6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Considering we both looked like we fought a raccoon and lost, Mel and I got takeout and then headed back to my condo to eat it. I hadn’t thought about the amount of awkwardness she and I would face upon bringing her to the place where her husband had been living part-time with me. Luckily, it didn’t last long.

“You have a beautiful home,” Mel expressed as she glanced around.

“Thank you. I got it thinking it would be easy enough to unload one day. My mother’s health is really poor and when she passes, my family’s home will go to me.”

“Is that where you plan to raise your daughter?”

“It is. My mother has been trying to get me to move in now, to save money, and so that we have more time together. I’m not sure my hormonal self agrees, though.” I chuckled and Mel joined me.

“Mothers – you love them, but space is a necessary requirement.”

“Exactly. I want to spend every moment I can with her and end up there most nights anyway, but there are times when I just need to quietly cry into my pillow without judgment or advice being given.”

“I understand completely.”

Once again, I felt compelled to offer to go elsewhere. “Are you sure you’re okay being here?”

Mel’s tight smile told the truth as her words lied. “This is your home, and I am comfortable here with you.”

“There’s no trace of him left here. Even the necklace he gave me for my birthday is at my mother’s house locked up in the safe.”

“That necklace was one of the reasons I knew he was carrying on an affair. I had my suspicions before, but that was a bit of tangible proof. He bought it after the New Year, but stupidly charged it to one of our joint cards. I didn’t notice until I received the statement at the end of February. I never received the jewelry. Neither did our daughter or his mother. Knowing it was for another woman hurt because it was around that time that I found out I was pregnant again.”

“He told me his parents were dead and he inherited what must have been your family home that you shared together.” Mel scowled at that and shook her head.

“I never realized just how much that man lied. I swear, he didn’t used to do it, but then I wonder if I’ve just been oblivious for my entire marriage.”

I didn’t know what to say about that because I’d thought Rich was a completely different person than he turned out to be as well.

“I know I have zero right to ask this, but were you still intimate with him during those months that he and I were together?” I cringed while asking because if either of us had a right to that intimacy it was her.

“Listen,” her serious voice penetrated my own personal shame bubble. “You have every right to ask these questions. Like me, you were led to believe that you were the only one. For the sake of your health, as well as the daughter you carry, it’s important to know those things. Plus, if you’re anything like me, a little self-torture with the truth of the matter helps in your resolve against him.”

My nod of agreement seemed to give her permission to tell me the truth. “We were very rarely intimate. By then, I knew in my heart that he was cheating. He denied, denied, denied. The man made me feel as though I was the one with the problem, telling me it was all in my head and that I was crazy. For a while, I believed him. Then, I found his other phone and read some of the messages between the two of you. He had mentioned your name in conjunction with Cliff and Bridgette before, saying you were working on the account, too. When I read the messages, it was obvious that you were more than coworkers.”

We both sat there with our food growing cold, still untouched despite having come into the condo more than twenty minutes ago. “I knew based on those messages that you couldn’t possibly know he was married.”

“Let me guess, it was when he was begging me to move there with him?”

She nodded her confirmation and took a sip of the milkshake she ordered with her food. It had to be thinned out and watery by then. I picked my own up, needing the sugar despite the milkshake no longer being thick as it was when we ordered.

A text message beeped on Mel’s phone, and she glanced down with a smile on her face before shooting one back to whomever it was.

“Brax says he’s keeping the kids overnight.”

“Your brother?” I asked, remembering Rich had called him Uncle Brax at the office. Mel shook her head.

“Braxton and I have been friends since elementary school. He’s like a brother to me.” Her wince said there was more to it. I put two-and-two together, though.

“Rich said something about…” I pointed to her belly.

She laughed. “One night, when Rich came in a day later than he should have after being gone for a week, I confronted him about what I knew.” Mel rubbed her stomach. “I told him the affair was no secret and that I hoped he was happy because Braxton and I had gotten together once, and I realized how much I had been missing by only having been with Rich all these years.”

I sucked in a gasp at that revelation. “He was your first?”

“My only until that stupid, drunken night.” She grinned at me. “It’s good that we were both drunk and don’t remember a lot of the details, because it might have ruined our friendship, and there is no way that I want that to ever happen. I love Brax, but I’ve never been in love with him.”

“I understand. Still, he might be the father of your baby. Doesn’t that change anything?”

“Nothing. It changes nothing. If Brax is the father, he will help take care of our child and we’ll co-parent together beautifully thanks to our life-long friendship. If he isn’t, he will still be my friend and remain Uncle Brax to all my children.”

“It must be nice to have a friend like that.”

“Don’t you have friends here?”

I shook my head. “I went away for college and didn’t bother to keep up with any of my old high school friends. My college friends aren’t near here and the one woman I became close to at work is in a relationship with Cliff…”

“Who knew that Richard was married,” Mel finished for me. “I’m sorry that my husband has made your life so difficult.”

“I’m sorry that my ex-boyfriend has made your life so difficult too,” I teased. We both broke down in a mixture of laughter and tears.

Mel’s weepy blue eyes met mine when we managed to pull ourselves together again. “I want you to know that I consider you a friend in all of this.” She waved her hand at the space we occupied. “No matter what went on, we were both duped. We both came out with something extra,” she offered while glancing down at our protruding bellies. “We both loved a man who never deserved what we gave him.”

“I want you to know that I am truly sorry for my part in that. Had I known…”

She waved off my apology. “Never apologize for what he made of us. He failed his marriage. He failed his relationship with you. His bullshit is not our burden to bear.”

“I admire the hell out of you,” I admitted.

“Well, I admire the hell out of you, too. You are his equal at work, holding your own in a male dominated company, and unwilling to compromise family for a man who wasn’t worthy. You are who I always wanted to be. Somewhere along the way, I allowed him to dictate my life, convince me to give up on my own dreams, and take care of our children and him instead. I have nothing to show for our marriage beyond our children. Starting from scratch is a scary business. I wish that I had been more like you and continued to live my dreams while helping him live his.”

“It’s never too late,” I encouraged.

“Too true.”

Together, we got comfy on my couch and watched a sappy movie that we could both cry to, as if we hadn’t already shed enough tears over what our lives had become. Mel was right. I felt grateful for the career I had, the work I did, the life lived outside of Rich. I also felt much better about putting my mother before Rich’s demand for me move. Had I put him first, the way Mel had, I would have lost everything on top of dealing with my initial heartache over losing the man I thought he was.

The movie was nearing the end when I heard something scratch at my door. It sounded as though someone was trying to stuff a key in the lock. Mel glanced at me, and our eyes met, knowing in that instance exactly who was attempting to enter my home. That sorry bastard was using the key he never returned when he ghosted me.

“He has some nerve,” Mel whispered.

“Seriously. The fact that he thought I wouldn’t change the lock is astounding.”

Fists banged into the door. “Aviva!” Rich yelled my name, slurring it almost as badly as my mother’s post-stroke speech. “Aviva, the door won’t work. Let me in.”

Mel and I both giggled at that. “Imagine the door not working for him,” she teased.

“That is what happens when locks get changed.”

I stood and moved toward the door as banging started all over again. “Avi, I know you’re home. Your car is in the parking lot.”

“Go away, Rich!” I called through the door.

“Avi, my love, let me in. I need to see you more than I need my next breath.” While slurring his words a bit, every single one he muttered was intelligible and they caused Mel immense pain.

I unlocked the door after disarming the alarm. Then I cracked it open, leaving just the slide chain lock fastened. “You need to leave. I hope you didn’t drive here.”

“Took a cab.”

“Good, then you know how to call another to take you somewhere else.”

“Where else am I going to go? Back to the wife I don’t love? The kids who hate me now?”

“So, you decided I was a good bet, since I couldn’t possibly be angry that you not only ghosted me completely but tried to trick me into leaving my sick mom to move 600 miles away to supposedly move in with you. You know, in the home you shared with your family, apparently. Oh yeah, there’s that too. The fact that you were married, with children waiting for you at home, and all the while playing happy families with me and telling me it would be a blessing to have a child with me.”

His head bobbed down, following eyes that trailed to my stomach. When his hands reached out, as if to hold me there, I slapped them away.

“You do not ever get to touch me again!”

“Avi, please! I needed to be able to get my family set up before I could come back to you.”

“I don’t believe you, and what’s more Rich, I don’t care. Did you think I was the type of woman who would be okay living as the other woman?”

He shook his head. “That’s why I needed to end things first, but then Mel was pregnant. We don’t even know if it’s mine yet.”

“That is not my business.”

“Don’t you see? She isn’t perfect. She cheated, too.”

“Months after she realized you were having an affair with me, Rich. She slept with a man one time in a moment of weakness, and I don’t blame her. The fact that she hadn’t kicked you out before was a miracle because had I been in her shoes, you would have been history the minute I realized what you were up to.”

“Avi, don’t be like that. You know what happened. We worked together, grew closer, and then fell in love.”

“Only because I thought you were available to fall in love with, you asshole!”

“Avi, please, let me in. I miss you so much. We have to talk about the baby. Our baby.”

“You can go to hell! We have absolutely nothing to talk about.”

“You’re going to keep my baby from me?”

“I would do no such thing. That doesn’t mean you get access to me. When the baby is here, we will work something out, but what’s done is done between us. There is no going back.”

“Aviva,” he whispered my name so reverently I wanted to scream and cry all at once. “I love you so much. Please, just let me explain. Let me try to make you understand.”

“You can go straight to hell and explain it to the devil who might find entertainment in what you’ve done. I want nothing to do with you.”

“Where am I supposed to go, Avi?”

“Literally, anywhere but here.”

“And not home either,” Mel finally piped up and showed herself. She had been standing just beyond the door where he couldn’t see her and her phone was held in her hands in a way that I could see she recorded all of that.

“Melanie?” He asked, her name a shocked inhalation of breath.  She sidestepped a bit more, so that he could see her hovering just beyond my shoulder. “What are you doing here?” His voice was frantic as he glanced between his wife and me. “Are you okay?” He asked as his eyes met mine again, laced with concern that his wife might hurt me.

“She has nothing to worry about from me. You, on the other hand, should be very worried.” Mel’s voice was cold and laced with the venom of a woman scorned.

“What is this, Mel? You’re here to poison Avi against me now?”

She laughed at him, and I allowed this conversation to take place around me because there was some weird part of me that needed to hear it.

“You think you didn’t poison her enough by lying to her, trying to trick her into moving away from her only family and a better job to downgrade her life in all ways just so you wouldn’t get caught cheating? You think you didn’t completely corrupt the well of her love for you when you cleared your things out of this very space and disappeared for months before finally showing up at her job with your family – the one she never knew about?”

He staggered back as if her words had been weapons heaved against him in all-out war. If I squinted just so, his fresh wounds would probably be visible. If only. Maybe now he understood a fraction of what I’d gone through over the past couple months.

“You need to leave. The locks were changed. The alarm codes were changed. If you attempt to come back here, I will call the police and let them know that I have a stalker. Do not contact me. When my daughter is born, I will send word through a lawyer about how we will handle the logistics of co-parenting when I can’t stand to look at you. I will not allow my daughter to come to harm in all of this though, so if you step one toe out of line, say the wrong thing to her, do the wrong thing for her, or abandon her the way you have already proven you are capable of – there will be no second chances.”

“A daughter?” He asked, a tinge of awe evident in his voice. Then sadness crumpled his features. “I’m so sorry Aviva. If there is any good in this world, she will look just like you.”

“If there was any good in this world, I never would have met you.” I shut the door in his stunned face, threw the locks, set the alarm, and stepped back while curling my arms around my middle. I felt like I might fly apart at any moment, and then warm arms came around my shoulders as my physical opposite lent me her comfort.

“Look at us,” I whispered against her shoulder. “You’re a blonde haired, blue eyed, alabaster skinned angel while I’m all tans and browns and amber. How did we end up here? Total opposites standing on one side of a door while the man who destroyed us both stands beyond it feeling sorrier for himself than the destruction he caused.”

Melanie pulled me away from the door. “He never did have a type, even when we dated all those years ago. When I met him, he had just broken up with a redhead socialite that his family tried to get him to marry.”

“He should have stayed with her.”

She nodded her head. “They were made for one another. The reason they broke up was because she told him she would marry him but never remain faithful. That woman wasn’t built to be with just one person in life. While I can’t imagine that I respect the fact that at least she was honest and up front about her lifestyle.”

“Seriously? You’re right. They should have stayed together. Why can’t people like that admit what they are and stick with one another instead of ruining everyone else in the wake of their selfishness?”

“I wish I knew. His response to breaking things off with that woman was why I took him seriously when he asked me out and began courting me.” She laughed, though there was no humor in the sound. “Everything was a lie, right from the start. What a fool I have been.”

Shaking my head, I wrapped my arms around this woman who had far worse heartache to deal with than I did. My heartache was fresh and ripe, hers was long grown from years of loving and losing this man. I gave her the only solace I could. “Believing in what we are told and shown by those we love should never make us the fool. No, the fool is the one who betrays that faith you have placed in them.”

“How did you become so wise?” She asked.

A shake of the head was my only answer because my heart knew my own lies. It was true that I wasn’t a fool to have fallen for the man who had no business being with me. Still, my anger at myself for not realizing sooner, was something that was hard to overcome. It was far easier to give advice than to live by it.