Les
drove his BMW through the streets of Manhattan towards his red-brick
home. His thoughts fell back on the hours previous earlier in the
evening, his encounter with Stella, the beautiful blonde young girl
from the diner. He'd been seeing her secretly for the last few
weeks. He sighed, he was always a sucker for blondes, even as far
back as high school with Jess. He and Stella had been meeting mostly
at her tiny apartment near NYU, where she studied nursing while
working part-time at the diner. True most of their “dates” were
quickie romps in her bed, but it was just what he wanted, needed at
this point in his life. What could it really harm? Isn't there a
case somewhere that extra-marital affairs can reignite the passion in
the marriage? He thought he'd read that somewhere, in a People
magazine or something. At least, that's the argument he used to
justify his infidelity. With that, he pulled into his driveway,
opened the garage door, and pulled inside.
As he entered the
front door of his house, Monica called down the stairs to him.
“Is that you, Les?”
He headed up the
stairway to the bedroom. She popped her head out of their newborn's
bedroom, holding their baby, Sammy, in her arms. She was dressed in
an long black sequiny evening gown.
“You're late,” she
said, with a frown. “What took you so long?”
Les thought quickly to
himself and mumbled, “Traffic.”
She nodded.
“Well, remember the
benefit at the college tonight, we have to leave in about a half an
hour, okay?” Monica practically demanded.
“All right, all
right,” Les said, moving down the hall to their bedroom and into
their bathroom. “I'll just take a shower.”
Monica followed him
into the bedroom, bouncing the child against her shoulder gently.
She had a cloth draped over her shoulder where the baby was
positioned.
“I can't believe
it,” she said, exasperated. “The babysitter is late!”
“Don't worry, Judy
will be here soon, I'm sure,” Les tried to sound reassuring.
“Its not Judy this
week, she couldn't make it,” Monica said with an angry sigh. “I
told you this morning, I had to get a new girl, Fran at work
recommended her, she uses her all the time, she's a student at NYU.”
“Oh, all right,”
Les said, pretending to remember. He turned the faucets in the
shower and let the steam rise. He moved into the bedroom, stripping
his suit off from work, and moving into the bathroom in his boxers.
The doorbell rang and Monica scurried off downstairs to answer the
door. Les stripped off his underwear and stepped into the stream of
hot water. As he shampooed his hair and lathered his body, his hand
roamed over his body and his mind took him back to earlier that
evening in Stella's bed. He felt his pulse rate leap with the memory
of her scent and her flavor still on his lips. His fingers reached
down and stroked his member and he let out a soft moan in release.
Out of the shower, he
toweled off and dried his hair. Quickly dressing in his dress suit
and red tie, he applied a light cologne to his face and ran his hands
through his brown hair. He flipped off the bedroom lights as he left
the room and headed downstairs. Monica was in the kitchen giving
details to the new sitter. He entered the kitchen to see the back of
the new blonde sitter's head. His wife smiled up at him.
“Les, hi,” she
said, waving him over. The sitter was holding Sammy. “Let me
introduce you to Stella.”
Stella turned around
and Les gulped in shock and recognition. She smiled up at him, slowly, hiding her
awkwardness.
“Hi,” she said.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Daniels.”
He mumbled back, “Eh,
nice to meet you too, um, Stella...”
“We've got to go
now,” Monica said, moving her and Les into the front entrance way
to grab their coats. “We'll be home around 11, help yourself to
anything in the fridge. Thanks, Stella!”
And, out the door they
went.
In the car, Les
focused on driving and bit the side of his cheek, lost in thought.
“This should be
fun,” Monica was saying. “Its a benefit for the music and
theatre arts department at the college. The faculty is bringing in
talent from the community to perform tonight.”
She brought out a
pamphlet detailing the night's festivities and began reading off the
names of the performers. Les let his mind wander with the list of
unfamiliar names until one name brought him back to reality hard and
fast.
“What was that?”
He asked abruptly.
“What?” Monica
wanted to know, looking up at him.
“That last name,
what was it?”
“Oh, um,” Monica
looked over the page again. “Ruby Rhodes?”
“Oh.”
“So, what about this
Ruby Rhodes?” Monica wanted to know. “Wait, is she that singer
like Jewel we listened to in college?”
“Yeah, maybe, I
don't know,” Les was fighting hard not to remember.
“Didn't you know her
or something like that?”
“Yeah, something
like that,” Les answered. “A long long time ago.”
They pulled into the
college parking lot near the theatre and headed up the stairs to the
auditorium and reception hall where the dinner and evening's events
would take place.
The first part of the
evening was spent in the auditorium listening to the various
performances, afterwards the guests went into a large banquet hall
where they dined on fine dinners, played silent auction, and drank
champagne. The performers mingled with the guests at the various
tables, helping to plug the importance of the performance art for the
college. Les saw Ruby, looking glamorous herself, walking
amongst the tables, shaking hands and making conversation. He saw
her make her way to the table he was at. She noticed him and her
smile fell from her face, but quickly she plastered on one not so
genuine for the others around them.
“Hi,” she was
saying to the table at large. “Thank you for coming, its such a
worthy cause, one I really believe in.”
Monica was smiling at
her directly.
“Your performance
was lovely,” she was saying. “I've been a fan of yours since
college.”
Monica turned toward
her husband.
“Um, Miss Rhodes, I
think you know my husband, Les Daniels,” Les nodded at her and Ruby
nodded back.
“How are you, Ruby?”
Les asked curtly.
“Doing well, Trip,”
Ruby said, making it a point to use his camp name. “Nice to see
you tonight.”
Ruby turned back to
Monica. “Yes, Les and I are old friends. Thank you for being a
fan,” she said and giggled. “What was your name again?”
“Monica,” Monica
answered. Ruby moved to her side and smiled down at her.
“Really nice to meet
you,” Ruby said, with a grin. “You made our Les here an honest
man!”
“Someone had to,”
and Monica winked up at him, then leaned over and kissed him on the
cheek. She turned back to Ruby, “I'm sure you have plenty of
funny stories about our Les you could tell me!”
“I sure can,” Ruby
said, conspiratorially. “Send me a friend request on facebook and
I'll share some good ones with you!”
The two women laughed
and Ruby headed onward to the next table.
On the ride home from
the banquet, Monica was ecstatic over the friend request and spent most of the
drive fiddling with her smartphone and chatting with Ruby online.
Every once in awhile, she'd let out a giggle and then stifle it when
Les would glance over at her. He dared not ask what secrets were
being confided between the two of them.
He pulled into the garage and Monica jumped out and hurried into the house to pay Stella. He
was slow about getting out of the car, hoping to miss seeing Stella
on her way out. Monica popped into the garage from the house, Stella
behind her.
“Hon, can you give
Stella a ride to the bus-stop?” Monica smiled sweetly at him. “I
really don't like her having to walk this late.”
“Its really not a
problem, Mrs--,” Stella began and Monica held up her hand.
“Don't worry about
it,” she responded. “And, please call me Monica.”
“Um, all right,”
gulped Stella and looked over at Les. He shrugged and got back in
the car. Stella moved over and got into the passenger seat. They
pulled silently out into the street and Monica headed into the house
to check on Sammy.
They made their way
down the street towards the nearest bus-stop. Stella twisted her
hair and chewed on the ends nervously. Les's hands felt clammy on
the steering wheel. She let out a sigh and looked out the window.
After a moment, she said,
“You have a real
cute daughter, Les.”
“Thank you,” Les
said and then, “You don't have to...”
“What?” Stella
said looking fully at him.
“Just don't have to
pretend,” Les said. “Everyone pretends around me.”
The bus-stop grew near
and he pulled along the side of the street.
“Maybe because you
pretend,” Stella said and got out of the car, slamming the door
behind her.
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