Page 43 of The Wife
I rang the doorbell and she opened the door with a wide smile.
“Hey. This is perfect timing,” she said as she reached out with her hand to pull me inside. “The family is out so we’ve got the place to ourselves.”
“You’re related to the MacPhersons?”
She kept pulling on my arm as if she wanted to lead me to the living room, but I planted myself in the middle of the foyer.
“Yep. Sally is my mom’s sister. That’s who I’m here for. She’s having a rough time with the divorce. Remember? I told you.”
“You told me you were helping out your aunt for a while. I didn’t know that was Sally MacPherson.”
She looked puzzled.
“Does that matter?”
“I guess not.”
She smiled again. “You wanted to talk? Is this about the other morning?”
“Yes.”
How did I explain any of this?
“You said it was okay for you to be dating,” Carol said. “I’m not sure Ellie thinks the same thing.”
“No. She understands why I’m doing it. She just didn’t… It’s her house. She thought you had spent the night.”
Carol nodded. “So if we were going to move things forward… then we should do that here? Like if we wanted to pick up where we left off…”
She moved toward me, but I took a step back. I didn’t want to think about yesterday morning. That was not a pleasant memory.
I must have communicated my resistance to the idea and her smile faded. “Okay, Jake. What’s the deal? What are we really doing here? I thought you said you weren’t a tease.”
“I told you I wanted to talk,” I said.
“Yeah, well I want to fuck,” she replied, clearly exasperated.
The word dropped like a brick in the room. Up until then she’d come off as this nice, sweet woman. Her agenda had been hidden behind hand touches, smiles and flirtatious innuendo. Now there was something ugly in her tone.
“You sort of made that clear from the start. Is that why you came out to the ranch in the first place? Were you looking for some…action?”
Something wasn’t sitting right with me. I remembered Ellie saying something about Carol being pretty ballsy to flirt so openly with me right out of the gate. Without even knowing about my situation other than from what she’d heard.
“No. I came because Don told me about your insemination program. Then Bobby told me what the deal was between you and Ellie.”
“Bobby.” Right. Her cousin.
“Yes. He said you two were married, but it was in name only. He thought you might be my type, and he was right. Because you are my type, Jake.”
She was flirting again.
Bobby told her my marriage to Ellie wasn’t real. Bobby told his cousin I was her type.
Bobby. Who had a thing for Ellie.
“I told you,” she continued. “It’s been like forever for me. I liked you, I thought you liked me. It’s just sex, Jake. Married, not married. What’s the difference?”
What’s the difference? The difference was Ellie.
