Sex Happens

by Carol Soloway

  “Gabe paid me to date you.”

  “He would never do that,” she said, horrified.

  “I’m here telling you the truth about what Gabe wanted me to do, and you defend him.”

  She didn’t believe Gabe would have stooped to that. Sure, he’d left her and was fighting—an ugly, dirty fight—for the children, but she had to believe he’d loved her at one time and wouldn’t do something like that.“I don’t get it,” she said. “Why?”

  “Alex, I’m so sorry, but I needed money for my daughter’s funeral. I was so broke after paying for her surgery and caregivers, and I was going to lose my house. Just at the exact time I was stressing, Gabe offered me more money than you can imagine.”

  “No, that can’t be the truth.” Her stomach tightened. “Why are you tormenting me? You’ve done enough. Gabe started to destroy me, and now you’re trying to finish.”

  “Alex, please listen.”

  “Why would Gabe have thought I’d go out with you?” she asked. Head throbbing, she recalled the car ride home from Las Vegas. After Gabe had told her he was leaving her, she’d asked him whether sex was that different with someone else, and he’d told her to find out for herself. She wondered whether he’d thought she’d fall for the first guy who asked her out.

  Then she also recalled that there was a time when she and Gabe were at a party, and there was a heated discussion about interracial dating. When they left the party, Gabe had asked her whether she’d ever date a black man. She’d told him it would never happen because she was in love with him. But she did tell him that race would never be a factor, and she’d definitely date a black man. Gabe had said he would never consider dating a black woman because people think less of you when you date like that. At that time, she was so in love with Gabe that she overlooked everything negative, even his prejudicial statements.

  “Gabe wouldn’t have paid you to date me,” she repeated, but, in her heart, she knew it was possible. Gabriel Rose was capable of more, much more, than she’d ever imagined. There was also the possibility that Gabe wanted to keep her away from a man who might engage the kids and, in his opinion, Luke was so inappropriate that the boys would be alienated.

  No. She couldn’t believe Gabe had had to continue to control her even after leaving. Refusing to believe the truth, even when it was before her, was the way she’d survived her childhood. It was the only way to explain how her mother would torment her and how her father would believe her mother.

  “I’m so sorry, but I needed to pay for burying my daughter.”

  “You said that already.” She looked at him. The death of a child was an unfathomable horror, and she couldn’t even imagine how painful that had to have been. But she couldn’t trust him. He had to be lying. “What about the tennis club? Huh? How can you have afforded the dues if you have no money?”

  “Gabe offered to pay for my membership to your tennis club. He wanted me to meet you. Then you were just a stranger—a means to pay back my debts.”

  “You used me.” She started to cry.

  He looked at her and lowered his head. “Have you ever wanted something so much that you could taste it?”

  “Wanting doesn’t give you the right to abuse people like you abused me.” She knew about want—wanting to be loved so badly that she had believed her mother when she’d say she was sorry for burning her. Yes, she knew about want—wanting to be loved so badly that she hadn’t seen Gabriel wasn’t hers until it was too late. Want!

  “I worked two jobs my entire adult life, barely making it each month, and then this guy offers me more money than I’ve ever seen just to play tennis with a certain lady and take her out for a few drinks—that is until he demanded I do more.”

  “I don’t believe you needed the money.” She rubbed her wrist. “You have a house, a boat.”

  “True, I bought the boat after Gabe gave me enough for the down payment, but it was only because I thought I’d get my grandson into it. He was so distraught after my daughter—his mother—died, he had no interest in anything.”

  “You could have sold the boat and stopped taking money from Gabe, and you could have just left me alone.”

  “I told Gabe I didn’t want to do it anymore ’cause my wife and I—”

  “Wife?” she yelled, shocked he’d just admitted what he’d been denying since they’d met. “What did your wife say about you taking me out?” she asked sarcastically, trying to stay calm enough to unscramble the truth from all the lies.

  “With all our expenses, my wife was sure we’d lose our house. We’d never owed anything to anyone before. My wife knew about Gabe’s deal, but she didn’t know about the sex. There wasn’t supposed to be any.”

  “So you had sex with me for free, and Gabe didn’t have to pay for it?” she asked, too angry to think clearly. Who was to blame for this—Gabe, Luke, herself? True, Gabe devised a plan, Luke executed it, but she fell for it.

  “Sounds ridiculous to someone who could afford a club, but to me, being able to play tennis at a club was the epitome. I never did anything for myself. I’ve been putting my two younger daughters through college. My oldest daughter got pregnant in high school, so she never had a chance, and then she …”

  “With all your lies, I don’t know if I even believe your story about your daughter dying.” But she looked at him and knew she was wrong. The sadness in his eyes confirmed the depth of his loss.

  “My daughter died a long, horrible death. Now, we have her son—my grandson—to put through school.”

  “What about your daughter, the one who couldn’t handle it if you were with another woman, which I understand with you being married?”

  “That daughter’s been difficult. We’ve sent her to cosmetology school, then secretarial school, but she can’t hold a job. But this isn’t about my children, my family; it’s about how I fell in love with you. For the first time in thirty years, I betrayed my wife.”

  “You lied from the first date, when you told me you got a divorce because you fell in love with another woman.”

  “It was an innocent fib then, but—”

  “Innocent,” she repeated. “Nothing about what happened was innocent.” Amazing how we really think there’s such a thing as innocence. Everything we do has a domino effect—one person can hurt so many, maybe not intentionally, but we damage each other.

  “Alex, I did fall in love with you.”

  “Don’t tell me that you love me. You don’t treat people you love the way you treated me.” His debasement was beyond anything she could forgive. “Love doesn’t act like that.”

  “No, but anger and alcohol do. Something happened to me after Vietnam. Whenever I have too much to drink, I get—”

  “Are you drunk now too?” Alex asked.

  “I’m stone sober and ashamed of myself. I guess I let myself fall for easy money, first because I needed it and then because I just wanted it. I was so disgusted with myself that I drank more and more. After Vietnam, I—”

  “Alcohol isn’t an excuse for the things you did to me.”

  “No, but it does get you to where you can’t think straight. I thought maybe my daughter’s death was some punishment for things that happened in ’Nam and for surviving. I know I hurt you, and you never deserved it. And when you wanted to end the relationship, Gabe wouldn’t let me. I had to continue seeing you because I was afraid.”

  “Or because you liked the money,” she said.

  “Please let me finish. Gabe—rather, his wife, or whatever she is—told me they owned me, and I had to do whatever they said. His wife threatened to have me arrested if I didn’t do what she said. She said she was going to go to the police and tell them I stole her diamond ring.”

  “Did you?” she asked, her chest tightening and almost too weak to take a breath.

  “Alex, of course not. I never stole a thing.”

&nb
sp; “So why would you be afraid?”

  “You really don’t get racism. I’m black.”

  “I know you’re black, or bi-racial, whatever, but what does racism have to do with this?” she asked. His whining about bigotry wasn’t going to convince her to forgive him.

  “I couldn’t defend myself against a rich doctor and his wife. Their word or mine—which do you think the police would believe?”

  “You told me the police were like the Marines, and your nephew is a police officer who would make sure the police would believe you, not me.”

  “He did call in some markers at Brea, but he also told me I wouldn’t stand a chance against a man like Gabe.”

  She knew what money and power could do. She’d seen it firsthand in her own case. “So you kept dating me due to fear?”

  “Yes.” He looked down at his hands, palms up, imploring her. “I told you the deal was a few drinks for funeral money and tennis club membership for a year. Then Gabe escalated. Tonight, I was supposed to—”

  “What?” she demanded.

  “Gabe and his wife asked how many guns I had. I was supposed to beat you badly with a gun or do whatever I wanted to you, but they said I had to use a gun. Then I was supposed to leave you as far away as possible.” Luke started to cry.

  “I don’t believe that,” she said, vacillating between anger and shock. There wasn’t enough air in the car. She opened the window and tried to breathe.

  “Last night, I called to tell Gabe I couldn’t hurt you. He said he understood, but then I heard his wife in the background. She asked him what he was talking about. He covered the phone and talked to her. I couldn’t hear, but when he came back to the phone, he was like a new man. He demanded I come to his house right away.”

  “Did you go?” she asked, afraid to hear the answer—certain that in the telling she’d learn Gabe was a man who was not only capable of destroying her emotionally, but also of hiring someone to inflict great harm.

  “I had to go. Gabe told me if I didn’t come to his house to discuss things, he’d have me put away for the rest of my life.”

  “He could never do that,” she said.

  “Alex, he could. He said his wife would claim I not only stole her diamond but that I also raped her when I was alone in the house with her.”

  She couldn’t believe Gabe could be that malevolent. She turned to Luke. “You’ve got to be lying. Get out of my car.”

  “Alex, I need to help you,” he pleaded. “Listen to me.”

  “I can’t,” she cried out. “You’re telling me Gabe, my children’s father, wanted you to kill or physically harm me?” She gasped. Drugs—that was the only explanation. Gabe had to be on drugs like Terrie said months ago. She knew how crazed drugs could make a person. It could have made Gabe feel omnipotent, as though he could get away with anything.

  “When I went to their house, I set up my cell phone to record so I’d have proof. Here. Listen.” He pressed the play button:

  First she heard Linda tell Luke she was going to report him for stealing her ring and raping her. Then she heard Gabe’s voice: “You’ve been dating and stalking Alex for months now, and nothing has come of it. This has to end. I want this over. I want it done.”

  Reflexively, Alex grabbed her throat. Unable to believe Gabe would harm her—even when there could be no doubt—she hesitated. “It’s Gabe’s voice, but—”

  “Here, take it to court,’ Luke said.

  “Let me hear it again,” she demanded.

  He played it again.

  Alex listened. “The part with Linda—she didn’t say she was threatening you. She said she was going to report you to the police for rape. That sort of sounded like it happened. They could use it against you because you didn’t deny any of it.”

  “I couldn’t answer her back. She’d call the police right on the spot if I started to argue with her.”

  “Why would they do it?”

  “Rich people don’t have to worry. They know they can get away with things.”

  Then she realized the brilliance of Gabe’s plan: He hired Luke to do the dirty work, date her and make her look distracted, irresponsible, even miss important meetings. But when she continued to try to regain custody, Gabe had come up with another plan to harm her. And with his plan, the blame would fall on Luke. Gabe would be extricated.

  “Luke, I think he was going to pin the whole thing on you and walk away. There would be no connection between him and you. They set you up.”

  “Alex, I’m so ashamed of the way I treated you. I should never have laid a finger on you when you refused me. I don’t know what came over me.”

  Tears filling her eyes, she looked at him. “You did a horrible thing to me, but Gabe trying to have me killed, that’s …”

  “Take it to court tomorrow.” He handed her the phone.

  “No,” she said. “I doubt it will help.” Confused, distraught, she wept. She knew the taped conversation could easily be manipulated by the right attorney. “Gabe and his attorney took the time I accidentally burned Jon and twisted it to show I was irresponsible. This could be turned into another example of my craziness for dating you. It might discredit me even more.”

  “I couldn’t live with myself if you lost the kids because of me,” he said.

  She handed the phone back to him. “It’s too dangerous for you. In addition to the accusation that you stole jewelry and raped Linda, it also sounded like you were stalking me, and Gabe wanted you to stop. I heard Gabe say, ‘Luke, make it end.’ That could be misinterpreted. I know firsthand just what Gabe and his attorney are capable of. The truth doesn’t matter.”

  “I’m going to help you.” He took the phone. “Please take me back to the psychiatrist’s office so I can get my truck.”

  While she drove him back, she tried to convince him of the futility for her and danger for him of playing the recording. He told her he’d think about it and got out of the car.

  Depleted, she sat in the car and cried.

  CHAPTER 47

  Alex kept driving until she reached the beach. She stopped and parked her car. The winter sun was setting, and the waves were grey, angry. It was cold. Even though she hadn’t brought a jacket, she had to get out of her car and walk.

  She had to clear her mind, try to comprehend Luke’s horrific confession, and grasp onto the truth—if there was any. She’d listened to Luke’s taped conversation and heard Linda threaten him. She’d also heard Gabe and knew it could all be misconstrued in the capable hands of the right attorney.

  Luke hadn’t been truthful from the moment they met at the tennis club. Their whole relationship—if she could call it that—had been based upon deception. But then again, the taped conversation was real, surreal actually.

  Alex kept walking. She had to reconstruct each and every detail. Then, and only then, could she be convinced of the truth. Maybe she’d find inconsistencies, holes, and contradictions in Luke’s story.

  If she believed Luke, then Gabe was even more malevolent than her heart would allow, and that negated twenty-five years of trusting and loving a man who was capable of inflicting—or paying someone else to harm her. She didn’t know whose truth to believe.

  Then she thought about the car ride from Las Vegas when Gabe said he had to tell her the truth. When he’d told her his truth, confessed his love for Linda, Alex was devastated. But then she had no idea how dangerous the truth could be.

  And exactly two months after Gabe had left, Luke had joined the tennis club, right after the August member-guest tournament. Then a month later, that was when it happened: That was when she accidentally burned Jon. Yes, it was accidental—that was important to keep reminding herself. She wondered whether that was the reason Gabe had decided he had to gain custody of the children. Could he really have believed she was unstable? Could that have been why Gabe hired Luke to ma
ke her look irresponsible? Could that have been why Gabe insisted Luke make sure she wasn’t at the final court date? The timing was right.

  Then Alex thought about her first date with Luke, exactly a month after he’d joined the tennis club. She recalled when Luke had called her, Gabe was at the house picking up the boys and trying to get her to sign the divorce agreement. After she got off of the telephone with Luke, Gabe asked if she’d met a man at the tennis club. She’d been so preoccupied with the divorce agreement that his apparent knowledge about where she met Luke hadn’t registered.

  Gabe also had asked her what the guy on the telephone did for a living, and when she’d told him Luke worked in hydraulics, he laughed. But she’d just thought Gabe was exhibiting his disdain for any profession which he’d thought was beneath him—and there were many. She hadn’t thought anything about his interest in the man who’d telephoned her, the man he’d hired to carry out his plan.

  She tried to recall all of the details of the night she signed the divorce agreement, which was also the night of her first date with Luke. And, she had sex with Luke on that very night. How stupid! It was a setup, and she fell for it—a diversion delivered by Gabe.

  She also wondered whether there was any truth to Luke’s confession about it being the first time he cheated on his wife. Did it matter? It wasn’t about her having sex with Luke or him betraying his wife; she had to decide whether or not to believe his story.

  Forcing herself to think as clearly as possible, she kept walking briskly. It was getting dark, but she couldn’t stop walking. She looked up and saw boats coming into shore. Thinking about Luke’s boat and how he’d told her he’d bought it with the money from Gabe, she had to admit there could be validity to that. Without Gabe’s help, it was improbable Luke could’ve afforded such a luxury.

  Then there was the wedding, Judi’s daughter’s wedding. She remembered the way Luke and Gabe looked at each other, almost as if they knew each other. She’d thought she was imagining it just because she’d had sex with both of them. She never fathomed their sinister plot had already taken wings.