I swung the door open to discover a deluxe room with two king sized beds, more floor to ceiling windows, and yet another Jacuzzi tub.
Good Lord how much had this room set Jim back? When we checked into the room, everyone offered to pay, but Jim had waved everyone off and handed the receptionist his gold card. The escort business must be in an upswing.
Nora dropped her suitcase and flopped face first in the middle of one of the beds. Lovely. She was already drooling on the clean comforter.
I ignored her as I retrieved my make-up case from my bag. I had no idea who packed my suitcase, but I suspected it was Austin when I realized I had nothing but granny panty underwear and sweatshirts. Ah, whatever. I didn’t need to change. My outfit was just fine. And besides, I was really hoping to be in bed by midnight at the latest. I gazed longingly at the fluffy comforter. I swear the bed was whispering my name.
As I applied my make-up, I glanced over at Nora, dozing away. As soon as she woke up, she would have a second wind and be looking for more martinis or rum and cokes or whatever she was going to kill brain cells with tonight. I sighed as I wished she would take it easy with the alcohol every now and again. With her mother’s history, she was headed down the path to AA meetings in the future. That is, if she didn’t want to end up zonked out in front of the TV every night with a bottle of Jack in her hand.
Nora hardly ever visited her mother because she absolutely despised the state of the house and even more importantly, the state of her mother. She told me last time she saw her mom, she was lying naked on the couch, crumpled beer bottles at her feet, with the cat licking her head.
I clicked on the huge TV that was mounted to the wall in order to pass the time while everyone else got ready. The sound was on a hundred, causing Nora to bolt from the bed.
“Wah, wah?” She spun around, hands clenched in fists, ready to knock someone out.
“It’s just the TV,” I assured her as I turned the volume down on the remote.
Looking relieved, Nora plopped back down on the bed, this time, face up. She stared at the ceiling for a moment and then turned to me, propping her disheveled head up with her hand. “Must be weird for you to be back here, huh?”
Playing dumb, I inspected my face in the mirror. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Nora struggled to her feet and staggered to the window. “Duh. Didn’t Simon propose to you right there?” She stabbed at the glass with her finger, clearly meaning the beach in front of the hotel.
“Um, maybe. I don’t remember,” I replied, groping blindly in my make-up bag for my blush.
“Well, I remember,” Nora replied. “I watched you guys.”
I spun around to look at her. “You were watching us? I thought you went back to the room.” Somehow, the beautiful memory seemed tarnished by the fact we had been observed.
Nora snorted. “Yup. You two looked so frigging happy.” Nora sounded irritated by this revelation.
“Well, we were at the time,” I reminded her. That was before the shit hit the fan. Before Simon broke my heart.
Nora wandered back toward her suitcase, clumsily tossing it on the bed, and unzipping the front pocket. She retrieved a full bottle of watermelon vodka, which she promptly opened and took a swig from. I cringed. I couldn’t even stand the stuff in a mixed drink, and she was chugging it like it was water. She offered me the bottle, but I refused. Shrugging, she downed another sip.
I was really starting to worry about my best friend. She appeared to be falling apart more and more each time I saw her. Which was not too often lately. Our Wednesday night dinners had fallen by the wayside ever since she exploded at the bridal gown shop. After her outburst at my shower, I avoided her as much as possible, dodging her calls and “forgetting” to tell her about appointments for wedding business. The last thing I needed was her showing up to the florist or bakery with a bottle of rum on board.
Drawing the bottle away from her mouth, Nora stared me in the eyes. “Well, all good things must come to an end, right?”
Confused, I asked, “What are you talking about?”
Swinging the bottle in her hand, Nora replied, “You and Simon. It had to end, right?”
Shrugging, I turned back toward the mirror. I really didn’t feel like continuing this conversation right now. Nora continued it for me.
“He did something wrong and you had to punish him.”
“Uh, yeah, I guess,” I half-heartedly agreed.
God, why didn’t she just shut the hell up? I was trying my hardest to kick thoughts of Simon out of my brain, and between Jim and Nora, they were making it downright impossible.
“Ha!” Nora hiccupped and then burst into a high pitched cackle. She leaned toward me as if she were sharing a secret. “What if he really didn’t do anything wrong?”
I swear my heart stopped beating in my chest just then. I turned to Nora, pointing at her with my eyeliner. “Of course he did something wrong, Nora. You caught him doing it, remember?” I formed my words slowly and deliberately.
Nora smirked. “What if he didn’t want to do something wrong? What if he was seduced?”
My heart definitely started beating again, this time at an explosive rate.
What is she saying? What is she telling me? I clutched my chest and fell into the armchair near the mirror. “What do you mean?” I asked cautiously.
A cruel smile formed on Nora’s lips. I’ve seen that smile before. It usually appears when someone has crossed my dear friend and she’s out for revenge.
“I’m just saying, what if someone drugged him and took advantage of him? He wouldn’t have been wrong then, would he? And then you would have punished him for no reason.” Nora’s smile turned into a sneer.
“How, how, how would you know if that was the case, Nora? You said the girl ran out when you walked in on them?” I stammered. “You didn’t tell me you talked to her.”
Nora smacked the bed with her open palm. “My God, after all these years it always amazes me how clueless you can be.” She laughed and then took another sip from the bottle. It was now half empty. And yes, with the way this conversation was going, I was definitely being a pessimist.
“Clueless?” My eyes hardened on her.
I must control my temper. She’s just toying with me, inventing this ridiculous scenario to make me believe I made the wrong decision.
“How could I be clueless? I wasn’t even there.”
“But I was,” Nora replied with a wink. “And so was Simon.” She rose to her feet and strode over to the sink to retrieve a glass. She poured herself a glass from the bottle, for what reason I couldn’t begin to imagine. At this point, just finish it from the damn bottle.
Nora turned to me and I saw a vicious look on her face, spilling over with venom and hatred. “And now that I recall, there was no other girl there. Just me and Simon.”
My heart—which was playing ping pong in my chest—nearly stopped again. My lungs felt heavy and my head felt airy, like a helium balloon that’s lost its string.
I began to offer up a silent prayer to God. Oh dear Lord in heaven. She could not be saying what I think she’s saying. Can she? My rational inner voice took over. She’s just messing with your mind, Elizabeth. She’s in no way implying that she drugged and took advantage of your ex-husband. Nora’s your best friend. She would never do something like that. Ask her. She’ll tell you that she’s joking.
Gripping the arms of the chair so tightly my knuckles turned white, I coolly asked, “Are you saying that you were the one who slept with Simon? That there was no blonde bimbo?”
Nora nodded evenly. She took another sip, finishing the glass of alcohol. “Yup. No other woman. Just me and Simon.” She gave me an icy stare. “Fucking. On your bed.” She licked the rid and raised her eyebrows tauntingly at me.
I gripped the chair arms even tighter, hearing my knuckles crack in the process. “You bitch,” I growled. “You bitch.”
Smugly, Nora added, “He moaned my name so loud
ly I’m surprised your neighbors didn’t hear.”
That was it. I leapt to my feet and lunged at her, my fist knocking her in the side of the head. Her glass flew across the room, shattering against the nightstand.
“How could you?” I roared as I pinned her hands to the bed. “I left him because of that! It ruined my marriage!” I lifted my hand to punch her, but she pushed her feet into my abdomen and flung me into the air. I crashed into the dresser, causing a lavish flower filled vase to come crashing to the ground.
Pain gripped my midsection. The baby! I gasped for breath and clutched my belly. Nora hovered over me.
“I was tired of you having everything. Your perfect parents who adored you, your brothers who doted on you, perfect grades, a great job right out of college. And then you get Simon? How is that fair? You didn’t deserve Simon. We would have been perfect together, but no. That moron refused to acknowledge the chemistry we had and insisted that he loved you. He was dedicated to you. It made me sick.” She made a gagging noise. “Well fuck that. Neither of you even knew what hit you. If you two were so perfect together, you would have figured out when you were being played.”
Still gasping, I had to ask, “So you tricked him into sleeping with you? That’s what you’re telling me?”
Nora tossed her silky hair over her shoulder. “He didn’t need much persuasion, Elizabeth. Just a little something in his drink. Hell, if he was so into you, why would he be alone with me in your apartment having drinks to begin with? After you had a miscarriage?”
Nora paced back and forth, like a caged animal in heat as she continued to drink straight from the bottle. “He wanted me. I knew he wanted me. He just needed a little push. But then the stupid son of a bitch realized what happened and begged me not to tell you.” She snorted, causing her drink to shoot out of her nose. She didn’t even seem to notice as the liquid rolled down her face.
“Of course I was going to tell you. Duh. How did he think I was going to get him to leave you? You would be furious and scream and yell and he would realize how much better off he was with me. I figured I could throw a fake bimbo in there; make it less painful for you.”
Placing my hand on the dresser, I pulled myself into a standing position with my wobbly legs. Bracing myself on the furniture, I stammered, “You thought he would marry you after we were divorced? You thought that was what was going to happen?” Nora was usually a mean drunk, but I never saw her quite this malicious. I still couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. If this was true, she had not only played me, I was the most naïve idiot on the face of the Earth. And Nora was the most cruel and calculating best friend I could ever have imagined.
Nora smirked. “That was the plan. And it would have worked. Until Simon claimed he didn’t love me and he only wanted you. He wouldn’t even take my calls after your divorce.”
I placed my hand over my heart, trying to calm it. Damn, this chest pain was getting intense.
I pointed my finger at Nora. “Let me get this straight. You were in love with my husband. You thought he needed a little push to fall in love with you, so you drugged him when I was in the hospital after having a miscarriage…” I spit out the word. “You had sex with him, and then lied to me, saying you caught him with another woman, in hopes I would leave him and you could have him?”
Even as I spoke, the words sounded ridiculous to my ears, more like the plot of some bizarre soap opera rather than the deliberate actions of my so-called best friend. My head was feeling hazy, like on a hot summer day and I felt moisture between my thighs. Looking down, I saw blood dripping onto the beige carpet.
Oh no. Not again! Please God, I’ll never ask for another thing. I swear. Don’t let me lose this baby!
“That about sums it up, I guess.” Nora put the bottle to her lips, but then thought better of it. “Although when I hear you say it, it doesn’t sound the way I thought it did in my head. You know…” She leaned forward, slurring her speech. “Most of the stuff I hear in my head doesn’t sound right when I say it out loud. Maybe…” she laughed and hiccupped at the same time. She was swaying, making me even dizzier than I was to begin with. “Maybe, I need my own therapist.”
With that, she dropped the bottle and fell face forward into the dresser, knocking me to the ground in the process. The bottle shattered as it hit the side of the dresser and the room went dark.
Twenty
“Hey, sleepyhead,” my mother murmured, brushing my hair from my face. “How’s your head?”
Blinking, I stared at my mother, whose head was surrounded by a halo of bright light.
Holy crap, am I dead? I winced as I felt the intense pain radiating from my skull. “Mom? Are you dead, too?”
Laughing my mother stood up. “No, silly. We’re at the hospital. You passed out and bumped your head. Everything is fine.” She paused and bit her lip. “Nora is still unconscious though.”
At the mention of Nora’s name, the evening’s details came racing back. Nora drunk in the hotel, Nora sleeping with Simon, Nora confessing that she purposely sabotaged my marriage, Simon not being the bad guy…
I sat up sharply, causing the stabbing pain in my head to intensify. “Simon! Where’s Simon?” I asked.
My mother grimaced. “Um, you mean Austin, Elizabeth? Austin will be here really soon. He was at his bachelor party. We called him as soon as we got to the hospital.” I could see Melinda hovering at the edge of the curtain, irate at the mention of my ex-husband’s name.
I didn’t care. “No, I mean Simon. Somebody get me Simon!” I was practically screaming, despite the feeling that my head was in a pressure cooker.
My mother clicked her tongue as she continued to stroke my hair. “Simon is…well, he passed on, sweetie…”
I shook my very heavy and painful head at her. “No, no he didn’t!”
With a sympathetic smile my mother reminded me, “Yes, he did Elizabeth. Remember you told me he got hit by a bus?” she turned to Melinda and whispered loudly, “She must have really hit her head hard.”
Oh crap. That’s right, I did. Oh, what the hell did it matter now?
Shaking my head, I explained, “No, he didn’t, Mom. I lied to you.”
Shocked by this revelation, Mom stepped backwards, nearly toppling over Melinda. “What?” She clutched her chest as if I had stabbed her through the heart. “You lied about someone being dead?”
Yup. If I added up all the things I lied about, omitted, or misrepresented in the last six months, Mom, you would die of shock.
With as much humility as I could muster, I mumbled. “It’s complicated, Mom. I’ll explain at a later time. But right now need to see Simon.”
My mother shook her head in disbelief as she replied crossly, “Well, I can’t make that happen, Elizabeth.”
Jim stepped into view from the other side of the curtain. “Jim!” I was grateful to see someone who understood my dilemma. “I need to see Simon right away!”
Jim patted my hand. “I think you might have hit your head harder than they thought.”
I shook my head adamantly, nearly seeing stars in the process. “Will everyone stop saying that? Nora told me that Simon didn’t cheat on me. Well, he did but it wasn’t his fault. She lied to me and I got mad and she kicked me in the stomach…” My hand flew to my mouth as I gasped. “Oh, no. The baby!”
The mothers both gasped, startled by my sudden disclosure. “What baby?” my mother stammered.
Jim smiled. “It’s going to be okay. They did an ultrasound when you got here. I told the doctor about your condition. They said the baby is fine.”
“What baby?” my mother continued to question in a high pitched voice.
“Thank God,” I sighed. “I really thought I was losing the baby. There was blood and—”
“The blood was from the back of your head. You hit the edge of the dresser,” Jim explained. “They stitched you up already.”
“Can somebody tell me what baby?” my mother was pra
ctically screeching at this point.
Ignoring her, I asked Jim, “How long was I unconscious for?”
“Almost three hours. Well, you were in and out of consciousness. Nora hit her head, too. She’s been out for the count this whole time.”
My face grew stony. “I don’t care about Nora. I need to see Simon. Jim, can you find Simon for me?”
Jim nodded obediently and disappeared behind the flimsy curtain.
My mother raced to my side again and gripped my hand tightly, making my fingers numb in the process. “Please tell me, are you having a baby?” Her eyes pleaded with me to answer her.
Nodding slowly, I answered, “I think so. If everything is okay.”
Melinda joined my mother at my bedside.
“Austin’s baby?” she asked. Her eyes held a slight look of contempt.
“Yes, Austin’s baby,” I responded, leaning on the gurney. My head was pounding. I wanted the interrogation to stop. And I needed to see Simon.
As if a fairy waved her magic wand, Jim returned, Simon trailing behind him. I bolted upright, ignoring the searing pain in my head.
“How did you…” I trailed off as I stared at Jim.
“I heard the fight between you and Nora,” Jim told me sheepishly. “I figured you would want to talk to Simon when you woke up. So, I hope you don’t mind, I took the liberty of calling him.”
“Now, wait just a minute!” Melinda stepped in front of Jim. “What do you think you’re doing here? Why would you think she needs to see her ex-husband? She needs her fiancé!” I could see she was having a challenging time controlling her emotions.
Jim shot a dazzling smile toward Melinda and draped his arms around both her and my mother. “Come on ladies. These two kids have a lot to talk about. Let’s go to the snack bar. My treat.” He led them through the curtain, both protesting vehemently.
Simon shuffled his feet nervously, like a wallflower at a high school dance. It had been nearly two months since I saw him last. He had lost weight; his face appeared gaunt and his eyes slightly sunken in. Yet, the sight of him still gave me butterflies.
[2013] Note to Self- Change the Locks Page 26