“I see,” Jake said again. “So, you never got to see him at all on your trip back?”
“Oh, I saw him all right,” she said. “He came home on Friday night. Saturday morning, he showed up at my apartment. He was dressed in golf clothes because that’s where he told that bitch he was going. He only stayed long enough to ... you know?”
“To have sex with you?”
She nodded. “He was in and out of the house in less than an hour, just long enough to get what he wanted and then take a shower. He didn’t apologize for going to Palm Springs without me. He didn’t listen to me when I tried to tell him about our recording sessions and how things were going in Coos Bay. He didn’t tell me...” She wiped at her eyes a bit. “He didn’t tell me he missed me. It was like I hadn’t even been away at all.”
“He sounds like a real prince,” Jake said.
She shook her head, wiping at her eyes again. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I love him, but ... well ... sometimes I have to wonder if he really loves me. I’ve never really been in a relationship before, Jake. Is this how people act?”
“It’s not how people in love are supposed to act.”
“I want more out of the relationship than he’s giving me,” she said. “Do you know that he hasn’t called me a single time since I came up to Oregon? Not even once, just to see how I was doing, just to check up on me. And then he takes that bitch to Palm Springs and doesn’t even have the nerve to tell me to my face, or even on the phone. What the hell?”
Jake made a quick scan of his instruments and then another scan outside. Everything was as it should be. He made a quick bank to the left to follow a southward bend in the river far below. When the plane was level again he looked at the redhead sitting next to him. “Do you want to hear what I really think?” he asked her.
“Probably not,” she said.
“Fair enough,” he said. “I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.”
“No,” she said. “Go ahead. I started this conversation. Might as well finish it.”
“All right,” Jake said. “Let me start off by saying I’m not judging you. Far be it from me—a man who has sniffed coke out of an ass crack, who has had an ongoing affair with a woman I knew was married, who actually boned said woman in her very marital bed while her husband was downstairs, who has gotten it on with groupies two and sometimes three at a time—to lay any judgements on you for sleeping with a married man.”
“Two and three at a time?” Laura asked.
“Everyone needs a hobby,” Jake said. “Anyway, my point is, that despite how you label her, how her husband describes her to you, you are, in fact, sleeping with a married man. A married man who still lives with his wife, who still, if I have my facts correct, wears a wedding ring, right?”
Her face soured. “Phil’s got a big mouth.”
“I understand that’s quite an asset in the gay community,” Jake said. “In any case, I think, based on what I’ve heard and what I know about the male species, that your dentist is playing you for a fool.”
The sour look turned to a scowl. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Happily married men cheat on their wives all the time,” Jake said. “But they also know that most single women won’t knowingly give themselves up if they know the man is happily married. And so, they almost always tell whatever piece on the side they’re trying to land that they’re in an unhappy marriage, that they don’t have sex with their wives, that they’re staying for the children, that their wife cheats on them. It’s really kind of a classic, almost a cliché.”
She chewed on her lip for a moment. “You’re trying to say that Dave’s wife is not actually a bitch? That he’s been making all of this up all of this time?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Jake said, “since I’ve never met either one of them, but I strongly suspect that this is the case, yes.”
She was shaking her head. “No,” she said. “Impossible. I may be naïve—I’ll be the first to admit it—but I’m not that naïve. There is no way that he could lie to me that smoothly, that convincingly. You’ve got your wires crossed on this one, Jake.”
“Perhaps,” Jake said. “Like I said, I don’t know either one of them. But maybe it’s time you really started thinking about the kind of relationship you’re in. You’re sleeping with a married man, Laura, and one who seems to do nothing but show up to have sex with you and then leave. Have you ever been to his house?”
“No,” she said.
“Have you ever met his children?”
“No.”
“When you go to your dentist appointments, does he acknowledge your relationship to his coworkers in any way?”
Another sigh. “No,” she said. “He tells me we have to be discrete.”
“Put yourself in someone else’s shoes for a minute,” Jake suggested. “Pretend you’re Pauline, or Celia maybe. Pretend you were told the story you just told me and you were able to look at it with the detachment that comes with not being involved. What would you think?”
She looked out the window, refusing to meet his eyes. “I don’t know,” she said at last.
They didn’t speak much more on the rest of the flight, and when they did, the subjects remained neutral. Jake flew them at 4500 feet along the coast, both of them watching the scenery go by impassively until they circled into land on Runway 4 just after two o’clock.
Laura disappeared into her room as soon as they got back to the house, not even bothering to show anyone her new instrument.
“What’s with her?” Celia asked.
“She’s got a lot on her mind,” Jake replied.
Celia let it go at that.
Dinner that night was pot roast prepared by Cindy. Laura came out for dinner but contributed little to the conversation. She helped clean up the dishes and the kitchen and then retreated back to her room. Shortly after that, the sound of her practicing notes on her new saxophone came drifting out.
“She sounds pretty good with that thing,” Celia observed.
“Yeah,” Jake said appreciatively. “I think maybe that was a trip worth taking.”
Jake went upstairs and changed into his bathing suit for his nightly ritual hot tub soak. He came downstairs, grabbed himself a beer, and then headed out. He saw that the lid was already open and someone was in the tub. It was Laura. She had a glass of wine with her. Though Laura was not a nightly visitor to the tub as Jake was, she typically came out once or twice a week. Since returning from her trip home, however, she had not been out a single time.
“Well, hello,” Jake greeted, setting his beer down and dropping his robe. “Decided to join the living again?”
“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “I think maybe it’s time for that.”
Jake climbed in and settled down, stretching his legs out before him. He took a few drinks of his beer and then looked at his companion, who was looking out over the dark ocean. “I’m sorry if I upset you earlier,” he told her. “That was not my intention.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “And I’m not upset ... at least not with you.”
“No?”
“No,” she said. “On the contrary. You gave me a lot to think about.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she said, finally looking at him. Tears were running down her eyes. “And I’ve concluded that I’m such a fucking idiot.” She broke down completely, sobs coming out of her uncontrollably.
“Hey now,” Jake said, quickly scooting around the perimeter of the tub until he was next to her. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. She came willingly, burying her face into the side of his neck. “It’s okay,” he soothed.
“I’m such a fool,” she said. “You were right, Jake. He is just using me. Everything you said makes perfect sense!” She sobbed again, her hot tears spilling onto his shoulder.
He held her, rubbing his hand up and down her back, part of him quite enjoying the silky smoothness of her flesh, the press of her wet breasts against his side, the feel of her soft leg pushing against his. It had been a while since he had held a woman in his arms. His weekly trysts with club girls had come to an end when he’d traveled to Coos Bay and gone to work. He fought back his natural inclination, which was to pull her closer, into a more intimate embrace. He could not fight back the natural biological response, however. Blood began to flow down below, stiffening his member, which did not know or care that this was not that kind of situation.