Page 58 of The Wife Upstairs
His eyes had been so cold. His tone so flat.
I’d looked him in the eyes and hadn’t recognized him at all.
I can hear those women at the coffee shop again.It’s always the husband.
And for the first time, I honestly believe that it could’ve been.
Not Tripp, sitting across from me at lunch. He was a little bit drunk, a little bit belligerent. He’s also clumsy, and unfocused.
He’s nothing like Eddie.
23
“Girl, I swear you’ve gotten even skinnier!”
Emily is smiling as she says it to me, and I think it’s a compliment, but I can barely make myself smile back at her. We’re standing in the open courtyard of the First Methodist Church, people milling all around us, and I’m too aware of both how hot the evening is—even though the sun is going down—and also how wrong my outfit is.
In my defense, I had no idea what the fuck one was supposed to wear to a silent auction at a church on a Wednesday night, and black had seemed a safe choice—sophisticated, respectable. But all the other women are in bright colors, flower prints, that kind of thing, and I feel like a crow standing around a bunch of flamingos.
Eddie must’ve known it was wrong, but he hadn’t said anything, and I fight the urge to glare at his back as he stands there, talking to the reverend.
Now I smooth my dress over my thighs and say, “Pre-wedding jitters,” to Emily, who nods and pats my arm sympathetically.
“You’re lucky. When I got married to Saul, my stress response was to eat everything in sight.”
Her husband is over near a giant azalea bush, chatting with Campbell’s husband, Mark, and Caroline’s husband, Matt.
I realize that I hardly ever see Eddie with those guys, and that he never mentions them. Did the neighborhood pull back from himafter everything with Bea and Blanche, or does he find these people as insufferable as I do?
Okay, they’re not all bad. Emily is actually nice, steering me around groups of people, introducing me as Eddie’s fiancée and never once mentioning the dog-walker thing.
It almost makes me feel sorry for all the shit I stole from her.
The auction items are inside the church’s Family Life Center, but despite the heat, everyone is congregating out here in the courtyard, probably because it’s so pretty and lush.
Maybe we should get married here instead of eloping after all.
But then thinking about the wedding is too hard when Eddie is barely speaking to me.
It’s been two nights since our fight in the bathroom, two nights of Eddie sleeping god knows where in the house, of him leaving for work early and coming home late.
The worst part is that I’ve been relieved he’s been gone so much. It’s easier with him not there, without looking at him every second, wondering if that flash of hardness, coldness will come back.
The number he gave me is still in my purse. I’ll never call it, but I want it there as a reminder of how badly I almost fucked up, how little I even really know about Eddie.
But here we are at the church’s little party, mingling in a garden, drinking lemonade because even though the Methodists aren’t the Baptists, no one wants an open bar in front of Jesus, I guess, and I’m just about to get another glass of the lemonade when Caroline approaches us, her blond hair swinging over her shoulders.
“Holy shit,” she breathes, surprising me because I’ve never heard her curse before and also, Jesus. I’m going to hell for all kinds of things, but evenImanage to keep it PG at church.
She clutches my arm, her nails digging in. “Tripp Ingraham has been arrested.”
That last word is hissed in a whisper, but it doesn’t matter. I see other people looking over at us, and Emily already has her phone out, frowning at the screen.
Eddie is still talking to the reverend, and my insides feel frozen, my feet locked to the soft grass beneath my too-tight heels.
“What?” I finally say, and she glances behind her at her husband.
“Matt just got a text from his friend in the DA’s office. Apparently, they found something when they did the autopsy? Or something in the house? I don’t know, but I texted Alison who lives on his street, and she said a cop car full-on showed up and took him away in handcuffs.”
