Afterward, Alice fell asleep, and Dave went out to get food, bringing dinner back to the room. She sat up in bed with her nightshirt on, eating Greek salad and pizza and drinking Coke like a teenager. It brought back memories of her and Doug lying to their parents about spending the night at friends’ houses, and then getting a motel room and staying together, having sex into the night, and then Doug running out to get McDonald’s. She remembered that a Big Mac never tasted so good.
He spooned her all night, putting a sweatshirt on because he said he was cold, and leaving his jeans on. In the morning, he got up early and showered and had breakfast ready for her when she woke up. He was kind and solicitous, and she took advantage of her new position in the couple; she was Queen.
~ ~ ~
Faye was furious with Alice. After she got her children settled for the evening—with the oldest, Bill Jr., ensconced in the family office filling out forms for college in September and the youngest, Mario, just eight, in bed with a movie—she went into her kitchen to brood. Bill was gone to a client’s house to get a contract signed, and his father was in his wing of the house. She was no mood for Vinnie tonight, either. She was trying to figure out how to extricate herself from this relationship she’d started with her father-in-law. He was becoming more demanding, irrational almost, not caring if Bill found out his own father was fucking his wife. She felt sick when she thought of it and was trying to placate him and avoid any more encounters by having the kids around at all times. It was easy now that school was out, but what would happen in the fall? She was considering getting pregnant again (by husband, Bill) just to put an end to it. She wished Bill would come home, that he would act like he cared about her. She was so lonely now, and frightened, too.
“We should tell Bill,” Vinnie said one night.
They were in the pool together while Bill was out signing contracts. The kids were busy; Faye begged Mario to swim with them, but he was playing computer games with his friends online. As would often happen, Vinnie would get her into the pool and one thing would lead to another, and before she knew it, they’d be locked together in passion.
Now he wanted to tell Bill that he was in love with Faye. The stress was killing her. With her mother having run off with a Hell’s Angel and the pressure Vinnie was putting on her, she didn’t know if she would survive. It was in this frame of mind, in the dimly lit kitchen, with the sound of the television on somewhere in the vast house, that Faye had the idea that she would poison Vinnie. It would be so easy. They had a ready supply of rat poisoning in Bill’s construction building; she knew that just a small amount was often used by teenagers as an aphrodisiac. She thought she’d suggest it to Vinnie. They’d take it together. But her plan was to give him a little more than the standard dosage. She couldn’t think of any way out of the mess except to kill him. She looked around at her spotless kitchen. The whole house looked like this, shiny and new with everything in its place, the top of the line and pristine. It was the antithesis of her life.
She’d welcomed Vinnie’s advances. It was an old joke among Bill and his brothers and their wives. “Look at Dad when he’s around Faye,” brother Peter said. “He’s lost ten years.” Or worse, her own husband, Bill, comparing his father to a “cock.”
“You’re so good for my dad! He’s a like a new cock around the henhouse.”
She’d been flattered by his attention, feeling a little low because Bill had just confessed that he was attracted to a woman he’d worked for. A buddy told him to tell Faye; once it was out in the open, he wouldn’t act on his impulse. He was right. But once Faye knew that Bill had a wandering eye, she was so pissed off at him she could barely stand to be in the same room with him. The woman was a toad, too. Faye was gorgeous; everyone always told her. She was tall, she had the wild red hair of her family, and she was smart. But her weakness was that she needed lots of attention, and Bill wasn’t giving it. She almost wished he’d succumbed to his desire for the other woman; at least when it was a possibility, he’d had some pizazz, started taking better care of himself, dressing nicely, working out. With the threat gone, she wondered if he even bathed regularly. That left Vinnie, and Vinnie had always been wild about Faye.
Back in the old days, they rented a big house down at the shore, and every summer all the brothers brought their girlfriends around. Vinnie was a pest, flirting with the girls as they sat around the pool in their bikinis. If his wife cared, she never said a word, taking pictures of her husband in the center of a bevy of young, almost naked flesh. When Bill brought Faye down the shore the first time, the others were jealous of the attention Vinnie gave her, fetching her drinks and fawning over her. It got worse later as he singled her out at their parties, asking for a dance, spending more money on her at Christmas than he did the other daughters-in-law.
At their wedding, Vinnie sobbed like a baby. “What the hell is wrong with Dad?” the brothers asked. Their mother, a plump little Italian lady they called Noni, shook her head and laughed and patted her husband’s hand.
“Dream on, Vinnie,” she said, wiser to his affections than she let on.
Vinnie’s admiration for Faye became a family joke, but not everyone appreciated it. “Faye’s a looker,” he’d announce at family functions, pointing her out to his cronies and the older men in the family, and they in turn looked at her yearningly. Wearing capris and high heels with a baby always riding on her hip and every hair in place, Faye worked around the kitchen, putting on lavish spreads each holiday whether she was pregnant or not. Not a favorite of her sisters-in-law, now that Vinnie was living with her, his continuous commentary about her beauty and what a great cook she was and how well-behaved her five children were grated on their nerves.
Their affair developed innocently enough after Noni died. It was why Vinnie came to live with them in the first place. He’d broken his hip and didn’t want to go to rehab afterward, but his big old house in Riverton had too many steps for him to go home to alone. He thought of Faye right away.
“Hey, buddy, how about lettin’ yer old man come live with you temporarily.”
They both knew it would end up being permanent.
“Can my dad come here to recover?” Bill asked her.
“Sure!” she said, thinking of the extra money they’d have if Vinnie was there, and the built-in babysitter.
He needed a little assistance when he first arrived, and they hired a nurse’s aid to come in and help with his bath and dressing. But Vinnie didn’t like strangers. When he was rude to the aide and she quit, Faye took over.
“Where’s your nurse’s uniform?” Vinnie teased.
She waited by the bathroom door, and he’d call her when it was time to dry his feet or get his socks on. All tasks any loving daughter-in-law would do. But he got sick, spiking a temperature, and she sat by his bedside during the night. Bill came in to make sure they were okay, and would take over when Faye needed to get supplies from the kitchen, but she stayed and made sure he was safe. In the morning, his fever broke. Bill and Faye stood looking down at him as she fought tears, both from relief and exhaustion.
“Wow, you really frightened me!” she said. “I thought we might have to call for an ambulance.” And when Bill left for work later, she elaborated. “I realized how lonely I’d be without you.”
Vinnie pulled her down, and what she thought was going to be a friendly, grateful hug turned into a passionate kiss. Their affair began shortly afterward. Now, she could only think of one thing, and that was ending it before Bill found out and her life was ruined. And the only way she could imagine that task being accomplished was by killing her father-in-law.
Chapter 10
Bill Vasiglio got up before the rest of the family as he did every morning. He liked being awake just as the sun was rising. He opened the kitchen windows and breathed in the mossy smell of the air. They lived in a new house surrounded by the rich farmland of south Jersey. The smell of tilled earth nearby dominated the breeze. All the things that defined the land
around his house–the creek and bay, the scrub pine, and the fields—were represented in the smells. He loved it.
Vinnie started the business Bill now ran back in the 1970s, when Burlington County was in its housing boom heyday. When Bill and Faye got married after college, she wanted to live close to her father’s family in farm country. The area was perfect for new development.
“Dad, I think we should open an office down south,” Bill said.
Vinnie agreed, and it was a smart move. They made a lot of money the first ten years and wisely tucked it away. When other contractors folded because of the economy, Bill kept his head above water doing small jobs and remodeling, and building a new house here and there. Things were finally picking up.
Bill poured water in the spotless coffee pot, measuring out the grounds exactly as his wife prescribed. Faye was a tricky one; she’d know just by the smell of the brewing coffee whether he used too much or too little. The grief wasn’t worth it. While he waited for it to finish, he looked around the kitchen at the gleaming appliances and perfectly placed artifacts. Faye was a perfectionist. She didn’t expect the rest of the family to follow suit, but she made it clear things should look a certain way. He often heard her cleaning, running the vacuum or pushing furniture around late into the night. She’d be up soon, scurrying around, getting after him if he left a mess behind. Bill had to admit he liked the house the way she kept it, and eventually found it was just easier to do it her way. The benefit was always being comfortable in a clean and organized space. His friends and family could drop in anytime and find the house in perfect order. He liked it.
The downside was Faye was always exhausted when she came to bed at night. Bill would try to stay awake, and then she’d turn him down flat. It was the irritant that made everything else in his life shine—the perfect, beautiful wife who was the perfect mother, housekeeper, cook, and daughter-in-law, who didn’t have one ounce of desire for her husband. He tried everything: working out, new hair cuts, cleaning house for her, taking her to dinner, romantic weekends away. Nothing worked. Finally, he succumbed to the attention of one of his customers.
Shelly Oaks wasn’t someone he would normally give a second glance to; she was short and chubby and didn’t wear makeup or take time with her appearance. But when she served him coffee one afternoon after he finished looking over a garage project for her, she asked him if he was having a good day, and it almost brought him to tears. No one had asked him how he was doing in such a long time, he had to stop and think for a moment.
“My day was so-so until a few minutes ago,” he said, flirting.
Shelly picked up on it right away, self-assured and confident. She laughed a throaty laugh as she put a plate of sweet rolls down in front of him. Faye would have a fit if she saw him take one, but Shelly didn’t hesitate, eating one as she pulled her chair out and then taking another for her plate. He felt rather like a snob, judging her, but discipline was ingrained because of his wife, and he wouldn’t eat anything sugary. That was why Faye looked like she did. Maybe if he exercised caution around Shelly, she’d follow suit.
“And why is that?” Shelly asked, smiling. “Why was your day just so-so? A handsome, successful guy like you should be having a great day, everyday.”
Bill laughed and sipped coffee so he didn’t have to answer right away. Why the hell did I say that stupid phrase? he thought, knowing he was playing with fire, allowing any woman to charge up his ego. So to try to cover his tracks, he just laughed out loud.
“Well, it’s not every day I get to relax like this, with an interesting lady, and have coffee. I’m usually too busy to stop.” It was a lie, but she didn’t seem to catch on.
“Wow, it’s great that in this economic climate you have so much work,” she said.
There was a lull in the conversation. He hoped she wasn’t disappointed, but he was suddenly so tired that he couldn’t make the effort for small talk.
“It is the hallmark of a successful man that even in the down times, you are busy.” She seemed so sincere, and before he knew it, he’d grabbed her hand and kissed it. Shocked, she pulled it back, but then realized it was just a gesture of gratitude. “Oh! God, I’m sorry! I haven’t had my hand kissed in such a long time; I didn’t know what you were doing!” She offered it to him again, and although he didn’t kiss it, he did give it a squeeze.
“It’s the Italian in me,” he said, smiling, embarrassed. He must be losing it. He stifled a yawn. “I guess I better get going.” He pushed his chair back. “Thanks for the coffee.”
She stood up, realizing if she was going to make a move, it better be now or she’d never have the chance again.
“Don’t go,” she said.
He looked up, surprised.
“Come and sit down in the living room; it’s cooler in there. It’ll revive you.” She put out her hand for him, and he took it, intrigued. He followed her, her scent lingering in the space she had just occupied, a warm combination of shampoo and oranges. It was heady and sexual, and he tried not to think of it, holding his breath. Her living room was a plain space, with no knick-knacks, wood floors, and solid, unadorned furniture.
“I like your decorating,” he said. “It’s not decorated.”
She laughed, leading him to the couch. “Exactly,” she replied. “Here, sit down.” She sat next to him, and they both put their heads back and closed their eyes. “I’m suddenly tired, too.”
With every intake of breath, he smelled her, and it was overpowering. He turned to her and grabbed her shoulder to kiss her. Her mouth tasted of coffee and chocolate. She placed her hand up to his neck, and he felt it there, at his hair line, cool and soft. She put both arms around him and pulled him on top of her as she lay back. They kissed in this position for a moment, and then her legs opened up, and he found he fit there pretty comfortably; he was hard and was pushing up against her through his jeans when common sense took over.
“What the hell am I doing?” he said out loud, pulling away and looking at her disappointed face. “I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve that.” He knew it was stupid that he was taking the blame for it, she’d initiated it, but he had more to lose than she did. He got off her, and when he was standing, he offered her his hand. “I guess I lost my head.”
She had the decency to look embarrassed; after all, she started it, and he was giving her a way out to save her pride. It took all the self-control she had not to burst out crying, but it was clear she was right on edge; her lips trembled and her face was flushed. He saw the red creeping up from her chest; with no make up, her emotions were truly written on her face.
Once she composed herself, she could speak. “You probably better leave,” she said.
He thought there was a hint of anger, but it could’ve stemmed from the effort it was taking her to stay calm. He wanted to ask if he still had the job; the contract was signed, but he was enough of a gentleman to not expect her to go through with it. Now wasn’t the time, though.
“Yes, I’ll leave now,” he said. But he put her arm around her shoulder; he’d go along with the notion that something almost took place that they both wanted. It was the wrong thing to do. She threw herself at him, with arms around his neck, and began to wail. He was tempted to take her arms down, but thought better of it, and patted her back, murmuring soothing sounds, trying to placate her. He wasn’t prepared for this kind of thing; he’d been with Faye most of his adult life, and she wasn’t a whiner; she didn’t have a dramatic bone in her body. He tried to lead the way to Shelly’s door so he could get the hell out of her house, and it was slow going. When they finally got there, he spoke softly to her, like she was an accident victim.
“I better let you get back to work,” he said, although what it was she did he wasn’t sure.
She looked up at him with her eyes closed, expecting a kiss. He didn’t want to piss her off when he was so close to escaping, so he bent down and kissed her on the lips, but kept it brief. She wasn’t going to let him make the first move to
separate, that old pride coming through, and she backed off first.
“Okay, well, I guess you’re right, I guess I better get back to work,” she said hesitatingly, and he jumped at it and got out of there, not looking back once, not even as he pulled his truck away. No job was worth it, he decided. The first thing he did when he got on the highway was call his best friend, Al.
“You’ll never guess what just happened to me,” he said, slightly out of breath.
“What? Come on, you putz! What’s going on?”
“Shelly Oaks came on to me. I almost fucked her on her couch.” And when the words were out of his mouth, Bill realized how close he’d come to really destroying his life. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m that needy that a lonely woman could bring me down!”
Al laughed. “Hey, buddy, it’s an age-old story. How’d you get out of it?”
“I just stopped. Like a bulb went off in my head. ‘Moron. What are you doing? Stop it!’ so I stopped,” Bill said, the ludicrousness so evident, he almost crashed his truck. Pulling over to the side of the road, he continued. “I don’t know if I won’t get sucked into it if I go back there.”
“Is she that good looking?” Alan asked, curious.
“No! That’s the strange thing. She’s sort of plain, crunchy granola,” Bill said. “But she is appealing. I don’t know; my dick liked her.”
They both laughed out loud.
“Go home right now, and tell Faye you were tempted. It’s the only way, a full confession before you do anything more. What could be worse? Telling her a client came on to you, or that you had an affair fucking another woman? No, if you’re smart, you’ll do what I say,” Al said, convinced that he was right.
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