football.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I whisper nastily at Michelle once he leaves the room.
“What? I thought you guys didn’t hide anything from each other?”
“We don’t, but I haven’t told him about Jacob because I didn’t want to upset him. Besides, it’s a little too close to home with the fighting we’ve been doing about that Rocky chick lately.”
“Fuck. I didn’t think of that. Has anything else happened since he spent his day off with her working on a ‘design issue’?” She makes the air quotes around design issue and my heart crumbles. Even I know the reason he left sounds kind of lame. Especially since he was gone for so long.
“Just a bunch of phone calls. She actually called at like ten o’clock a couple of nights ago. She wanted to double check that he remembered their early morning meeting the next day.” I give her a look of disbelief and fist my hands on the table. That quick little reminder of hers took up a twenty minute phone call.
“Either your husband is oblivious to her true intentions or he’s enjoying it. I don’t know what to tell you.” Michelle sits back and picks up her coffee mug. She gives me a sad look over the rim.
“I know,” I sigh in defeat. “All I can do is see how this will play out. As far as I know they haven’t done anything inappropriate together. I just pray he doesn’t end up making the same mistakes I did. I’m not sure we can come back from that.” This is the first time I’ve said my true worry out loud. Until now, I avoided it, afraid that it would come true if I verbalized it.
“It will be okay. Have faith in your marriage and trust Aiden to do the right thing.” She grabs my hand and offers me silent support.
“So what do you think of this dress for your daughter at the wedding?” Michelle holds up a magazine photo of a white, silk tulle tiered dress. It’s a sleeveless number with delicate ribbon trimmed tulle layers with a beautiful bow and sash to finish it off.
“You sure you want her to wear white?” I ask, secretly thankful she changed the subject.
“Yeah. I don’t see why not. She’s not just the flower girl, she’s my goddaughter. She should stand out.” Michelle waves me off like I’m crazy.
“Okay….” I stand up and grab another cup of tea.
“Can you believe we’re actually planning my wedding? This is so exciting. I’m just so damn happy!” My friend exclaims.
I walk over and give her a big h ug. “I know honey. I can’t wait.”
What I fail to tell her is that her wedding is coming at a potentially bad time for me. I ’ll wait to burst that bubble. Right now this needs to be about her and her future with Kyle.
A little while later, Aiden joins us in the kitchen, and he puts their empty beer bottles on the counter. “I just got a call from Rocky. Seems some big investors are coming into town tomorrow, so don’t plan dinner around me. I’ll probably have to take them out for dinner and drinks afterward.”
Well, isn ’t that convenient. I look over at Michelle, and she gives me a knowing look.
“Sure thing, Aiden,” I murmur and flip the page of the magazine in front of me a little harder than I needed to.
Tension and stress is so not good for me right now. I wish there was some way I could make this bitch go away.
***
Aiden
“Glad you guys could make it today,” I say while shaking Mr. Klein’s hand.
“Pleasure was ours, Aiden. Sorry we can’t join you for drinks, but we need to get on the road.” The short, stocky man says. His face is red and round. He kind of reminds me of Santa, but without the beard.
“We’ll keep the offer open for next time,” Rocky replies and shakes the man’s hand along with his two associates.
Once they are out the door, she turns to me with a smile. “Just because they couldn’t have a drink, doesn’t mean we can’t.”
I watch as she walks down the hall towards my office. I always keep some scotch in a crystal
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