The Affair (The Relationship Quo Series Book 5)

by Nicole Strycharz

  “Because they aren’t being wiped and put away.” I dropped a ton on her hostess stand. “Get off your phone or I’ll break it.”

  “I wasn’t on my phone.”

  “You play on your phone all the time, I can see you from my office in the back,” I reminded her of the camera in the upper corner of the ceiling. “Being my sister does not excuse being lazy.”

  “Being lazy?” she craned her neck, total flames in her eyes. “I act as a hostess, fill in waitress, busboy, and—”

  “Complain to Ma, not me,” I walked away, clapping my hands at a waiter whose area for seating had crumbs on the floor. “What is this?” I asked him.

  He looked up at me, stammering. “I was— it—”

  “Looks like Goddamn Mc Donald’s, clean that up. Clean it up, don’t let me see that again. Move. Go. Piu presto, subito, andare, andare!” I clapped with each word.

  I went into the kitchen just as a cook dropped an entire swordfish onto the floor. He was about to reach for it, but stopped, seeing me.

  “Shit, Lorenzo I lost grip of the damn thing—”

  I went over to grab the fish and threw it in the trash, then kicked the trash over.

  This was how it was all day. All morning. People were running from me or avoiding any narrow halls I occupied.

  Coming out of the kitchen, I came face to face with Chance Urban.

  Chance Urban runs a night club called Rebel Vision, a legend from the Bronx. He’s also one of my closest friends.

  “I got a call that you were being a dick…” Chance’s slow smirk did nothing to slow my temper. “So, they called a bigger dick.”

  I said nothing.

  Chance angled his head, looking me over. “Let’s walk.”

  As much as I want to avoid him, I know I can’t. My temper is one thin thread from disaster, and I don’t want to go over the edge.

  Leaving Little Italy, we walk the streets. He knows better than to probe me. I offered him a cigarette at a traffic light.

  “I’m good,” he refused.

  I just stared at him.

  “I quit,” he said, the light turning.

  “Since when?”

  “Since we are living with an infant.”

  I remembered that Chance and his boyfriend, Adam, had recently taken on a baby. But Chance and I have been smoking since we were twelve, so this is news.

  “How’s that going?” I deflected.

  His jaw tightened. “It’s temporary.”

  “You want it to be?”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  After another block, he added, “Adam and I are going to Colorado for Thanksgiving. You got plans?”

  “Probably Ma’s.”

  Another block.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked. Now it was time. Chance gave me time to cool, time to think, then he went there.

  “Same old shit. Ruby.”

  “She’s always fucking around.”

  I stopped near a bagel stand and pulled cash from my front pocket. “This time is different,” I balanced my cigarette between my lips while I ordered us both our usual. “This one is different.”

  Chance took our food while I paid. “Why?”

  “I think…” I didn’t feel like saying it out loud. I stalled, paying the vendor and meandering toward a bench before saying. “She’s falling in love with him.”

  Chance sat but I stood. “You don’t know that.”

  “Yeah, I do.” I don’t know why I bought food. My stomach is in knots. “I know Ruby. I know her better than any person in this world. I know.”

  Chance chews for a time and then pushes his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. “She’s no fucking good. Let her go.”

  “She’s been through some terrible shit that made her the way she is—”

  “Everyone goes through terrible shit.”

  “Hers was bad.”

  “People that have bad things happen to them have a right to be shit people?” he sarcastically argued.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “What, then?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “She has a right to spread her legs for half of Central Park?”

  “Never mind,” I hated when people assumed, they got Ruby and I’s complicated situation. They take it for face value.

  “Blowing it off doesn’t make it go away. It just makes you an asshole to live with.”

  “Who called you in the first place?’

  “Giada. She’s my informant.” He leaned back into the bench and watched people walking past. “Your problem is that you’re still in love with Ruby, and the logical part of you knows it’s stupid. Plus, you stay with her, and no one knows why. Which looks even more stupid.”

  “Sounds like judgment from the Urban legend himself,” I coughed into my sleeve as the tobacco hits my throat wrong. “How long was your last lay before Adam? Three hours?”

  My insult bounced right off him. He’s made of the same concrete under our feet.

  He goes on. “Whatever demons Ruby is fighting, are so part of who she is that you can’t separate them anymore,” he watched me. “Why do you think she’s in love?”

  “Getting out of bed, I couldn’t find my charger this morning. I went to her side of the bed to borrow hers…” the suffocating feeling I had was illogical. How can you stand in the middle of a city like New York, a sky that’s measured by the astronomically tall buildings, and still feel there isn’t enough air? “My foot kicked something. A box that made a jingle sound. She’s saving all kinds of trinkets and mementos. Things she’s done with this one…” I flicked away my cigarette. “She saves things that matter. She has six boxes of shit collected from when we dated. And it just made me stop and see that… this is real. This man she’s with is real. He’s a real threat, not just an amusement.” Between that and Lydia going off the grid, I decided to be a dick today.

  Chance swallowed. “Did it hurt any less when she had amusements?”

  My teeth were biting into my tongue, drawing up heat and a metallic taste.

  “I’m not the only one that’s going to get bitch-slapped by this reality,” I explained.

  “Who else?”

  “This one’s got a wife,” I cleared my throat and set my foot up on the bench beside Chance, crossing my forearms over my thigh. “And she thinks this is some hiccup in their marriage. It’s deeper than that now, I can feel it.”

  “Why does it matter what his wife thinks?”

  I can’t answer that.

  Chance’s slow smile angers me.

  “It’s not like that,” I defend.

  “I think it is.”

  “Nope.”

  “Tit for tat?”

  “No tits, no tats. She’s a Jesus freak from the suburbs that blushes when you say the word fuck.”

  Chance won’t stop smiling. “You two got some broken hearts club?”

  “She’s alright. I don’t talk about Ruby and what she does, this girl needs to talk about it. When she does, I get it. She voices what I’m thinking.”

  His smile is less smug at least. “You sleep with her yet?”

  “I’m not a cheater.”

  “Ruby gets around more mattresses than a bed bug, that makes your relationship an open one.”

  “Not to me.”

  Chance stood and jerked his head in the direction we came from. We started walking back, quiet again. “If you aren’t going to fuck her, then try not to fuck up the friendship.”

  My head swiveled around to scowl at him.

  Chance remained cocky and arrogant. Mr. All Knowing. “Giada says you didn’t have your morning coffee with your new pal. Nothing puts a man in a mood like being freezed out by a woman.”

  “Got nothing to do with my mood.”

  “Yeah, it do.”

  “Nah. Stop.”

  “You need this. Don’t screw it up so soon.”

  At around ten at night, I drove my motorcycle through Lydia’s neighborhood. I f
ollowed Ruby tonight and saw her meet up with Noah at a little bar that was far enough away from prying eyes.

  I expected to find Lydia at home, but she was walking with groceries toward her house.

  I slowed my bike and took off my helmet. “Need help?” I asked.

  She blinked when she saw me. “Lorenzo? I thought you worked tonight.”

  I stopped when she did. “You alright?”

  She looked up the street. “I’m fine. Noah had a meeting… so I decided I would make a fun dinner for one.”

  I saw the two bags in her hands. “Listen,” I braced my feet on the ground. “I apologize about yesterday… you don’t have to be a stranger, just tell me to fuck off next time.”

  “Lorenzo—”

  I rolled my eyes, her and her aversion to swearing. “Jesus, tell me to drop it, not fuck off.”

  She smiled a little. “I wasn’t interrupting you about your language.” She bit her lip. “And I wasn’t being a stranger to punish you. It’s…” she shifted her bags around, smiles gone. “Sometimes, you scare me a little.”

  “Me?”

  “Not you… more like… how you live and talk. There’s a part of me that’s always wanted to be more like your wife—”

  “Ruby?” I felt my face scrunch. “Why the hell would you—”

  “Not Ruby exactly,” she came a little closer. “Sometimes I’m drawn to things like makeup, and less appropriate clothing, and books or movies with secular content…” She narrowed her eyes. “And why don’t I know about… muff diving,” she whispered the words, making me laugh a little. “I Googled it, by the way.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” I held my helmet under my arm.

  “I mean, Noah and I are married, we could explore together, but he doesn’t want to. But maybe he is with her and when you said that, I felt hurt, not with you, but with the truth. Because I want to do things and be someone that I’ve been told not to be, and my husband found a woman that mirrors that woman… the woman I keep all locked up inside.”

  She took a slow breath, not done. “I look at pictures of Ruby on her social media and I feel this all-consuming jealousy. She does all the things I want to do.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “Like… wearing dangly earrings, red lipstick, dresses with straps, high heels… your wife wears super high heels.”

  “I know.”

  “And my hair.”

  “What about it?”

  She put her groceries on the sidewalk and pulled her braid from behind her back, laying it over her shoulder. It’s so long that its end is at her hips. “I’m like Rapunzel, and I’m bored with brown. I love the idea of red or blonde and short, maybe layered or longer on one side.”

  “Then go change it.”

  “I can’t.” She toyed with the braid. “Noah likes it like this, and I’m supposed to, my appearance should be to please him, not to draw attention from others.”

  “What about what pleases you.”

  “See,” she smiled at me. “That’s when you scare me. When you talk about change.”

  I put both my hands on my thighs, straddling my bike still, keeping it in place with my feet. “Change is part of life.”

  “But I’m terrified of it. I want my normalcy back. I want Noah to remember what we are together and to come back from this stronger. He’s agreed to go away with me for a weekend. I have the feeling he might come clean about Ruby, and when he does, we can build.”

  “And if he doesn’t?” I feel an ache for her. Her husband is not going to confess his crimes and just fall back into her arms. The biggest change coming, is that Lydia is going to need to forge forward on her own and to do that, she needs to know who she really is.

  She crossed her arms. “I’ve thought of that too.” I could tell it was taking a lot of courage to get it out. “He has to tell me while we are away. I’m going to give him ample reasons and chances to tell me, and I’m going to make myself one-hundred percent vulnerable to him… and if he doesn’t fess up…” She fought to hide tears. “Then I’m going to go to our Reverend and my parents and consider divorce.”

  I’m proud of her. It’s a start. “Good.”

  “Bene…” she corrected.

  “Right,” I smiled. “Coffee tomorrow?”

  She lit up. “Yes. I’ll be there.”

  I put my helmet on.

  “Bye,” she said. She picked up her bags and stepped back.

  “Addio.”

  Chapter Nine

  NOAH

  “Whoa, she got you good,” Lark winced, seeing my eye where the nerf gun bullet hit me.

  “She was seriously into it,” I said, dribbling our basketball. The court in my gym is spacious and on the other side, is a team of guys playing.

  “Was she pissed?”

  “I don’t think so, but I don’t know.” I held the ball under my arm. “She wants to go away. Next weekend we plan to go to a bed and breakfast.”

  Lark cringed. “Did you tell Ruby?”

  “Of course, I told her right away. She understands.”

  Lark snorted. “When I was seeing someone during my marriage, I tried not to bring my wife up at all.”

  I hate when Lark compares this to that. “That was different.”

  “How so? You’re married and have a side chic. Side chics don’t like talking about wives.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t call Ruby a side chic. She means more to me than that.”

  “You can’t do anything right. You can’t even do wrong stuff right.” Lark pulled his red hair up for a man bun. His freckled face coming into view. “I told you, don’t make this complicated. Affairs get messy fast.” He recited the rules. “Don’t use names. Use synonyms like Honey, Babe, Boo Thang. This way you don’t throw out an accidental name swap. Buy them the same fragrance, keep their bloodhound noses off the trial. Keep your phone passcode changed up, shower after every encounter, and don’t change up any moves sexually in the bedroom with the old ball and chain. She’ll get suspicious.”

  Ruby mentioned the bedroom rule. When Lydia expressed wanting to be on top, I panicked. I didn’t stop to realize it was her idea, not mine. “Which makes me feel like shit.”

  “Why?” he smacked the ball out of my hands.

  “Because,” I scratched my scalp as I followed him around the court. “I haven’t exactly been giving Lydia my best. Ruby and I do things that— would make things better for Lydia, but you both keep saying I shouldn’t do any different.”

  “Because Ruby and I know how to play this game.”

  “It’s not a game.”

  “Sure it is. Love is one big game. Remember what I said the first night? If you plan to cheat, have your faculties straight. You have to ask yourself, am I doing this for ass? Who do I actually give a shit about? If the answer becomes both, you need to drop one.”

  I swiped the ball then rubbed my temple because his words are crowding my mind. “I love Lydia. Lydia is an amazing woman and I would never be anything without her. She’s my wife and my future.”

  “She’s great, but you’re bored,” he guessed. “I get it. She’s cute, but prude as hell.”

  “No,” I tossed him the ball. “Never. Lydia is everything a woman should be. I don’t want to lose her. If she ever figured this out, she would…” I shook my head. “God, I can’t think about that. Because I hate myself. I literally hate myself.”

  “She won’t find out, as long as you’re careful. There’s no reason anyone should get hurt. But you have to make sure everyone knows their place. Even Ruby. Even you.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, you think mistresses don’t catch feelings? One minute she’s a booty call, the next, she’s asking what day your court date falls on for your divorce.”

  “Ruby is married,” I reminded.

  “So? She’s still a woman and women get attached.”

  I went for my water. “She won’t get attached; she does this to— she cheats often. She never lets it get too
serious; she loves her husband the way I love Lydia.”

  Lark tossed the ball, making the basket perfectly. “I don’t know if you’re cut out for this.”

  I stopped and shoved his arm to make him look at me. “Stop making this sound like the start of some lifestyle. Ruby and I are not permanent. I would never do this to my wife more than this once. I’m not proud about it, this is a mistake that—"

  “You’ve already done it to her more than once,” Lark laughed. “You’ve been doing the nasty with Ruby for what? Nine months?”

  “I can stop anytime.”

  “My alcoholic uncle used to say the same thing while he was at the liquor store.”

  “I care about Ruby, but not like Lydia.”

  “Don’t call Ruby a side chic. She means more to me than that,” he mimicked me from a few minutes ago.

  “Ruby is not a priority in my life, Lydia is. I care about Ruby as a person, I’m not in love with her. I haven’t forgotten what this is.”

  “Then prove it, call her up and end it,” Lark faced me, hands on hips, shit eating grin in place. “Come on Bible Boy, tell your lover that she’s served her purpose, time to do a few hail Mary’s and mount the old ball and chain.”

  I grit my teeth. “Stop calling Lydia that.”

  “Wow, I can’t bad-talk the new ho or the old ho.”

  I grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt and put my face in his, warning him to shut up. He startled at first, but then he just laughed.

  “It’s okay,” he said to someone behind me. I realized the guys on the other side of the court had come to see if Lark was in real danger. He is, but he’s too stupid to notice. “All good,” he said to them again. “My friend is just venting, having a little early midlife crisis.”

  I released him with another shove, and he laughed some more.

  “We’re done, don’t talk to me again,” I threatened. He’s everything I don’t want to be. He also tapped a little too close home on my feelings for Ruby, feelings I’m trying to dodge.

  “You forget how well I know you,” Lark provoked again. “Best friends since high school, I know you better than your mama. I knew you back before all the Christian guises. Back when you were a normal dude with regular issues.”

  I hate him and I hate myself. I walk off the court and he follows. “Hey, calm down. I’m just speaking the truth,” he went on. “Remember being a horny teenager with Jack Daniel’s under the bleachers and a cheerleader under you? You were just you, no guilt, no pussy-footing. You were dating one girl, fucking another, and flirting with yet another. Then you meet sweet little Lydia at mom and dad’s church— After being grounded, and forced to go, I might add. All that religion stuff starts to become your only avenue up Miss Prissy’s skirt.”