Page 52 of Tomorrow Belongs to Us
“I'm sure it was.” I stand up slowly to face the woman who makes my life so difficult. “Like the surprise last week, huh, sweetie?” I ruffle her hair. Vivian turned up on my doorstep then, as well. “Go and look in your room, Sweetpea. I've got a surprise for you.”
Cassie's face lights up like a firework. “A surprise?”
“Go and see.” I watch her bounding away, bouncing with energy. I bought her some toys and books that I’d intended to surprise her with the next time she came over for a sleepover, but instead she surprised me.
“You did that last week, Vivian.” It takes all of my restraint to keep my voice level. “How long are you going to keep turning up unexpectedly?”
“I smelled something on you,” she hisses in a low voice. “It was her, wasn't it? How many times have you fucked this one?”
“I haven't fucked anyone.” Vivian has a dirty conscience and she’s always suspicious of other women around me. But I don’t sleep around. I’ve never cheated on her throughout our marriage. I’ve never encouraged my students, nor gotten involved in anything inappropriate.
It’s only on this one occasion that I’m at fault. Though, we are almost divorced.
“Did you fuck her?”
“No, I didn't. And, despite what you think, I don’t do that. I don’t invite interest from other women, least of all my students.”
“But something happened here.” There’s a dangerous glint in her eyes. “How long have you been sniffing around her?”
“I haven't.” She doesn't need to know that Megan and I have history.
“I can smell it.”
“We were talking.” I’m about to turn away when I force myself to stare back at her. I can’t look weak or guilty, even though I feel it.
“Talking? You and that floozy? You were justtalking?” Vivian roars, just as Cassie comes running. My little girl stops, her plush rabbit falls out of her hands. I bend down to pick it up.
“Why's mommy shouting at you?” Her bottom lip wobbles. I steel my stomach, a part of me is sad for Cassie, and the other part is indignant for Megan. If I yell back, tell Vivian not to talk about Megan in those terms, she’ll know Megan means something to me. I bite my tongue, grinding down on my teeth so that I don’t answer back.
“Mommy didn’t mean to,” I say tenderly, stooping down to Cassie’s level once more. “Did you find the things?” My little girl shakes her head. “Look under the bed.” I wink at her, and she goes running off again.
I raise myself to standing. “You're snooping, trying desperately to find something, but there isn’t anything to find. I know you so well, Vivian. Your little spontaneous visits to me, hoping to catch me in the act, will amount to nothing.”
“I’ve been invited to a spa weekend with my friends. You never got back to me about it. You were supposed to check your diary and let me know if you could have Cassie this weekend.”
I slap my hand to my forehead. She told me. She mentioned something about this weekend, but that was only a few days ago and I completely forgot.
“Are you free? You’ve got no choice now. You have to be because I’m packed and I’m going straight to the spa hotel from here.”
“She's my daughter. I'll always make time for her.”
Unlike you.Cassie is my weak point, and Vivian knows this.
“Your slut better not come over to visit you while my child is at your place.” The pungent whiff of Vivian's scent assaults my senses before her words strike me like darts.
I make myself look into her eyes. “Don't call her that.” I shouldn't have said anything, because Vivian tilts her head, her gaze assessing and analyzing me in that shrewd and villainous way she has. I have already said too much. Her twisted women's instinct has made her suspicious.
But I must lie. For Megan's sake. For mine.
“Did you fuck, just now?”
“No.” Technically this is the truth. Technically, we didn’t do that. I look around for Cassie, not wanting her to catch any snippets of this conversation.
“Do you have any idea what it must do to Cassie to see you with another woman?” my adulterous, cheating wife hisses. “We can't mess up Cassie's life anymore—”
“If anyone has messed up Cassie's life it's you with all your affairs.”
“If you satisfied my needs ...”
