The Last To Know - What I did while we were Engaged

by Bridy McAvoy

  “I said I’ll be back.”

  I don’t know what she thought I was going to do. But I could see from her face she was worried I wouldn’t return. I’d left my wallet, my car keys, even the house key behind. Where was I going? I guess it was a good idea of her to give me my phone—if I exceeded her mental time limit, she could call me. The watch was a very clever touch. The weight on my wrist reminded me of my connection to her with every step I took.

  Deviously clever, my wife, and very quick witted about it.

  In fact, I’d been truthful with her. I just wanted a little bit of space, some fresh air to clear my head, to allow me to process what I’d heard. I had to admit, it had been very courageous of her to tell me that, and in such excruciating detail. That had been hard for her.

  Crossing the carpark, I thought about turning left, then remembered that direction would take me past the boatyard. Given the mood I was in, I didn’t want to meet Max or either of his sons. I turned right instead, walking parallel to the lake past blocks of development. It was amazing how few were occupied at this time of year. Given the premium commanded by waterfront property anywhere in the country, it was doubly so.

  After I’d walked about half a mile my phone beeped with a text message. Fishing it out of my pocket, I found there were three messages, not just one. Predictably, two were from Sam.

  I love you, Si, you are my world. Come back to me.

  I will do anything to make it all right with you again. Anything, just name it. Your ever-loving Sam

  I allowed myself a tight smile. I knew she meant every word, every syllable.

  Despite being five years younger than me, she was still unable to use text-speak. She always typed everything out longhand.

  The third text was of more immediate interest.

  Results on laptop. Call me.

  Pushing my own more immediate concerns to the back of my mind, I sat down on a bench in a gap between two blocks of condos and dialed Mark’s number.

  “Mark. Hi, it’s Simon.”

  “Si mate, how are you doing?”

  “I’m good, kind of. Hopefully better once you’ve updated me on your progress.”

  He chuckled. “Wait one. I’ll call you back from my cell.”

  I hung up and held the phone in my hand. A couple of minutes later it buzzed.

  “Si, sorry about that. I wanted to walk outside to talk to you.”

  “No problem.”

  “How are things with you and your little lady?”

  “We’re okay. A bit of shaky ground at the minute.”

  “I’m not surprised. Sorry, Si, I’ve had to read some of his diary entries.”

  “Smoking gun?”

  “Smoking fucking hot, especially the early stuff.”

  “Ah.”

  “Don’t worry. I played with the file-dating algorithms, and changed all the file dates until after his death, at least on every one that mentions Sam and what they got up to. I also buried a few deleted versions of the file in the partitions—subtly altered. All also dated such.”

  “Thanks, Mark.”

  “The whole thing is totally compromised. I got one of our younger guys to go over it once I’d finished and write a report on it. His report matches mine. But his is genuine. He’d make a good witness in court.”

  “You’re a genius. I owe you.”

  “Anyway, The Gazette can’t use anything on the laptop without us, as the expert witness, being able to shred them in court. I’ll send the report over with Gary’s signature on it rather than mine. That way nobody will make a connection between us being college dorm mates.”

  “You think of everything.”

  “He’s quite proud of what he found, no idea I fiddled the stacks for him to find it. Listen, I guess… I guess you’re hurting right now, Si? You know what I found was really genuine stuff. I’m not saying it was real, but it was what he typed.”

  “Not easy to take.”

  “Listen, if you want my opinion, it’s the story of a perverted old man taking advantage of a naïve, innocent young woman. If she was a little younger it would have been statutory rape.”

  “I know, she’s told me the story.”

  “Can’t have been easy to hear.”

  “Wasn’t. Wasn’t easy for her to tell.”

  “Listen, I’ll send the laptop and the report over to the lawyers.”

  “Thanks.”

  “And this conversation never happened.”

  “Of course, and I meant it, Mark. I owe you, big time.”

  “Nada, mate. You make sure you give that little lady of yours the serious hug she deserves. You two are too good together. ’Bye.”

  He was gone before I could say goodbye. Give her a hug? If it was only Mr. Bryant, I’d have been over it days ago. Of course, Frank knew nothing, or at least recorded nothing, of her activities outside of the library.

  I wondered what he’d intended to do with it all.

  Anyway, with the laptop successfully compromised, the story couldn’t come out, publicly at least. Sarah couldn’t use the diary he’d written to destroy the reputation of her father and my wife. Instead, she’d probably destroyed her husband’s career. Or rather, I had, in a gamble to save my wife’s livelihood and reputation. The paper would never take the story now, but that wouldn’t stop a little malicious gossip running around the town, especially if Sarah started to fan the flames.

  With no proof, though, that story was dead, and gossip wouldn’t stick for long even if she just drip-fed it to her circle.

  I should tell Sam everything was now sorted with respect to that part of the saga, the part that had triggered her run of confessions. But I wasn’t ready to face her yet. Emotions were too raw, too edgy, to let that happen.

  I walked another mile and found a little bar, but just before I went in I realized Sam had been even sneaker than I’d realized. She’d given me my watch and my phone, but she hadn’t given me my wallet. A beer seemed like a great idea, but I couldn’t buy one.

  Somewhat irked, I turned and started walking back. If I did this again, I’d take my wallet, especially as the bar had looked quite nice.

  * * * *

  When I turned up at the condo, I found the door locked. That surprised me. I didn’t think Sam would lock me out. Turning to look at the dock, I saw the boat was gone. So, no, she wasn’t there. That was a massive shock. I walked down to the dock and stood on the end, which gave me a better panoramic view of the lake than the grass in front of the condo. There were no boats in the near vicinity, although there were several further out, but I couldn’t make out enough detail to confirm any of them were her, or even that any of them were being piloted by a blonde woman.

  I panicked. What if she had done something stupid? I’d been stupid. I’d left her alone when she was visibly upset. My heart was in my mouth as adrenalin kicked in. I couldn’t even jump in my car and drive around to the boatyard and hire a boat. What if she’d done something really, really stupid?

  Then I remembered my phone and, more importantly, the camera on it. With the preview function I could zoom in on the touch screen. It would be shaky and it would be a little grainy but it would work.

  I centered on the first boat I could see and zoomed in. A bald pate shone back at me, so I zoomed back out and checked the second boot. Also nada, and the next, and the next. The fifth boat though was a jackpot. It was bow on heading towards me and, as I zoomed in, I could make out a blonde woman at the wheel, wearing an orange top—the top she’d been wearing when I’d left the condo.

  Although she was at least half a mile away, I lifted my hand over my head and waved. I guess she’d seen there was someone there and, when I waved, she waved back. I saw the bow wave increase a little as she increased the revs. I hoped she wasn’t speeding but I didn’t actually care.

  I guess that few minutes of flat panic when I thought she’d taken the boat out so she could do something stupid—like go over the side and drown—had confirmed something
in my mind. Despite the deceit, despite the infidelity prior to the marriage, I wanted the marriage to be saved.

  I still loved her too much to lose her.

  A few minutes later she was close enough for us both to make out details. She was smiling—I guess because I’d returned—and I was grinning because nothing had happened. The feverish imaginings hadn’t been true. I caught the rope as she nosed in and killed the engine. Then, as she took my hand and stepped up on to the dock, I pulled her in to me. Even though I hadn’t intended to take Mark’s advice, that’s what I was doing—hugging her.

  “Si, I’m sorry, honey.”

  “Hush. I’m sorry I walked away.”

  “I didn’t think you’d be back yet and I was going stir-crazy in there on my own. Then when I saw someone standing on the dock, I realized it was you and that you’d be frantic.”

  “I used the camera on my phone to zoom in.”

  She chuckled. “Resourceful as ever. I was about to ring you but you waved.”

  “Big relief when you waved back.”

  She pulled her head back from my shoulder and looked at me. “You thought… It didn’t cross my mind that you might think like that. No, honey, I wasn’t in a good frame of mind, but I wasn’t in that sort of frame of mind. I did wonder about you, though.”

  “Silly you, then.”

  She thumped me on my chest. “Silly you, too.”

  I couldn’t help chuckling, the conversation was degenerating very quickly. Letting go of her waist, I grabbed her hand and we walked back up the slight slope to the condo.

  When we reached the front of the condo, I stopped and turned her toward me. “You know, this place is beautiful, but…”

  “But what, honey?”

  “Can we go home?”

  She did a classic double-take and smiled. “Less memories and associations you mean?”

  “Yeah. Something like that.”

  “Do you want us to clean it out and sell it?”

  I shook my head. “Nah. Now I know it exists, you never know—I might make use of it.”

  She thumped me on my shoulder for that but grinned. “Are you sure I won’t?”

  “Honest answer?”

  Her face, animated a second ago, stilled. She nodded her head, almost imperceptibly.

  “Yes. I’m sure, just as sure as you are that I wouldn’t.”

  She flung both her arms around me and kissed me. The kiss went on for a long while and we were both breathless by the time we broke apart.

  “Are you sure I can’t persuade you to make up some new, and much, much better, memories and associations with this place?”

  I chuckled. I knew exactly what her throaty voice was promising. “I’m sure. The next time we come down here, be prepared to spend the entire time naked.”

  “Promises like that will get you anywhere you want to go. Although I still want you on the boat, and to do that we’ll have to put some clothes on to get out into the lake first.”

  “Minx. What’s wrong with a naked romp dockside at five a.m.?”

  “Too cold. At least on my butt.”

  “Maybe I’d let you ride me.”

  Her eyes widened as she assessed how serious I was, but then she shook her head, deciding I didn’t mean it. Truthfully, I wanted away from the condo. I wanted home where we could actually have enough room to simply use a different part of the house if we needed some space. Here it was crowded for the two of us—no way to put any distance between us.

  There was a mental security thing for me there. I knew she’d never taken anyone else back to the house since her parents had died. There’d been me and only me in that house with her—with her naked with her legs parted. That comfort was something I needed as I struggled to process her latest confession.

  * * * *

  It took us about half an hour to pack up the stuff we’d brought with us, and the results of our shopping trips. Once they were packed she emptied the fridge and the larder, disposing of anything opened, and packing the rest in a box. Once they were loaded in the car we did a quick check around the place, making sure we hadn’t left anything behind.

  Sam stopped me at the bedroom door. “Honey?”

  “What, Sam?”

  “Do you want me to bring…well, any of the other clothes?”

  I chuckled. “You mean the Merry Widows, the French-cut silk stuff, and of course the slut-wear dresses?”

  She pouted at that final bit, but gave a rueful nod of the head.

  “Haven’t you got enough dresses at home?”

  “A woman can never have too many dresses…or shoes.”

  “Up to you, Sam. I leave it up to you.”

  She chuckled. “Give me five minutes. There’s a couple of outfits in here you haven’t seen.”

  I guess that was a bit of a giveaway and I tried to make sure I didn’t let a flicker of my thoughts pass over my face. If there were other dresses I hadn’t seen, then there were other episodes she hadn’t told me about. Virtually everything she’d told me about she’d modelled for me, except the blue dress from the gang-bang.

  “Sure, as long as it’s not the blue jersey dress.”

  “You wouldn’t want to see that.”

  “No. I’d like you to burn it.”

  She rocked back a little under my vehemence, but smiled sweetly. “Don’t worry, honey, I already did—or rather ditched it in the trash the next day.”

  “Five minutes, no more.”

  “Deal.”

  I watched as she fished a suitcase from one of the top cupboards above the closets. Again, one I hadn’t seen before. Then she shooed me out of the room and closed the door. I guess she wanted to surprise me with what she brought home. I already knew they wouldn’t all fit in one bag.

  It actually took her ten rather than five minutes, but I didn’t care. I wanted out, despite the views, the access to the lake, and the boat. I mentioned the boat to her when she came out—we couldn’t leave it at the dock.

  “Way ahead of you, honey. I’ll ring Max as we leave to get it collected. Given the mood you were in, I didn’t think a meet was a good idea. They’ve got the spare key, and they’ll pick it up this evening.”

  “Good thinking.”

  Five minutes later, with the engine running, she rang Max and then powered us onto the loop road and away from the lake. Part of me was sad, and I’m sure part of Sam was equally moved, but the rest of me was glad to get away from the place. We’d return, but we needed to work things through first.

  * * * *

  Sam was going to have a proper kitchen to work with for the first time in several days. That meant she was going to cook us a proper dinner rather than accept my offer of getting a take-away. A full size bathroom was also a bonus, but that didn’t require an extensive grocery shopping stop on the way home.

  I guess it took us two hours to cover the drive across the city as a result—we hit some traffic which didn’t help—but eventually she pulled us into the drive and parked in the garage. I unloaded the car while she checked the mail and the phone for messages, and as soon as everything was stowed in the kitchen I was banished to the den while she started on dinner.

  It wasn’t that I couldn’t help—I could, but Sam liked to cook alone. That way, she said, any blame was all hers. She rarely made a mistake though, but the ones she did could be memorable.

  After a quick detour into the back yard, I fired up the home PC we used for e-mail and the like and connected to my own user account. I’d been ignoring e-mails on my phone the whole time we’d been away so there was quite a backlog. At least eighty percent were spam, and they were all deleted. After about ten minutes Sam appeared with a coffee for me. Wordlessly, she placed it next to the keyboard, kissed the top of my head, and disappeared. Frankly, she stank of onions so she was thoroughly into the process of prepping for a meal. She always chopped the onions first, just to get them out of the way.

  She paused in the doorway as I looked up.

  “Wha
t are we having?”

  “I thought I’d roast that pork, and dish it up with veg and an onion gravy.”

  “Thought as much, or something like it.”

  “What, the smell of onions?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Once I’ve got the meat in and everything prepped, I’m going to hit the bath for a soak.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Care to join me?”

  I smiled. That invite was about far more than just sharing a bath.

  “Nah. I’ve fired up the hot tub. By the time we’ve eaten and cleared away it should be up to temperature, and I thought we could share that.”

  “Ooh, lover. Great idea.”

  “No skinny dipping here, sweetheart. What would the neighbors say?”

  She laughed and disappeared back into the kitchen. I finished checking the e-mail, then hit the news channels on-line. Sam appeared in the doorway and signaled she was going up. I waved and continued scanning the screen, trying to find anything interesting in the world, rather than the depressing stuff that dominated.

  About half an hour later I stretched and left my seat, flicking the computer off, and walked through to the kitchen. Everything smelled great, but I didn’t lift the covers on any pots—not a good idea to spark the wrath of the kitchen goddess. Uncorking a bottle of white wine and grabbing a couple of glasses, I sauntered upstairs and then knocked softly on the bathroom door.

  Sam called “come in” immediately and I opened the door and walked in, brandishing the wine and the glasses. She was immersed up to her neck in bubbles and she smiled as she saw the wine.

  “I thought you weren’t going to join me.”

  “In the bath—I’m not, but I thought some wine and some company might be in order.”

  “Both sound great to me.” She lifted herself up a little, almost sloshing some bubbles over the rim, and stripped her arms clear of the foam with her hands as I used the washstand as an impromptu bar and poured two glasses of wine.

  I handed her one and then chinked glasses with her. “To us.”

  She gasped, her eyes flaring wide open, and she surged upright to a sitting position—a Greek goddess emerging from the water, nude rather than naked. “What… What did you say?”