Page 28 of The Wife
I opened the door and grimaced when I saw Bobby. I wasn’t even really sure why. He’d done the solid thing and had apologized to Ellie. I even knew about the issues with his parents. Still, it had been the language he’d used when I had talked to him last year. The way Bobby had talked about me screwing Ellie.
I felt it. In my bones. That’s who Bobby was. The civil Bobby, the one who apologized and offered to buy beers—that Bobby had an agenda.
“Bobby,” I said nodding.
“Jake.”
That was it. It was clear Bobby was putting something together to be shipped. He was taping up a box pretty soundly. Maybe sending some of his dad’s things to Jefferson. Rumor was Mrs. MacPherson wouldn’t let Mr. MacPherson back in the house.
I moved around him to the counter. It was a small post office, like anything else in Riverbend, and only had what a person needed.
“Hank,” I said. “There should be a package for me.”
I had ordered a new type of insemination device. Basically I had been using what amounted to a turkey baster, but this new thing was something Don had recommended that I wanted to try. Anything remotely exotic when it came to ranch equipment had to be ordered online. It had been a few days and I had to think it would be here by now.
Sure enough, Hank was walking back with a box that looked to be the right size. I didn’t even think about it. I took the box and assumed it was what I had ordered. There was a pair of scissors on the table where Bobby was finishing up. I took them and cut the tape and split the box down the middle. I was anxious to see what it looked like.
I opened the flaps of the box and maybe the pink should have given something away. Something that would have made me stop.
But I was so certain of what it should have been that when I pulled the pink box out of the larger box, I froze.
I heard Bobby snorting, then full-on laughing.
I shoved back what had clearly been a female sexual device, and covered it with the packing paper.
“Guess that’s proof enough you’re not fucking her.”
My face was without doubt as red as it had ever been, but as I looked over at Bobby, who was still snickering, suddenly the embarrassment was gone, replaced by anger.
“Shut your fucking mouth.”
“Poor Ellie is so desperate she needs toys now. Why don’t you just put her out of her misery? Oh wait. I forgot. Didn’t I just see you out on a date with someone else?”
I moved toward him and he had the good sense to take a step back. “I was right,” I said. “All that shit about growing up was a cover for what you really want and can’t have. Someday you will figure it out, Bobby. You are nowhere near good enough for Ellie. Deal with it.”
I took the box and shoved it under my arm. I stormed to my truck and tossed the box onto the other seat, realizing the whole time I was going to have to go home and tell Ellie I opened her freaking dildo in front of Bobby MacPherson.
I had a suspicion that was not going to go well.
* * *
Ellie
“You what!” I screamed at him even as I took the box he was holding out.
“It was an accident. I didn’t intend to… I thought it was this new inseminator I ordered.”
I looked down at the open box. “It has my name right there. RIGHT THERE!”
At least he had the decency to look ashamed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t even think to look. And there is something else…”
I closed my eyes. “Oh god, tell me you weren’t with Carol.”
“I wasn’t with Carol. I picked it up after our lunch.”
I glared at him. The way he said it so casually.
