The Wives of Beverly Row 3: Lust Has a New Address

by Weeks, Abby

  “It’s not really about the money.” Gabe said, “It’s about the challenge. The thrill of the chase, you know what I mean? I just want to get one over on the establishment.”

  Ariel smiled. Gabe had always been a gambler. “You never were one to play it safe, were you.”

  Gabe watched as Ariel put another few layers of primer on the canvas, each one progressively smoother and finer than the last.

  “So how’s it going with your new girlfriend?” Ariel said at last.

  She knew she was being nosy but she wanted to hear what he thought of it. After all, Lucy and girls like her were the reason her own marriage had broken down.

  “I don’t know,” Gabe said. “To be honest, it’s just a fling. It’s gone on longer than I think it needs to.”

  “I was surprised that you were still going out with her. What’s it been, like six months?”

  “Longer. I’m just afraid to break up with her now because I’m her employer!”

  Ariel shook her head. “You always knew how to make things complicated.”

  Gabe looked sad then. “I should have just appreciated what I had,” he said, “and enjoyed it.”

  “Yes, you should have,” Ariel said.

  Gabe came up to her and kissed her on the forehead. Then he left.

  Ariel watched him leave. It seemed he’d really changed in the past year. He never used to talk to her like that. He’d never been so vulnerable or emotional. She layered on some more primer and then looked at the computer screen image of the original painting. She was trying to work out what colors of paint lay beneath the surface. Often, the paint you covered up was as important, or even more important, than the final layers that were visible on the surface.

  XIII

  LATER THAT EVENING WHILE ARIEL was finishing up at the warehouse Gabe called her.

  “What’s up?” she said.

  “I was wondering if you wanted to go out for a drink tonight?”

  “Oh,” Ariel said. She was surprised. “I don’t know, Gabe.” She paused for a moment, uncertain what to say. She’d enjoyed screwing his brains out, but she still wanted to keep things slow.

  Gabe spoke, just to fill the awkward silence. “I was just close by and I thought maybe you wanted to get a bite to eat,” he said.

  “I don’t know,” she said again. “Can I take a rain check, Gabe?”

  “Sure,” Gabe said. She could tell he felt embarrassed for calling but she didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t want to rush into anything with him. They’d been married a long time and it really had been a difficult process getting divorced. For the first time in her adult life she felt she could enjoy her freedom and make real plans for her future.

  She put her phone in her purse and gathered up the rest of her stuff. The canvas could sit like that for a day or two for the layers of primer harden. She turned on a fan to keep air in the room circulating and then left. She had four steel doors to lock on her way from the studio to the parking lot. Gabe was taking security very seriously.

  She got into her car and turned the ignition. She’d been intending on going straight home, Becky was there watching a movie and she felt a little bad that she hadn’t prepared any dinner. Becky had had a frozen pizza. But as she drove down Santa Monica Boulevard past Third Street she had a sudden urge to go to a bar. Gabe had put the idea in her mind and while she didn’t want to meet up with him for a drink she did feel like meeting someone.

  She was a single woman now, she was a grown adult, she could go to a bar and meet someone if she wanted. Why couldn’t she? It wasn’t something she’d ever done before but as she found a parking spot she began to feel very excited about going to a bar by herself for what was probably the first time in over twenty years.

  She found a really nice looking wine bar called Bodega. It seemed pretty busy with people sipping expensive wines and enjoying fancy appetizers. She looked at her reflection in the glass door. She thought she looked fine. She felt a flutter of nerves as she stepped inside. What was she doing? She felt like a teenager again. She was trying to pick up!

  She stepped inside and immediately felt overcome with self-consciousness. Everyone in there seemed to be with friends. They were all laughing and talking and drinking. She felt conspicuous having no date and no friends to sit with. She walked straight through the main area of the bar and into the women’s washroom. There were a few women inside touching up their makeup. Ariel joined them and made sure she looked presentable. Then she went back out to the bar feeling a little more confident.

  There was an opening at the bar and she went over and took a seat.

  “What can I get you?” the bartender said.

  Ariel looked up at him. The place really was cool. Exposed brick walls gave it a hip, industrial feel. The wine on the shelves around the bar looked very impressive. She’d never seen so many options.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “What red wine do you recommend?”

  The bartender smiled and held up the bottle that was already in his hand. “Do you like dry?”

  “Love it.”

  “Then you’re going to love this,” he said and poured her a glass.

  Ariel had no idea what the wine was but she didn’t really care. It all tasted the same in the end.

  “Put that on my tab,” a man sitting close to Ariel at the bar said.

  Was it really as easy as that to get picked up? Ariel thought. She looked over at the man who’d bought her the drink. She almost fell off her seat. It was Jake Medeiros.

  Ariel hadn’t seen Jake since that awful pool party where he’d practically drowned Zola. She’d stormed out after making a big scene in front of all his friends and she’d been carefully avoiding him ever since. She didn’t like him one bit and she had no interest in talking to him now.

  “Ariel,” Jake said.

  He was leaning back on his bar stool looking like he owned the place. Ariel had to admit he was pretty dashing in a navy suit that looked like it came from Tom Ford or somewhere equally expensive. The top few buttons of his shirt were open and she could see his tanned, well-built chest and collar bones.

  “Jake,” she said and lifted her glass to him.

  He nodded and took a sip of the whiskey he was drinking.

  “Well,” she said, “I think I’ll leave.”

  Jake got up from his seat immediately and came over to her.

  “Please,” he said, “don’t rush off just because of me. I know I owe you an apology.”

  Ariel was surprised. She hadn’t expected him to be polite, or to offer an apology of any kind.

  “It’s not me you owe an apology to. It’s your wife.”

  “I know,” he said. “And believe me, Zola and I are working on our issues. And boy do we have issues.”

  “I’ll say.”

  Jake looked saddened, as if the thought of his marriage made him unhappy.

  “Anyway, I wanted to clear the air and tell you that I’m very sorry for my behavior the other week. It really wasn’t acceptable and I regret that it happened.”

  “Alright,” Ariel said.

  “And you were absolutely right to call me on it. I’d had too much to drink and I was making a fool of myself.”

  Ariel nodded. “Well,” she said. “I guess I should say, apology accepted.” She raised her glass to him and they clinked a little toast.

  “I’ll leave you to your drink,” Jake said.

  Jake beckoned the waiter over to settle his bill but Ariel, for reasons entirely surprising to herself, stopped him. “Don’t leave,” she said. “Join me for a drink.”

  She didn’t want to be left there alone. The place was bustling with people and now that Jake was standing next to her she didn’t want him to disappear. He took the seat next to her and ordered another whiskey.

  “Marriages can be difficult,” Ariel said to break the silence.

  “You’re telling me,” Jake said. “Never in a million years would I have predicted how difficult it c
ould get. Zola and I hardly even speak to each other most of the time.”

  “Really?”

  “It’s like communication completely breaks down sometimes. And then there’s all this anger I have.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know if I should talk about it,” Jake said. “It’s just, let’s say that I have some personal issues I’m trying to resolve.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re Zola’s friend. I shouldn’t say anything. I’ll let her tell you.”

  Ariel finished her glass of wine and Jake ordered her another straight away. She sat quietly as it arrived and sipped from it. It really was delicious wine and she was drinking it too quickly. If she kept up like this she’d have to get a cab home. She wasn’t going to let Jake drive her home, that was for sure. She couldn’t let herself get a reputation on the Row.

  “Just spill the beans,” she said to Jake. “It’s no big deal. Everyone’s got marital problems. Believe me. Everyone. My own ex-husband, a man who made a habit of cheating on me for sixteen years, just called an hour ago to ask me out for a drink.”

  “At least he knows what he wants,” Jake said.

  “He’s never had a problem with that,” Ariel said. “So come on, what’s your issue? Maybe all you need is a little female advice.”

  Jake looked troubled. He looked like he was about to make a confession. “Well,” he said, “I shouldn’t even be saying this, it’s embarrassing to be honest, but Zola slept with a friend of mine.”

  Ariel almost choked on her wine. “What?” she said, a little louder than she should have. A few of the other people at the bar turned to look at her. “How do you know that?” Ariel said.

  “I know it. His name is Peter. He showed me the video of it.”

  “He got video?”

  “I guess they recorded themselves.” Jake took out his cellphone and began opening a file.

  “Jesus, Jake. I don’t need to see that.” Even still, Ariel watched intently as he opened a small video clip. There was no denying it. It clearly showed Zola sucking off a fairly out of shape guy. Then she got up and mounted his cock by sitting on his lap.

  “Holy shit,” Ariel said.

  “I know.”

  “And I stood up for her,” Ariel said. She felt somehow responsible to Jake. She’d stood up for Zola in front of everyone, and now she was finding out that this was what Zola was up to. “It’s none of my business,” she said.

  “I’ll tell you, when the message came in I thought it was a joke. I’ll be the first to admit my marriage isn’t perfect but I never expected this.”

  “I never would have believed it either,” Ariel said. “To be blunt, if I’d had to guess who was the cheater in your marriage, I would have guessed it was you.”

  Jake shrugged. He looked sympathetic to Ariel. “That’s what people always think. I guess I can come across badly sometimes.”

  “I’ll say,” Ariel said, sipping her wine.

  “You want another glass?” Jake said.

  Ariel looked up at him. She felt so bad for judging him. She’d thought he was the biggest asshole in the world and now she was seeing a whole other side to him.

  “Sure,” she said. “What the hell. We only live once.”

  XIV

  OVER THE COURSE OF THE next two hours Ariel lost track of the number of glasses of wine Jake bought her. She felt a bit strange sitting there with him getting progressively drunker. Just a few hours earlier she’d thought Jake was one of the biggest assholes she’d ever met in her life. Now here she was, letting him flirt shamelessly with her. She began to think that maybe she wasn’t quite as good a judge of character as she’d thought. She’d thought Jake was a jerk and it turned out he was actually a pretty nice guy. He had his issues just like everyone else did. And besides, what did Ariel know? She’d just slept with her own ex-husband, a man she knew had cheated on her literally hundreds of times. She’d also taken Zola’s side at the pool party only to learn that Zola was the one having the wild affairs, letting people videotape her while she was fucking her husband’s friends! That was crazy.

  “I can’t believe my ex asked me out tonight,” Ariel said.

  “I can,” Jake said. “Look at you!”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Ariel said.

  “I don’t know,” Jake said. “It’s just, let’s just say, when I saw you and your daughter come over to our pool party that day, I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

  “Come on!”

  “Really,” he said. “I’m not kidding. I think that’s the whole reason I acted weird that day.”

  “You’re so full of it.”

  “Really, Ariel. I was like, damn! I don’t think I’d ever seen a woman as hot as you in my entire life.”

  “Oh God, Gabe. You’re just flirting with me now.”

  “I’m not,” he said. He leaned forward and put his hand on her knee. Ariel looked down at his hand. She knew exactly where this was leading. It wasn’t going to go anywhere good. How the hell could she even think about sleeping with her friend’s husband? It was insane. She lived on Beverly Row. She had to maintain good relationships with the other women who lived there. If she slept with Jake, how the hell was she ever going to be able to look Zola in the eye again? She wasn’t the kind of person who could live dishonestly. She wouldn’t be able to do this.

  But Jake’s hand moved slowly up from her knee along her thigh. It felt so good to have his big, strong hand on her leg. She felt sexy and desirable. He wanted her. All she had to do was take a glance at his lap to see that his penis was erect inside his slacks. He wanted her so badly that he was coming on to her right here in the bar.

  She wondered how he felt, finding out that his wife was cheating on him. She knew how she’d felt the first time she’d realized for certain that Gabe was cheating on her. It had been devastating. She’d have done anything at that moment. There was no way she could have controlled her emotions at that point. That was what Jake was going through right now. He was emotionally devastated. He’d wake up in the morning and begin to put the pieces of his life together, try and figure out how he was going to go on in a marriage that obviously wasn’t what he thought it was. But right now everything was different. He was in free fall and anything was possible.

  Ariel looked at him. She didn’t think about what she was doing. She didn’t make a conscious decision about whether or not she was going to sleep with Jake. She didn’t think about how she was going to go on living on the Row with the other wives. All she did was open her legs a little, allowing Jake’s cool, firm hand to slide even farther up the inside of her thigh.

  She sighed. Jake noticed. He let his hand slide up under the skirt of her dress. Ariel was surprised at how bold he was. She looked around. The bar was still busy and no one was paying them any attention as far as she could tell. She opened her legs just the tiniest little bit more and looked into Jake’s eyes.

  “Go ahead,” she said. “Touch it.”

  “Right now?”

  “You know you want to,” she said seductively.

  Gabe’s hand moved slowly, inching its way up her leg. Ariel closed her eyes and focused on the smooth sensation of his finger tips running over her skin. Eventually he reached the edge of her panty. He looked at her. She looked right back at him. She gave a very small nod.

  His fingers went in under the elasticated edge of her panty. Ariel held her breath. A moment later she felt him on the very edge of her pussy. She was so wet and she hoped he didn’t care. He didn’t seem to. His finger kept moving until it actually slid inside the lips of her vagina and went right inside her.

  “Oh God,” she whispered.

  Jake leaned forward and began kissing her passionately. She wasn’t thinking of anything now. Her body was working on autopilot. She opened her mouth and gladly accepted his tongue. It moved inside her, sliding against her own tongue. Her lips pressed against his. His mouth was surprisingly soft.

>   This is Zola’s husband, she thought. The idea of it scared her and thrilled her at the same time. Sleeping with another woman’s husband! It wasn’t anything she’d ever thought she would do. Maybe sleeping with Gabe again had changed her. She’d gone from being the victim, the woman who waited at home while her husband fooled around behind her back, to the aggressor, the woman outside stealing other women’s men.

  “Where are you going to take me?” she whispered.

  A minute later and they were making their way out of the bar. There was an old hotel on the corner and they stumbled toward it.

  “Won’t Zola be wondering where you are?” Ariel said as they walked into the lobby of the hotel.

  It was a traditional looking place, a hotel that must have been there for decades.

  “I’m the last thing on her mind,” Jake said. “Trust me.”

  “She’s going to hate me,” Ariel said.

  “She can’t hate you if she never finds out,” he said as they reached the checkin counter.

  Jake put the room on his credit card and then pulled Ariel after him into the elevator. They were headed for the third floor. Once they were inside the elevator Ariel had a moment of clarity. She’d had a lot of wine, things had moved very quickly, and without thinking she’d allowed herself to get into this position with the husband of a friend. It was a recipe for disaster and she knew it. She also knew that she’d have to live with the guilt of this night for a very long time.

  Should she call it off?

  She looked at Gabe. He was leaning against the wall of the elevator looking at her as if he was about to jump her. Had he really been telling the truth? He’d showed her the video of Zola with another man but something about it didn’t seem to make sense. She knew Zola. At least she thought she did. It didn’t seem like her style. How old was that video? That could have happened years ago. As she looked at Jake leaning against the wall, measuring her up like a piece of dessert he’d just ordered, she suddenly felt like she’d fallen into a terrible trap. He’d lied to her. He was the cheater. It wasn’t Zola. She knew that. She’d believed what she wanted to believe and now she was about to sleep with her friend’s husband.