by Abby Weeks
He sounded genuinely excited, which was rare for him.
—What is it?
—We just landed the biggest account of the year. Well, to be more specific, I just landed it. They’ve already wired us the retainer.
—That’s wonderful, honey.
—Fifty grand.
—No way! She was shocked. Ben had never been one to bring in new business to the firm. He didn’t have the kinds of connections that that sort of thing required and it had been really limiting his career potential. This was certainly an exciting development. She wondered how on earth he’d done it. He didn’t know people who could pay that sort of money for legal services. At least, she’d thought he didn’t.
—Ben, that’s amazing. That’s going to mean big things.
—I can smell a partnership offer.
—Really?
—Really, Janey.
—From that one deal?
—Well, it looks like it’s going to be ongoing for quite a while, and the clients asked for me personally.
—Who are they?
—I’ll tell you when I see you. Right now I just wanted to let you know I won’t be home for dinner. Obviously there’s going to be some celebrating over here. We’re taking all the staff out for drinks.
—All the staff?
—Sure. I’m going to suggest Terroni’s. What do you think?
—My favorite restaurant?
—In your honor, he said and laughed.
Janey didn’t see anything to laugh about. She knew Suzy and the other secretaries would all be there. It would be one big cheat fest on the wives at home. There was nothing at all funny about Ben bringing his secretary to her favorite restaurant. In fact, it was highly insensitive of him to call to tell her about a big party that she wasn’t even invited to.
Janey made a snap decision to do something about it. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stop Ben from going out, she just didn’t have that sort of sway over him any more. If she tried to tell him to come home he’d ignore her. So she did the next best thing. She took a deep breath.
—Perfect, honey. What time? I was just about to cook dinner but if I get ready immediately I could be downtown in an hour.
—Oh, Janey, it’s kind of just an office thing.
—When has that ever stopped me?
She could count a hundred times that that had stopped her but this wasn’t going to be one of them.
There was a moment’s silence from Ben’s end of the line. Janey’s heart pounded in her chest. What if he told her that she wasn’t invited? How would she be able to live with Ben, and live with herself, after that?
—Sure, he said at last.
He sounded reluctant, disappointed, but Janey didn’t care. She let out a sigh of relief. She’d been actually holding her breath.
—Come as soon as you can, he said. We’re all heading down there right now.
—I’ll see you in an hour, she said and hung up.
She felt strange when she put down the phone. She’d just had to fight to attend her own husband’s celebratory dinner. What was going on? Maybe her marriage really was coming to an end. She tried not to think about it as she quickly showered and put on her sexiest little black dress. At the very least, she could try to look more attractive than Suzy or whatever other secretary Ben had his eye on these days.
Then, sitting in front of the mirror, putting on her makeup, she began to panic. What was she thinking? Suzy was going to be there! It was all going to be entirely on Suzy’s turf. It would be her territory, her workmates, her friends, and her lover.
Janey was just the boring wife who’d insisted on coming along and now she was going to step into a situation in which the cards were all stacked against her. She had to hold on to her makeup table for support. She looked into the mirror at the woman staring back at her and almost didn’t recognize herself anymore. The stress and worry and anguish on her face seemed to belong to another person.
II
JANEY PULLED UP TO THE curb on the street outside Terroni’s. She didn’t feel like using the valet. She was nervous just being there. She didn’t know what to expect. She’d been married five years to Ben and should have been excited to be going out to help him celebrate his good news. Instead she felt as if she was entering a party full of strangers. She felt that she wouldn’t have a single friend or ally in the entire place. It would have been easier just to turn around and go home.
She took out her cell and dialed Ben’s number. It rang four times and then cut off, as if he’d pressed the reject call button. She looked down at her phone sadly before shrugging it off. Not to worry, she told herself. His phone had probably died. She knew she was lying to herself but she had no choice. What could she do? Admit to herself that Ben might have rejected her call?
She checked her makeup quickly in the mirror before getting out of the car. Then she stepped out onto the hard concrete sidewalk. She knew her husband was in there, flirting with other women, and didn’t even care if she showed up or not. She’d never felt so alone in her life.
Terroni’s was packed. She’d never seen the place so full of people. Some of them she recognized from Ben’s office but most she didn’t. She hadn’t spent much time socializing with his workmates. The entire restaurant seemed to have been taken over by the firm and there was no one at the entrance to greet her like usual. She felt awkward and alone as she stepped through to the dining room. People were drinking and laughing and they all seemed to know each other. She couldn’t see Ben anywhere. She wished she had somewhere to put her coat but there wasn’t anywhere. She felt out of place in her coat, carrying her purse, all by herself. The party was in full swing and she was the latecomer. Not a single person greeted her. Those who looked up and saw her quickly looked away again, went back to their conversations. She began to feel paranoid. She wondered if everyone in the office knew about Ben’s affair with Suzy, and now saw her as the intruder. Was she the other woman now? Was she unwelcome here?
A waiter passed her with a tray of champaign glasses and she grabbed one before he moved out of reach.
—Thank you, she mumbled but he never heard her.
She thought back to the evening she’d come here to meet Ben just a few weeks earlier. She’d fooled around with the valet that night. Just briefly. She’d dropped her keys and he’d bent down to the ground to pick them up. While he was down there she’d boldly flashed him a delicious view of her bare vagina. She’d even let him touch it! Had that really been her? She wished she felt that confident and sexy tonight. It had been a crazy moment, one of the moments in her life she would never be able to forget. It had been a risk of everything she cherished, her entire marriage, but now she felt she should have gone farther. She didn’t know that she cherished the same things anymore. She should have slept with the valet the next morning when she came back for her car. If her marriage was going to fall apart anyway, why not have some fun?
Then she saw Ben. He was over at the bar with a big group of people, all of them drinking and laughing and talking loudly. Janey had to squeeze her way through the crowd with difficulty to get closer to them. It was an L-shaped bar and Ben was right at the corner of it, surrounded by a crowd of colleagues and friends.
She inched her way in his direction but it was tough going. No one made room for her.
—Honey, she said as she inched through the throng but he didn’t hear her.
There were three or four people still between her and Ben and he was so wrapped up in telling them all a story that he didn’t notice her calling his name. She could see now that some of the other partners were there too, the very men Ben had been working his ass off for years to impress. This really was a big day for him. Just a few days ago he would have laughed if she’d told him he’d be getting drunk and telling stories at a bar with two of the firm’s top partners.
—And that was it, Ben was saying.
He was talking about the deal.
—They wanted to know all about the Northrop case, wh
at I’d done on it, what my responsibilities were, who’d been on the opposing side, whether I’d enjoyed the work. I lied, said it was the time of my life.
There was a round of laughter from the crowd. Ben was bragging like a child. Janey would have been embarrassed if she’d been next to him. But it was his day, after all. That was what everyone was here to celebrate.
—I knew they were interested but I didn’t know they were ready to commit. I thought they’d want a letter of engagement from a partner. But the guy just took out a check and a pen and said, Fifty enough? I didn’t even know what he was talking about. I said sure. Then he wrote the check, a five followed by four zeroes! I was like, is this for real?
There was another round of laughter. One of the partners put a hand on Ben’s shoulder. Janey recognized him from the firm Christmas party. His name was John Blake. He’d supervised Ben on numerous cases, including Northrop.
Then Janey saw another hand on Ben’s shoulder. A woman’s hand. She tried to see through the crowd but there were too many people in the way. The hand was long and slender with red painted nails and a tiny gold watch on the wrist. There was also a wedding ring on the finger. John Blake kept getting in the way and she couldn’t connect the arm to a body but she had the sinking feeling that it belonged to Suzy.
She was about to call out Ben’s name again when John Blake reached across the bar for a drink and she got a clear view of Ben and the woman whose hand was on his shoulder. Sure enough, it was Suzy. She was leaning on Ben, very cosily, but they weren’t doing anything more than that. It was entirely possible that they were so close together simply because the bar was so crowded. She knew that wasn’t the case, she knew they were having an affair, but she couldn’t tell if the rest of the people around the bar knew that too. She shuddered at the thought that everyone at the firm saw Suzy as Ben’s rightful partner. Was it possible that Ben and Suzy were so open about their relationship at work that people just saw them as a couple? That would make Janey the other woman.
She felt humiliated and embarrassed. There was something very strange about finding your husband sitting next to another woman at a bar. It wasn’t just the fact that they were having an affair. She knew that. She’d been coming to terms with that fact, or at least trying to. What she found so difficult right at that moment was more the openness of his relationship with Suzy. He was there, surrounded by the partners of his firm, and Suzy was sitting right next to him as if she belonged there. It was as if everyone at the bar somehow supported Suzy, just because she was sitting next to Ben in their company. She realized just how important other people’s perceptions and opinions mattered. The only reason an affair was wrong, after all, was because society deemed it so. If the society at Ben’s firm supported the affair, then it wasn’t wrong at all, it was a legitimate relationship. That was the thread of Janey’s thinking as she grew increasingly uncomfortable and paranoid in the bar.
She wondered for one horrified second what she’d walked into. She felt like a sheep that has mistakenly walked into a wolf lair. Did everyone at the office know about Ben and Suzy? Were they on Suzy’s side already? Was she, Janey, Ben’s lawfully wedded wife, the intruder here? She didn’t know the answer to that.
Her heart shuddered at the thought but she knew she’d have to overcome it. Suzy had thankfully taken her greasy paw off of Ben’s shoulder. She was still sitting up next to him but the bar was so crammed full of people that it didn’t necessarily mean they were together.
—Ben, she called out again.
John Blake turned and saw her and got Ben’s attention for her.
—Ben, your wife’s here.
Blake chivalrously made room for her, allowing her to squeeze in past him and get to Ben. She was eternally grateful to him for doing so. She wouldn’t have been surprised if everyone at the bar had simply ignored her. Blake was holding a shot glass over her and she prayed he didn’t let it spill as she squeezed past.
—Honey, Ben said.
He didn’t seem especially pleased to see her, but he’d had enough to drink that the smiles and kisses were coming pretty freely at this point. He put a big, slobbery kiss on her lips and the crowd at the bar cheered. Janey hadn’t exactly enjoyed kiss, it tasted of scotch, but she felt relieved to have been accepted into the crowd. She looked over at Suzy, as nonchalantly and casually as possible, and saw that the slut had reluctantly created a little distance between Ben and herself.
That’s right, bitch, Janey thought to herself, stay the hell away from my man.
III
THE MOOD AT THE BAR was jovial and the drinks flowed freely. The bartender kept round after round of shots coming and the group got drunker and sloppier as the evening progressed. Even Janey began to relax and let go of the inhibitions and pent up stress she had been carrying.
—To fifty thousand dollars, someone roared as they all downed another tequila shot.
—To fifty thousand a month, Blake roared.
To Janey’s surprise she was actually beginning to enjoy herself. She looked around at the faces surrounding her. Walter Blake and another partner, Bill Warren were there. Neither had his wife with him. There was also a few other employees from the firm, some associates and support staff. Janey didn’t really know any of them. To her left was Ben and to his left was Suzy, who still hadn’t found somewhere more appropriate to sit.
—I signed up for the gym, she said drunkenly to the whole crowd of them.
—Good for you, Suzy called out.
Suzy was really hammered and Janey ignored her.
—It only cost me six hundred dollars a month!
Ben spat out his drink.
—You’re kidding, right?
—Six hundred a month, baby, Janey said and kissed him drunkenly on the lips.
John Blake and Bill Warren began laughing furiously.
—What’s so funny? Ben said when Janey stopped kissing him.
—Let me guess, Blake said. The gym’s called Blue?
—That’s right, Janey said and patted him on the arm.
—Welcome to the high life, Blake said to Ben.
—What do you mean?
—My wife joined that place last week. It’s basically the most expensive, most luxurious gym you could imagine. It costs almost as much as the golf club.
—Jesus, Ben said. So this isn’t a joke?
—No joke, Bill Warren said. My wife joined too.
—You guys are partners though, Ben said. I’m still on a salary.
—Well, Warren said. You keep a hold of this new client and that could all change pretty rapidly.
Ben smiled at that. Nothing pleased him more than the thought of making partner. It would have thrilled Janey too were it not for the fact that Suzy worked at this firm. The whole idea of moving out to Sunny Oaks had been to get Ben interested in Albany firms. Now he was moving up the ladder here in Troy. That wasn’t exactly the plan. And worst of all, she was just cementing the whole thing by joining Blue like the rest of the partners’ wives. She just knew that pretty soon Blake and Warren’s wives would want to meet her. Then they’d offer Ben a partnership and he’d be with Suzy forever. Maybe she was overreacting, few affairs with secretaries lasted more than a couple of months, but still. It was a legitimate concern, she thought.
Janey noticed that Bill Warren was looking at her very closely.
—Just think of the sexy body she’s going to come home with after all those workouts and treatments, he said and leaned across Blake to put his hand on her arm. I think I can feel muscle in this arm already.
—No kidding, Blake said and squeezed her arm lightly too.
Ben noticed their interest in his wife and it was as if that rekindled his own interest in her. He put his hand affectionately on her knee. She was wearing a short dress and her legs looked great on the barstool. He moved his hand slightly up her thigh and gave it a little squeeze. Then he kept it there.
It felt good to be getting some attention from Ben for a change.
He’d been completely ignoring her ever since taking up with Suzy and it was killing her. The stress of it had been unbearable. She hadn’t known what to do. She’d been acting out of character, doing things she never would have ordinarily done. Now that Ben was actually paying attention to her again she felt that all of those things were a million miles away and had happened a million years ago.
Since moving into the house at Sunny Oaks, she’d felt that her only friend in the world was the neighbor, Henry Walden. She’d been flirting with him, allowing him to watch her masturbate and have sex with Ben, and had even gone over to his house and fucked a complete stranger in front of him. Now she felt as if she didn’t even need him anymore. She was surprised at how quickly she was willing to forget all about the mysterious neighbor who lived next door once her husband began to give her just the tiniest little bit of attention.
She wrapped her arms around Ben and kissed him again. When she stopped, Ben raised another shot glass and the whole bar drank again.
Then he leaned into her ear.
—What do you say we book a hotel room tonight?
Janey nodded eagerly. She loved the idea. She hadn’t had any excitement with Ben in weeks. He’d been coming home drunk, often in the middle of the night, and it seemed he’d hardly been giving her a second thought. He’d been so preoccupied with Suzy, his new toy, that he didn’t even seem to care that he had a wife at home. And that was what she was, his wife. She was loving and devoted and caring and all she wanted from Ben was some loyalty and affection in return. She knew they could live a good life together if only he would come back to her and forget about Suzy.
She vowed she’d win him back. All she had to do was work her butt off at this new gym and her body would be so perfect that he wouldn’t even be able to look at another woman.
She allowed Ben’s hand to move a little farther up her thigh, pushing her skirt up a little with it. She could feel Blake and Warren take notice of how close his hand was to her pussy but she thought, to hell with it.
On Ben’s other side, Suzy looked dejected and upset. He wasn’t paying her any attention at all. This was too perfect. She felt vindicated, like she’d shown Suzy who the alpha-female was around here. She wanted to tell her that secretaries came and went, but wives were there to stay. Suzy should have realized that. The poor slut was too stupid to look out for her own interests. She’d allowed her cunt to be used by Ben for a little diversion, and she was going to get nothing at all out of it. That’s life, Janey thought. If Suzy had a problem with that she should find her own man.
