Think Again

by Isabel Lucero

  “Will do. Talk to you later.”

  “Okay, sweetheart.”

  “Bye,” I say, another smile stretching across my face at his term of endearment.

  Quickly dialing the number, Russell—the owner—sent me in the email, I find out that I’ll be the first one to look at the condo. Asking when’s the soonest I can go look, he tells me I can see it if I can be there within the hour. I agree, hanging up and rushing to make myself look a little more decent.

  Since it’s been raining off and on today, I put on a pair of navy blue leggings, a cream-colored camisole, and a dark blue and cream striped cardigan sweater. With a pair of light brown boots to finish it off, I throw my hair into a messy bun and head out the door.

  It isn’t until I pull up to the condo and have to wait for the owner to arrive that I remember I got a text earlier.

  Jan: Hey. We need to talk. Call me when you have some time.

  The urgency in her message makes me nervous. I wonder what’s going on. I decide to send a quick reply and tell her that I’ll call her when I get back home.

  Five minutes later, Russell shows up, and he takes me inside to give me a tour. The owner is a friendly man of about fifty-five, who has a thick beard and curly hair.

  I fall in love with the place instantly. It has that warm and cozy feeling. The garage is actually a two-car garage, leaving me with extra storage space, since I only have one car. The upstairs living area has built-in shelving, for a great library or office space. Everything is perfect.

  “This is really great,” I tell him. “When can I take it?” I ask with a cheeky smile.

  He laughs, causing his pot belly to shake. “You’re in luck. Nobody else has inquired about it yet. It’ll be move-in ready within a week. There is a required security deposit of a thousand dollars, and I take care of trash, water, and sewer, while the tenant is responsible for gas and electric.”

  “Sounds good! Count me in.”

  “Great. I’ll get paperwork started and then give you a call tomorrow morning.”

  “Perfect. Thank you, Russell,” I say, shaking his hand.

  “You’re welcome. You have a good day, now,” he says as we walk out and he locks the door.

  “I will. You too.”

  I squeal with excitement as soon as I’m in the car. One of the things I was worried about most is now checked off my list.

  As I’m getting into the house, the phone rings, but by the time I get to it, they’ve already hung up. The house phone almost never rings, because people tend to call our cells if they need us. I assume it’s a telemarketer or someone with the wrong number.

  Remembering Janna’s message, I pull my phone from my purse and call her.

  “Hello?” she answers, and her voice sounds tight with worry.

  “Hey. What’s going on? Your message sounded important.”

  “Yeah, well . . . fuck. I don’t know.”

  “What’s up?”

  I grab a soda from the fridge and take it to the living room.

  “Well, have you heard from Carm lately?”

  I think back to the last time I spoke to her. “I texted her Friday morning. I asked if she was able to get a picture of Aaron with whatever girl he was with at the hotel the previous weekend. Why? Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine. It’s just, well fuck! I don’t know how to say this.”

  “Jan, just tell me.”

  “Okay, remember that email you told me you found between Aaron and some chick named Trish?”

  “Yeah. What about it?”

  After a pregnant pause, she sighs. “Carmen’s middle name is Patricia.”

  I don’t say anything for a minute, because what she’s trying to tell me doesn’t click right away. “Right. Are you trying to say that she and Aaron . . .” I can’t even finish. “I don’t think she’d do that.”

  “I know, I know. I didn’t think so either, but she and I were together earlier today.” Janna hesitates again before letting out a frustrated grunt.

  “Jan! Come on!” I yell, getting irritated.

  “She was on her phone and seemed upset by something. If she wasn’t texting, she’d sneak off to go make a call. It was weird. When I asked what was going on, she just blew it off like it wasn’t a big deal, blaming it on some family issue. Anyway, we were at Target, and she told me she was going outside to make a call. I continued to look around, but after a while, I decided to go look for her.

  “I was outside in front of the store, but I didn’t see her. All I could think was, I know this bitch didn’t leave me here, so I started looking towards where she parked the car.” She sighs. “Aaron was with her by the car.”

  “Wh . . . what?” I stammer, feeling like my stomach just dropped to my feet.

  “I saw them near her car. She was kind of pulling on his arm, like he was trying to leave, but she didn’t want him to. It looked like they were fighting, but she was pleading with him about something.”

  “I don’t . . . I don’t understand. What would they be fighting about?”

  My mind won’t allow me to think that Carmen—my friend of five years—and Aaron, would actually be having an affair.

  “I don’t know, Aria,” Jan responds, her voice filled with sorrow.

  “Did you talk to her about it?”

  “No. I didn’t want to set her off and have her tell Aaron. I wanted you to know first, so you could deal with this however you need to. But believe me, Aria, she’s no friend of mine anymore. I can’t believe she’d do this to you.”

  “She knew everything,” I whisper. “Every single detail about mine and Aaron’s marriage, she knew. She saw him with some other girl at the bar and told me about it. I don’t get it.”

  “I don’t either. I’m sorry.”

  “She’s always been insistent on me leaving him. Every time I talked to her, she’d tell me to leave him. She wasn’t happy with not having all of his attention.”

  “I feel terrible, Aria, but I thought you should know. Just ask him about it. Tell him that Carmen told you. Maybe he’ll confess.”

  “Yeah,” I say, still dumbfounded. “Thanks for telling me.”

  “Of course. I love you. Call me later.”

  “Okay.”

  I hang up and sit there for a while, stiff as a board. Carmen and Aaron? Maybe it’s not true. Maybe there’s a justified reason for them to be seen together having what looked like a lover’s quarrel.

  The house phone next to me rings, but I ignore it. I try to figure out how to approach Aaron with this. Or maybe I should confront Carmen first. I don’t know.

  The phone rings again, startling me, and annoying me at the same time.

  “Hello?”

  The silence on the other end almost gets them hung up on. Right before I hang up, a voice speaks up. “Hello?”

  I hate when people repeat hello when they’re the ones who called. Like, yes? Hello? You called me!

  “Yeah, hello?” I say again with more attitude in my voice.

  “Is this . . . does Aaron Stewart live there?” the female voice asks.

  My heart begins hammering, because I already know this is the voice of one of his mistresses. Is today find-out-the-truth day?

  “Yes, he does. Who is this?”

  She ignores my question. “Is this his wife?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Uhh, well, I . . .” she stammers, unsure of herself. Unsure of her words. “I thought you should know that Aaron and I have been seeing each other. I . . . I’m pregnant with his child.”

  She stops talking and I feel like I stop breathing. I’m glad I’m already sitting down.

  “You thought . . . you thought I should know about this?”

  “Well, y-yes.”

  “Did you think that maybe you shouldn’t be fucking him in the first place?” I yell. “Why are you telling me this now? How did you get this number in the first place?”

  “I just thought you should know,” she says, her voice small
.

  “Why now? What happened that made you want to tell me now and not before? Did he break up with you? Is that what it is? Is this Stephany?” I ask, venom dripping from my voice. Her silence tells me that maybe it is her. It was just a shot in the dark, but I may have gotten lucky.

  “I just . . . he said things with you guys were bad. I thought you were getting a divorce soon.”

  “Go fuck yourself, Stephany. Maybe you should get checked for STDs, because I’m sorry to break this to you, honey, but you’re not the only one he’s been fucking.”

  “I know,” she states, her voice becoming quieter and more morose. “Some girl approached us and yelled at him for being with me. It was obvious she had feelings for him. He’s been lying to a lot of us, and I don’t want anything to do with him anymore, but I am keeping this baby. I thought you should know the truth.”

  “The truth? Why should I believe you?”

  “I guess you don’t have to, but he told me he wasn’t happy with you. He said we’d have a future. I know now that he was full of shit, but I thought I could believe him.”

  I think about it for a minute. “Tell me one thing, Stephany. Are you a redhead?”

  “Yeah,” she answers, sounding confused.

  “I saw you. I saw you at the hotel. I was sitting on the couch when you came and sat near me. You had just been with him, hadn’t you?”

  “Oh my god,” she whispers. “That . . . that was you?”

  Instead of answering, I ask another question. “Did you two also have plans to spend the weekend together, but he ended up leaving early?”

  “That was the night the other girl approached us. He and I got into a huge fight and I left.”

  Everything starts coming together. Carmen saw them that night. She told me she did. If her and Aaron were having an affair, and she caught him with someone else, that would set her off. She wanted me to leave him, so nobody would be in the way of their relationship, only to find out he had another woman on the side.

  “Does he know that you’re pregnant?” I ask, needing to know.

  “I told him, but he doesn’t want to believe me. As soon as I told him, he started acting different, saying he didn’t know how he’d tell you. That’s when I realized that you two probably weren’t as bad off as he had been saying.”

  I guess that would explain why he started acting different at home, too. He was worried and freaking out over the news, wondering how he’d tell me. His kindness was a reflection of his guilt. Not guilt over having cheated, but guilt over having cheated and gotten someone pregnant.

  “I’m sorry for all of this.”

  “Yeah.”

  I don’t have anything else to say, so I end the call, sitting here, shell-shocked. He got somebody else pregnant. He always told me he wasn’t ready for kids, and now he’s going to have one with somebody else.

  I’m done feeling sad.

  He deserves my wrath.

  I deserve vengeance.

  If he thinks he’s going to get any more of my tears, if he thinks I deserve to get my heart trampled on, and if he thinks I won’t exact my revenge, then he needs to think again. I’m beyond pissed, and I’ll be damned if I continue to let him get away with this.

  I pick up my cell and make some calls before I hop into my car and run some errands. Aaron is going to have a few surprises.

  With everything already set up and ready to go, I sit in the house, trying to stay calm. I have to wait for Aaron to get here, and I can’t spring everything on him right away. This plan needs to be perfect.

  The candles are lit and spread sparingly around the kitchen and living room, giving off a romantic vibe. I have his gifts wrapped up nicely for him, and champagne already poured in glasses.

  As soon as I hear the garage door open, my heart goes into overdrive, and I try to put a cap on my immediate anger. Looking into his face and smiling will be tough, but I have to do it at first. I have to play the game.

  When he drags himself in, he looks worse for the wear. His face shows surprise when he looks around.

  “What’s all this?” he asks, gesturing around the candle-lit room.

  “I just thought we could celebrate,” I say with a smile that I hope looks genuine.

  “Oh?” he murmurs, looking slightly relieved. Just you wait, you bastard. “What are we celebrating?” he asks with a slight smile as he sits across from me at the dining room table.

  “Here, have some champagne,” I say, pushing his glass to him. I hold mine up. “To the future.”

  He takes the glass and sips the liquid into his mouth, but the confusion on his face doesn’t disappear completely.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. We just haven’t been able to talk lately, and I thought we should take the time to do so. Don’t you think?”

  He studies me for a few seconds. “Yeah, of course.”

  “You look stressed,” I state, tilting my head. “Looks like your whole world is crumbling around you.”

  His brows furrow slightly. “No, it’s just . . .”

  “Work stuff,” we both say at the same time.

  He clears his throat. “Well, what is it that you want to talk about?”

  “Well, first of all,” I say, taking the manila envelope that has a bright red bow stuck on it, “I have something for you.”

  I pull out everything I was able to get on him before; the banking statement, the website confirmations, the email between him and “Trish,” and then I place them in front of him.

  “What’s this?” he asks before truly looking at them. I wait for his eyes to scan the papers, then I see the blood drain from his face, and I smile. He looks up at me and says, “How, I mean, why are you giving this to me?”

  “They’re yours,” I say with a shrug. “You’ve been paying for your hotel room and dinners with another account, and I found the banking statement. I also see that you’ve been looking for lovers online, and apparently already have one named Trish.”

  “This is bullshit, Aria,” he roars. “Why are you going through my things?”

  “Seriously?” I screech. “That’s what you’re mad about? You get caught having profiles on affair websites, talking to some other woman, and having a secret account that you use to pay for hotel rooms, and you’re mad that I found out? Are you crazy?”

  “I didn’t even get on that site, Aria. I made the account, but I never used it. And Trish isn’t somebody I’m with.”

  “And the hotels and bank account?” He’s quiet, having no excuse for that. “Aaron, I know everything, so cut the bullshit, okay? I know about Stephany, and I know about Trish. Just admit it.”

  “Stephany?” he asks, his face screwing up. “I told you about her.”

  “You told me a fucking lie and you know it!” I scream. “I’m giving you the chance to just tell me the fucking truth. I already know, Aaron. I fucking know!”

  He stands up and the chair slides back with force. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is crazy!”

  “I want a divorce, Aaron.”

  “What? No. We’re not getting a divorce, Aria.” He shakes his head adamantly.

  “Why not? You clearly want to fuck other people. Why do you even want to stay married to me? We haven’t been happy for a while now.”

  “I told you. I’m not going to be the first one in my family to get divorced. We are not going to be another statistic. What would I tell my family? And I’m not fucking other people!”

  Lying to the end, I see. “Goddammit, Aaron! I can’t take it anymore. I can’t live like this. I’ll never trust you again. I don’t give a shit what your family thinks either. I don’t care what anybody thinks. I don’t want to be married to you.”

  He starts pacing around the kitchen, muttering something under his breath. “We can make this work.”

  “No, we can’t. I know that Stephany isn’t some work partner. I talked to her today, Aaron. She called our fucking house.”

  He s
tops pacing and snaps his head in my direction. Absolute fear and disbelief mar his face. “What?”

  “Yeah, your mistress called here to inform me that you and her have been seeing each other. You told her we were getting a divorce. You said you weren’t happy with me. She thought you and her had a future.” I pause, watching his face. “I saw you two at the hotel together. You didn’t even know I was there, but I was. You know who else saw you with her?” He doesn’t say anything, his eyes just stay wide and his face blank. “Trish. She saw you, didn’t she? Or should I say Carmen? You fucking piece of shit.” My voice is thick with venom and hate.

  “Aria, no,” he whimpers.

  “No, what? You think I don’t know about that? Carmen works at the bar in the hotel you take your girlfriend to. She clearly wanted you to herself, because she’s been begging me to leave you for a while now. I’m sure she wasn’t too happy when you took your girlfriend to her place of work. Jan saw you and Carmen fighting in the parking lot of Target today. Don’t try to deny it.”

  His eyes begin to water. “Aria, you have to believe me. I only messed around with Carmen once. She was clingy and calling me non-stop. She’s crazy, and I cut it off with her, but she wouldn’t leave me alone.”

  “I have to believe you? Why do I have to believe you? Because you’ve been so truthful with me? Give me a break, Aaron. I don’t believe anything you say anymore. I haven’t for a long time. What about Stephany, huh? What’s your fucking excuse for being with her at the hotel?”

  He drops his head into his hands with a long sigh. “I’m so sorry, Aria. I know I fucked up.” His head comes up and he walks closer to me. “I promise to get help this time. I’ll go to counseling, I’ll do whatever you want. I broke it off with both of them. I only want you.”

  My eyes burn with unshed tears. “I can’t, Aaron. I don’t have the fight in me anymore. And you . . . you’re having a baby.”

  The statement floats between us, and he steps back, gaping at me. “What?”

  “Stephany told me that, too. She wants nothing to do with you, so I’m sure it’s her that broke up with you, but she said she’s keeping the baby. Your baby. I know she told you, so don’t bother with another lie. I can’t bear to hear anymore.”