by Kyra Davis
“She likes him,” I repeated. It’s not that I hadn’t realized that Dena cared more for Jason than for Kim but I had never really thought about it before. Furthermore Kim had never been good at picking up on emotional subtlety. Did he realize his place in the pecking order? If he did was he angry about it?
“Mmm-hmm, she says he has a really big…well, you know.” Mary Ann’s cheeks colored as she broke the tip off a soft breadstick.
“Does Kim know that Dena likes Jason more than she likes him?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t think he’s very smart.”
That was quite an insult coming from Mary Ann. But I had known lots of people who had convincingly played dumb for their own purposes. Could Kim be one of those people? Perhaps…no. What were the chances that Kim would find a Eurasian guy willing to switch identities with him? And that’s exactly what would have had to have happened. Someone would have had to use Kim’s passport to take a flight before the shooting and Kim would have had to use the other person’s passport to take a flight after the shooting. Double the risk. If anyone got caught doing something like that they’d have to do so knowing that they could end up in one of our illustrious penitentiaries if they were lucky and a Nicaraguan jail if they weren’t. Kim never struck me as a risk taker. No, he wouldn’t do it. He was every bit as innocent as Amelia. He had to be.
“I haven’t spent as much time with Kim as I have with Amelia and Jason,” I said softly. “But he does seem nice. You think he’s nice, right?” I looked up at Mary Ann hoping to see confirmation in her eyes. But what I saw was the building of panic. And she wasn’t looking at me but past me. I turned around to see what had changed.
Rick Wilkes was coming toward our table. He was dressed in one of his suits but it was wrinkled, so wrinkled it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had slept in it. His tie was askew and his hair mused.
He looked insane.
When he reached us he offered Mary Ann his hand and a manic smile. “What a coincidence!” he bellowed. A couple of the people at nearby tables looked over at us. His voice was too loud and exaggerated in his cheerfulness. Mary Ann stared at his hand as if it was the mouth of a cobra.
“A coincidence?” I repeated. “You expect us to believe that you just happened to come to this café less than twenty minutes after we arrived? A café that is nowhere near your home or anywhere you would need to be?”
Rick turned to me, his smile unmoving but his eyes hard. “You have such a suspicious nature,” he said. “But then perhaps you’re right and it’s not a coincidence at all. Perhaps it’s fate.” He turned back to Mary Ann. “Do you think it’s fate?”
“No.” Mary Ann’s voice was both small and tremulous. “I don’t think this is fate, Rick, and I…oh, this isn’t a coincidence either, is it, Rick? You’re following me? Why would you do that?”
For the first time Rick’s smile seemed to waver. He reached out both hands to Mary Ann as if in silent entreaty and then as if recognizing the melodramatic nature of the gesture quickly pulled them back and stuffed his fists inside the pockets of his trousers. “I had to apologize,” he said quietly.
“But you have!” Mary Ann cried. A busboy with a pitcher of water approached us only to turn on his heel the moment he was close enough to pick up on the hostile energy emanating from our table. “You keep saying you’re sorry, over and over again but you don’t go away!” Mary Ann continued. “And now you’re following me and you’re all…messy! You know that messy-looking people make me nervous, Rick!”
“Darling, no!’ Rick gasped. “Please…please don’t let the wrinkles in my suit scare you. I’ve been in the car for a while and this fabric…well, it’s expensive but very light. Perhaps I should have worn something in a polyester blend but I just didn’t think!”
I cocked my head to the side. “Do you really think that’s the problem here? That you chose to stalk her while wearing natural fibers?”
“I’m not stalking her!” He glanced to both his right and his left, checking to make sure no one had heard my accusation. “All right, I did follow you but only because I know how inappropriate my last visit to your house was and I had to explain. Please let me say my piece and I’ll go away immediately. You’ll let me do that, won’t you, Mary Ann?”
“Wait, let me get this straight,” I said. “You followed her from her fiancé’s house to the hospital, to my house, to here, all so you could find a way to justify your last intrusion? Do you see any irony in that?”
“No! I would never do all that!” He wouldn’t look at me now, only at Mary Ann. “I was nowhere near Monty’s house today! I went to the hospital hoping that you might be there and when I spotted you leaving with Dena then I followed you to Sophie’s and then to here. Just a couple of places—that’s all! And it wasn’t planned! I swear!” He reached out for Mary Ann again but she drew back so quickly she accidently knocked her butter knife off the table. It hit the paved ground with a high-pitched clang.
“I am scaring you, aren’t I?” he asked. He took a small step back. “I never wanted to do that. I’m…I’m so sorry.” He bent down and picked up Mary Ann’s knife and put it on the edge of the table. “I won’t bother you again, I promise.”
Rick turned and began to walk away. Mary Ann let her fingers rest on the retrieved knife. “Rick, wait.”
She had said it so quietly I doubted he would be able to hear her but he stopped, slowly turned around and came back. Now he was the one who looked nervous. Nervous and horribly sad.
“What did you come here to say?” Mary Ann asked.
He stared at her for a beat and then in a low, pained voice he answered. “I shouldn’t have come to Monty’s with Fawn. That was insensitive. And I shouldn’t have asked for your friendship because I don’t deserve it.”
“You got that right,” I muttered but Mary Ann shot me a pleading look and I pressed my lips together forcing myself into silence.
“For almost a year now I’ve lived in hope that you would find it in your heart to forgive me and take me back and yet I was so weak. So weak that I wasn’t even willing to let go of Fawn! I just couldn’t be alone with my guilt. I didn’t want to be alone because I knew if I was I’d have time to really think about everything I lost when I betrayed you.”
“Rick—” Mary Ann began but he held up his hand to stop her.
“If I had really been ready to repent then I would have allowed myself to suffer alone. My loneliness was supposed to be my penance, but I wasn’t man enough to accept that.”
Mary Ann blinked rapidly and looked away.
“I want you to know that I broke up with Fawn,” he continued. “We’re over.”
Mary Ann tried to speak and again Rick interrupted her.
“You don’t have to say it. I know you’re never coming back to me. I know you are in…in love with another man.” He put his hand to his throat as if the words had been physically painful to produce. “I just want you to know that I’m going to pay my penance now. And although I’ll never have another chance with you I can at least promise you…and myself…that I will never treat love so casually and…and cruelly again.”
This time Mary Ann didn’t try to speak. I waited for a moment and then put my elbows on the table and rested my chin in my hands. “Wow,” I said. “How long have you been practicing that speech?”
“Sophie,” Mary Ann hissed.
I looked at her at first confused, then startled and finally enraged. She couldn’t possibly be buying this! He had been stalking her! It was entirely possible that he had shot at her and her cousin! And now he showed up with some lame-ass apology and we were all supposed to be nice to him? Forget that!
I shifted my body in my chair so that I was facing him. “It was a pretty speech and you have clearly moved Mary Ann but I’m not buying it. I don’t think you’re sorry. I don’t think you have any intention of paying a penance. What I think is that you want to hurt everyone who’s hurt you.”
Rick’s face wa
s completely impassive. His hands were still at his sides, but his right foot began to tap and the sole of his shoe beat out a slow but quickening rhythm against the cement.
“You’re an obsessed, jilted ex-lover,” I said. “A stalker…maybe worse.”
“Worse?” Rick’s voice was steady but his foot continued to tap faster and faster.
“Yes. We all know that you cheated on Mary Ann but I seriously doubt that’s the worst of it.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rick wasn’t meeting my eyes anymore. “If you think there were others beside Fawn…”
“Oh, Rick!” Mary Ann cried.
“Listen to me.” I stood up. There was about half a foot between Rick and me now and I had to crane my neck to look at him. But I wasn’t intimidated. His tapping foot and the beads of sweat forming along his hairline made it clear that I was the one with the upper hand. “You will pay a penance for what you’ve done but it won’t be voluntary. We know who and what you are now and it is in your best interest to back the fuck off!”
Now the people at the other tables were looking at us again. A chorus of excited whispers rose around me and the tap of Rick’s shoe was keeping time with my racing heart. All my vague suspicions about Rick were now very clear and acute. From the corner of my eye I could see that Mary Ann was crying into her napkin, but I couldn’t tend to her now because if I moved, if I so much as lifted my hand I’d punch Rick. Punch him harder than I had punched Chrissie and furthermore I wouldn’t be able to stop punching him. If I could only keep completely still until Rick slunk out of here…if I could only keep myself from pummeling him in front of a restaurant full of people…
Rick finally looked in my eyes. He must have seen the hate. He then glanced at the weeping Mary Ann and backed away then turned around and walked out of the restaurant at the exact same time as the restaurant’s manager came rushing out to see what the commotion was about.
“Is everything all right?” the manager asked as she turned to watch Rick leave.
“It’s fine,” I said in a voice that was much calmer than I felt. “He was an ex-boyfriend who wanted to cause problems but he won’t be back.” I felt my violent impulses slipping away and I went to Mary Ann and gently stroked her hair. “His name is Rick Wilkes,” I said to the manager. “We think he may be stalking her. If we need to get a restraining order we might need you to testify to the fact that he showed up here after we arrived and caused a scene. Can we count on you for that?”
The manager nodded and Mary Ann started crying harder.
CHAPTER 22
It’s been proven that women who have orgasms on a regular basis have more energy and suffer fewer illnesses. So going forward I’ll be billing all my vibrators to Blue Cross.
–Fatally Yours
We drove back to my house in silence. I parked in the driveway and pulled the key from the ignition but neither of us reached for the door.
“I still don’t think he did it,” Mary Ann said softly.
I stared at her, my frustration momentarily overriding my sympathy. “How can you not?”
“Because he loves me,” she said softly. “He loves me more than I ever loved him. That’s probably why he cheated on me but…he doesn’t want to kill me. Killing me would kill him.”
“What if Chrissie was right?” I scratched my nails against the leather-bound steering wheel. “What if he didn’t want to kill you? What if he wanted to hurt you by killing Dena?”
“But that…that would have killed me in a different kind of way, you know?” She looked at me and when I didn’t answer she shrugged. “No one could do something like that to someone they love and Rick really loves me.”
“Mary Ann, you could be wrong.”
She opened her mouth to protest but then hesitated. Finally she dropped her head down so that her curls concealed her face from me. “I could be wrong,” she whispered. “But I just so hope that I’m not.”
“Mary Ann…” But I stopped. I really didn’t know what to say.
Mary Ann looked back up at me; her eyes were red from the crying she had done in the restaurant but there were no new tears to wipe away. “Do you have an Advil?” she asked.
“I—” But before I could answer my cell phone rang. Leah’s name flashed across the screen and I held up a hand for Mary Ann to wait a moment as I picked up.
“Hi, Leah, this isn’t the best time—”
“That’s too bad because Jack is with a sitter for exactly one hour and I’m coming over to your place to see Dena.”
“Uh…okay, when will you be here?”
“In approximately two minutes. I’m less than a mile away.”
“Ah, well, I’m glad you called ahead then. I always say that a girl needs at least a hundred and twenty seconds to prepare for company.”
I hung up and smiled at Mary Ann, who looked even more pained than she had before my conversation. “You wanted an Advil?”
She nodded. “Leah’s coming right now?”
“You got it.”
“You think she’s going to want to try to talk about my wedding again?”
“That’s a definite yes.”
“Okay…” Mary Ann squeezed her hands together. “Do you think I could have maybe three Advils?”
True to her word Leah arrived before I even had a chance to put the key in my front door. Mary Ann and I watched as she pulled her Volvo in behind my Audi and then got out of the car. As usual her hair was lacquered into an immovable low ponytail and she was wearing a dark blue wool Chanel-style cropped cardigan with a straight black skirt. I waited for her to come up the steps to us but instead she opened the door to her backseat and took out a Barneys bag which she hung over her arm. She then leaned down and took out a large basket, but this one was filled with fruit, not spa products.
“Wow,” Mary Ann breathed as Leah finally came up the steps. She reached out her hand and touched the top of Leah’s basket. It really was an incredible display filled with luscious grapes, shiny green apples and, most prominently, peaches. Organza ribbons hung from the handle of the long oval basket, the ends of which gently brushed the top of the bonanza of ornate produce.
“Dena likes fruit, right?” Leah looked at my keys and then at the door meaningfully. I smiled and opened it for us. Leah was the first to enter and Mary Ann trailed behind her, still entranced with the fruit.
“It’s so pretty…” she breathed as we made our way into the living room. I couldn’t help but notice that there were two half-finished cocktails on the coffee table and no Dena…or anybody else…to be seen. However Mary Ann didn’t seem at all concerned with that or anything else…well, anything other than the fruit. She reached out and touched it again. “Does it sound weird to say that this arrangement…um…well, it’s sort of romantic? That is weird to say, isn’t it?”
“Not at all,” Leah answered. She put the basket down by the glasses and then stepped back to admire it. “Done correctly fruit baskets can be very romantic. This would actually make a lovely centerpiece.”
“A centerpiece?”
“Yes, for a wedding…of course not for your wedding. You are incorporating peach into the festivities by making your bridesmaids wear it. You wouldn’t want to overdo it by also having a centerpiece featuring peaches. It’s your day, not grandma’s.”
Mary Ann hesitated. “I would never have thought of this,” she said quietly. “Peaches in the middle of the table instead of flowers but…it works!”
“You could actually have both. We could interweave little flowers into the display. It would work. But what am I saying? There’s no we. It’s not like I have any part of the planning. Forget I said anything.”
“But…” Mary Ann looked to Leah and then to me but I wouldn’t meet her gaze. I was staring at my hands trying very hard not to burst out laughing. It wasn’t just Leah’s audacity that was cracking me up. Less than five minutes ago we were debating whether or not Rick-the-stalker was really Rick-the-wannabe-
murderer. Now Mary Ann had seemingly forgotten all about that because of a display of fruit. She was like a toddler distracted from her skinned knee by a sparkling piece of tinfoil.
“The flowers would have to match the bouquets,” Mary Ann continued.
“Of course they would. We could… Oh, there I go again. Somebody stop me before I make a fool of myself.”
“Way too late,” I muttered under my breath.
Mary Ann kneeled down by the basket and fingered the ribbon. “It’s a brilliant idea,” she breathed. I pressed my lips together. Apparently Mary Ann was unclear on the meaning of brilliant. I heard a noise coming from behind the closed door of the guest room and then the unmistakable sound of Dena’s low laugh mingled with Jason’s. So she was home. And she was…entertaining.
Mary Ann glanced toward the room, blushed and quickly looked back up at my sister. “Leah, Monty and I really want to start our lives together at Disneyland.”
“How nice for you,” Leah said, not even bothering to feign joy this time.
“I’m sorry. If they didn’t already have wedding coordinators—”
“Hire me as a wedding consultant then.”
Mary Ann looked at her blankly and then back at the fruit. “Aren’t coordinators and consultants kind of the same thing?”
“Not at all. I’ll help you find a way to keep your fairy-tale theme without alienating the bulk of your San Franciscan friends or giving Dena a stroke.”
“But—”
“The Disney people don’t know your friends the way I do. They won’t know what compromises to strike,” Leah pressed on. “For instance, you could have rather elaborate bouquets of calla lilies and peach roses if you would just consider allowing the bridesmaids to wear black. And then everybody would be happy.”
“Black?” Mary Ann asked. “Is that really in the fairy-tale theme?”
Leah adjusted the shopping bag on her arm. “The flowers will be the fairy-tale part and we’ll put flowers in each woman’s hair, as well.”