She stared at me suspiciously. “Who’s that on the phone?”
“Aah…” I glanced at the phone, wishing it wasn’t in my hand. “It was Sonny, but we…we got disconnected.”
“What did he want?”
“Ah…his rental car broke down on the Conduit….” I couldn’t even finish my lie because the phone rang again.
Cathy gave me a disappointed look that was about to become an angry look. “You’re not going to pick him up, are you, James?”
“Not until I put you to bed properly, baby. Sonny’s just gonna have to wait. I promise.”
“Good, now hurry up and get your friend off the phone. Momma wants some lovin’.” She turned around and walked back up the stairs while I quickly walked toward the kitchen.
“Hello?”
“Why’d you hang up on me?” Michelle snapped.
“I didn’t.” I was trying to remain calm.
She raised her voice even louder. “Yes, you did.”
“Look, I don’t have time to argue with you. It was an accident. I dropped the phone by accident.”
“Whatever.” I could almost see her neck rolling on the other end of the phone. “So, are you gonna bring me some Tylenol for your son?” I hated it when she called him my son.
“Yeah, I’ll be over there in a few.” I tried to think of a lie to give me more time. “I’m waiting for my wife to come home with the car.” I hung up the phone, then hit the talk button again. When I heard the dial tone, I placed the phone on the kitchen table. Now if she called back, she’d just get a busy signal, I told myself as I walked toward the stairs to take care of my wife.
12
Sonny
I was following Tiffany back to her apartment in Queens, still intoxicated from the effects of our dance. There was an accident on the Cross Island Parkway, so she was taking me some back way through residential neighborhoods in Long Island. About thirty minutes into our ride I spotted a sign that read: ENTERING THE TOWN OF ELMONT and I could feel my hormones start to kick into overdrive. I wasn’t quite sure where we were, but I was sure that we were close enough to the Queens border that I’d have Tiffany naked as the day she was born within the half-hour. It had been seventeen years since we’d made love, but I could still remember the way she moaned and the warm, wet, velvety way she felt when I slid inside her.
Tiffany and I had a sexual chemistry like no one I’d ever been with, and it was never more evident to me than the way I felt the second we walked on the dance floor. I couldn’t wait to kiss her, to touch her, and yes, to make love to her. But as Murphy’s Law would have it, there were always going to be some obstacles in my way, this time in the form of a ringing cell phone.
I checked the caller ID, hoping it was James, but I knew it wasn’t. It was my wife checking up on me. I was tempted to answer it and tell her I was on my way home or tired, but I never hit the talk button because I didn’t want to lie. Matter of fact, when it stopped ringing, I turned the phone off completely. I’d just have to deal with the consequences in the morning. I know it sounds crazy for me to jeopardize everything I had with Jessica, but for me this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Believe it or not, I felt no guilt until we pulled up to a stop sign and I saw a house for rent. It was a white Cape Cod with black or maybe blue shutters. It was dark, but the yard looked big enough for my kids to play in. Damn, this was it. This was the house Jessica and I had always dreamed of. I searched for a pen to write down the phone number on the FOR RENT sign, but I couldn’t find one. Tiffany was now a block in front of me and I had no choice but to speed up and catch her, hoping I’d be able to remember how to get back to my family’s dream house.
Ten minutes later, I pulled in behind Tiffany’s car and watched her get out, swaying those lovely hips as she walked to the sidewalk. She stared at me through the passenger-side window for a few seconds, obviously waiting for me to get out of the car. When I didn’t, she walked over and knocked on the window. I rolled it down and she stuck her head in, grinning.
“You coming?” I wanted to say yes in the worst way, but James’s words and my reply had been echoing in my head ever since I’d seen that house for rent.
What about Jessica? he asked.
What about her? What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, I had replied.
Looking back on things, I couldn’t believe those words came out of my mouth. I knew it would hurt Jessica, if only because my conscience would kill me and I wouldn’t be able to look her in the face.
“Get in for a minute. I have to tell you something.”
She opened the door and slid into the car, no longer grinning. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m married. I have a wife and kids back in Seattle. I thought you should know that.” I didn’t bother to tell her I was moving back to New York, because I didn’t plan on seeing her once my family was here.
“I appreciate you telling me, but I figured as much when I saw your wedding band. I don’t wanna take you away from her, Sonny. I just want to borrow you for a night or two.”
“No, I don’t think you understand. I’m happily married. I love my wife.”
She gave me a strange look. “Then what are you doing here? Why did you come?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Somehow I got caught up in the moment on the dance floor and things got out of hand. You brought out things in me that I haven’t felt in years. Even now part of me wants to take you inside and make love to you all night long. But I can’t, because I love my wife. She and my kids are my world, and I will not give them up for one night of pleasure, even if it’s going to be the greatest night of pleasure in my life. And I’m sure it would be.”
She lowered her head. “God, I am such a fool. How could I let something like this happen?”
“You’re not a fool. I’m the fool for leading you on.” I placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.
She lifted her head and turned to me, her eyes not nearly as angry as I thought they would be. “Now you’re the one who doesn’t understand. I’m the fool because I let you go seventeen years ago. I’ve had one bad relationship after another, men cheating on me, beating on me. All I ever wanted was someone to be my friend, my lover, someone who loves me. I’m the fool because I had all that in you. I just couldn’t see it at the time.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Go home, Sonny. Go home to your wife and your family in Seattle. But you tell her I said she better watch her back. If she ever messes up, I’m going to be waiting here in New York to step into her shoes, because she’s the luckiest woman on this earth.”
She leaned over and kissed my cheek, then stepped out of the car. I watched her walk to her door and thought briefly about chasing after her so we could finish what we had started on the dance floor. Instead, I turned on my cell phone and called my wife to tell her about our dream house and just how much I loved her.
13
James
It was almost forty-five minutes later when I left Cathy asleep in the house. I’d given her what I called “a sleeping pill”—two orgasms from oral sex and a quickie doggy-style from the back. That put her to sleep every time. I hated the idea of using sex with my wife to get me out of the house, but there was nothing I could do. Once again I was letting Michelle dictate the situation, and it was starting to piss me off because I really wasn’t sure that the boy was my son.
In spite of the rain-slicked roads, I pulled in front of Michelle’s place twenty minutes after I left my house. I was barely up the walkway when she flung open the door