it, so I didn’t say anything. She put the eggs in the pan and it sizzled again. The pan was too hot. Even I knew that.
“That would be nice, but I can tell you that Eliza is probably going to spank me for this the whole way into eternity.”
“Carl thinks we had sex.”
“I’m sure Eliza does too. But if we didn’t last night, we never will.”
“I’ll say.”
She attempted to flip the omelet and it broke. The bottom of it was brown with crust. How I was going to eat this abomination was anybody’s guess.
“I think so too,” I said.
“But if we’re going to get blamed for it we might as well do it,” she said, scooping the poor eggs onto plates. “Let’s eat.” She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows.
“You’re kidding, aren’t you?” I said, sitting down.
“Am I?”
“Eve Church Landers! Are you suggesting that we have a trashy affair or just a onetime trashy screw?”
She giggled and took a bite of the eggs.
“Who knows? Maybe both. Oh, God! This is delicious, isn’t it?”
I took a bite and I swear to everything that’s holy, I thought I was going to vomit. I tried to swallow without tasting them but the metallic oil was so overwhelming that my gag reflex kicked in and threw them out of my mouth. Thankfully I caught the whole unholy mess in my napkin.
“So, you don’t like my eggs, huh?”
“It’s just that I’m feeling a little hungover. Maybe I’ll take some toast?”
“Sure! There’s bread in the freezer.”
“Oh? Do you want me to make it?” I said. I never made toast, except when the kids were little. Eliza did that for me.
“No, no! I’ll do it! I’ve been wanting to make toast for you since the seventies!”
She practically hopped up from her chair and disappeared into the kitchen. I sipped my coffee, listened to Eve banging things around, and thought about Eliza. If she or Carl could see us sitting here having breakfast together they’d call lawyers. I really shouldn’t be here, I thought. This is bad. Adding insult to injury. I’ll just eat the toast and go, I told myself. Yes, that’s what I would do. I would excuse myself as gracefully as I could.
She returned to the table with a plate of toast. It looked reasonable. I took a bite. The bread was still frozen in the center.
“So?”
I swallowed it anyway and said, “What?”
“About us?”
“Eve, I’m going to love you until the day I die. But you know me. I’m a coward.”
We stared at each other and then we started to laugh.
“So am I!” she said. “Thank God! Otherwise I’d be dragging guilt around like Marley’s chains!”
“But if, God forbid, something happened to Eliza and Carl I’d call you right away.”
“Not funny, Adam.”
“Sorry. I’m just saying that now is probably not the ideal time for us, unless of course they left here and have already decided to throw us out and divorce us.”
“I really should probably call Eliza, but I feel like it would be admitting that something happened between us. Don’t you agree?”
“Eliza has that Mediterranean temper that’s so hot you could grill a rack of lamb with it. I’d give her a couple of days if I were you.”
“I just hate being punished for something I didn’t do,” she said.
I looked at her again. God, what I would give to lie down next to her. But it wasn’t to be. Not that day and maybe never.
“Eve, there’s not a day that’s gone by that I don’t think of you.”
“Me too.”
“I knew the moment you came over that first night with Carl that I was still in love with you. I dream about you. I fantasize about you and a part of me longs for you like an addict.”
“You know I feel the same way about you.”
“I know. But like you, I’ve got a family and a spouse who has given me everything she has to give. Like Carl.”
“It’s true. Sometimes Carl is so sweet to me that I feel ashamed of the things I think about you.”
“Well, I think for the foreseeable future we’re going to have to put the elephant back in the attic,” I said, not knowing how else to describe it.
“Elephant in the attic? Is that what we’ve got going on here?” She laughed and I laughed with her. “That’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I guess it is,” I said.
At least there was solidarity between us. At least we were finally completely honest with each other.
“I should have fought for us back when we were kids. I’ve always regretted that,” I said.
“I should have told Cookie she couldn’t tell me what to do. I was too afraid of her,” Eve said. “I always hoped I’d see you again. Somehow.”
“Who knew we’d both be married when we did?” I said.
I thought about what we’d just said to each other. There was no point in reliving the past. It was over. I stood up from the table and said, “Okay, so I came here to do some repairs. I’m going to do them and then I’m going home. If she asks me what happened again, I’m going to reassure her. I’m going to take her out to any restaurant she wants to go to and for the next six months I’m going to watch chick flicks without complaining.”
“Eliza’s a good woman,” she said. And she smiled that million-dollar smile that melted my heart every single time.
“And Carl is a great guy. Listen, Eve. Go home. Go home and tell him you love him.”
“What if he won’t listen to me?”
I walked to the front door and opened it.
“Keep telling him until he does.”