Tempting Fate

by Jane Green

  Don’t be pathetic, she thinks. Don’t think this is something other than a nice guy who’s bored and lonely, eager to have a friendly face to talk to. Not that I wouldn’t be enormously flattered if he was flirting, but look at me! Look at him, now look at me again. Even if he is flirting, which he isn’t, there would be no point. I’m happily married to the loveliest man in the world. But if he is flirting, even though he’s not, it would be nice to feel attractive again. It would be nice to feel that I still have it, even if it’s only for three more minutes.

  ‘Gabby?’ Her arm is grabbed, and she spins to find herself face to face with Claire. ‘Who is that adorable guy at the bar? I can’t believe you’ve been flirting with someone all evening! We haven’t seen you at all!’

  ‘I’m not flirting,’ Gabby says, certain that she is not. ‘I don’t flirt. I don’t know how to flirt any more. I’m just having a really interesting conversation with a sweet young guy.’

  ‘He’s not sweet.’ Claire glances at him. ‘He’s a stone-cold fox!’

  ‘Right.’ Gabby nods. ‘And he’s twelve.’

  Claire squints as she looks across the room. ‘He’s not twelve. He’s at least twenty-five. Old enough to know what he’s doing …’

  ‘Claire!’ Gabby reprimands. ‘For a start, he’s ten years younger than me, and secondly, hello? I’m married. Remember?’

  ‘We’re all married,’ Claire replies, and she winks. ‘Doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun.’

  Gabby doesn’t ask her what she means by ‘fun’. She shakes her head with a laugh as if Claire’s suggestion is ridiculous, then moves towards the bar, where Matt is waiting with a big smile.

  On the way there, Gabby is aware that she is holding herself straighter, smiling more widely, giving off an aura that is causing the other men to turn and look at her in admiration.

  Because tonight, thanks to this younger man who is paying her attention, Gabby feels alluring. Despite her incredulity that he may be flirting, deep down she is aware of a connection between them. She has no plans to do anything about it – Gabby would never be unfaithful – but it has been years since she felt desirable, years since she felt sexy, beautiful. It is a powerful, heady feeling, and once tonight is over it will be gone. When tonight is over she will once again be a middle-aged suburban housewife, caught up in the pots and pans of life.

  What’s the harm in dragging it out just a little bit longer? She isn’t going to do anything.

  Absolutely not.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Matt flicks his eyes to her phone.

  ‘Just my husband. Checking in.’ Now she has said it again. She has a husband. ‘He’s with our girls, camping in Vermont.’ She breathes a sigh of relief, knowing she is safe now the information is out there. There is no pretence at being available any more, and what man would not respect the presence of another?

  ‘What’s your husband like?’

  This is unexpected. ‘You’d love him,’ she says. ‘Seriously. The two of you would get on like a house on fire.’

  ‘I’m sure we would. He’s a man of excellent taste.’ Matt grins.

  Gabby giggles and teasingly smacks him on the arm. ‘Flatterer.’

  ‘Truth-teller,’ he counters. ‘So what is he like?’

  How does she describe Elliott? From the moment she met him, both of them sitting at the same table, at the same time, at a coffee shop in New York, she knew he was exactly the kind of man she had been waiting for. She was twenty-three, working at a bookstore in the city; he was five years older, a doctor, doing his internship at Columbia-Presbyterian.

  He had asked if he could share her table, even though there were several empty ones, then he spent the next two hours distracting Gabby from her work, and making her laugh with his impromptu stories about the people waiting in line, so that eventually she shoved her sketchbook and pencil into her bag and gave up any attempt at drawing.

  The next day she met him at Central Park for a walk. He showed up with a hamper that had belonged to his grandmother, stuffed full of badly made sandwiches and packets of crisps in every flavour because, he explained, he didn’t know which flavour she’d like and didn’t want her to be disappointed.

  ‘I am married to the most wonderful man in the world.’

  Matt smiles. ‘What makes him wonderful?’

  ‘He’s brilliant,’ she starts. ‘And kind. He’s curious about everyone and everything, and is the kind of man that everyone feels instantly relaxed with. He’s warm, and caring. And a great father. We have two girls, and they’re the apple of his eye. He’s a great husband. I’m lucky …’ She tails off, aware she is doing a hard sell, but unsure suddenly of who she is doing the hard sell for.

  ‘He really does sound wonderful,’ Matt agrees.

  ‘He is.’

  ‘What does he do?’

  ‘He’s a doctor. Gastroenterologist. So, obviously, the good bedside manner helps.’

  I am a doctor’s wife, she thinks. Which is exactly what it sounds like. Stable. Safe. And just a tiny bit dull.

  Briefly, she indulges in a fantasy. What if she were a dot-com billionaire’s wife? What then? She sees herself padding around a glass house in Malibu, in one of Matt’s shirts, her legs having suddenly become miraculously tanned and toned, her hair a good six inches longer than it could ever be, given that she has been trying to grow it for many years and it still doesn’t reach much further than her shoulders.

  Imagine the parties they would go to! She and Matt laughing together as they lean on a deck overlooking the ocean, the wind blowing her very long hair around; no sign of cellulite, children, or ex-husband; no sign of anything from her former life.

  She shakes her head. What are you doing, Gabby? Are you completely mad?

  ‘Another Martini?’ Matt is about to gesture the bartender over.

  ‘God, no!’ she says. ‘A Martini is like –’

  ‘A woman’s breasts,’ he finishes. ‘I know.’

  ‘I should probably think about leaving,’ she says regretfully, not wanting to leave but feeling as if they have reached the end. What is the point in staying, after all? There is a ripple of danger just below the surface of her consciousness, and she knows she has to go.

  ‘How are you getting home?’ There is disappointment in his eyes. ‘You can’t drive.’

  Gabby laughs. ‘Trust me, I know that. One of the girls is driving,’ she says, and looks over to where her friends are, were, but there is no sign of them. ‘Oh shit,’ she mutters. ‘Where are they?’

  Matt is amused. ‘They deserted you? What kind of friends are they?’

  ‘Crap ones,’ Gabby says, annoyed, as she gets out her phone to text them. Matt laughs.

  We didn’t want to disturb you ;)

  tell us everything tomorrow!

  ‘They’ve gone?’ Matt doesn’t see the text, but sees the look on Gabby’s face.

  ‘I can’t believe they left without me. That’s just awful.’

  ‘Tell you what,’ Matt says. ‘Why don’t you come to the hotel? We can have some coffee and they’ll call you a cab.’

  Gabby studies his face. There is no ulterior motive. It is just a coffee, and she could do with a coffee right now.

  He pulls notes out of a wallet and lays them on the bar, refusing to let Gabby contribute. Then he stands up and Gabby does the same. He is tall, much taller than she is, and her heart does a small flip as she sizes him up.

  Despite being twelve, he is unutterably gorgeous. Oh if only this was several lifetimes ago, she thinks, looking up at him, at the thick brown hair, the strength and breadth of his shoulders.

  Matt checks in at the hotel while Gabby curls up on a sofa in the lobby. Suddenly she feels unsure. Why is she here? Why is she having coffee in a hotel with a stranger while her husband is away? Of course she’s not going to do anything, but hasn’t this gone far enough? Wouldn’t it be so very much better if she went home now?

  Matt turns round and smiles at her from acros
s the room, and her heart does that thing again, that flip. Not because she’s planning on doing anything, but because being with him makes her feel beautiful again. It’s been so long since anyone has noticed her; so long since she has been seen.

  She will not be unfaithful; she would never be unfaithful to Elliott, whom she loves with all her heart and soul. But for years to come her self-esteem, recently so fragile, will be able to treasure this evening, this gentle chemistry, this feeling of someone as gorgeous as Matt being interested in her.

  And what would be the harm?

  ‘I’ve really had fun tonight,’ Gabby sighs, a couple of hours later. Coffee became Irish coffee, and she is aware that her sobriety said goodbye a very long time ago.

  ‘For the record,’ Matt says, ‘I don’t make a habit of sitting at bars and flirting with lovely-looking ladies. Especially when I’m travelling for work. You have made a boring business trip completely delightful.’

  Gabby says nothing, too busy turning the words he just used over and over in her mind. ‘Lovely-looking’! ‘Flirting’! I wasn’t imagining it!

  ‘I’ll have them call you a cab.’ He doesn’t move.

  It is now the early hours of the morning. There is no one else in the dimly lit hotel lounge. One receptionist is over at the desk.

  Matt and Gabby stare at each other, and Gabby wills herself to move, to get up, to get out and go home before … before it’s too late. But she can’t move. Her heart is pounding, an unfamiliar heat is coursing through her body, and she knows she has to go, but she can’t do anything other than gaze into the eyes of this man as she lets out a deep sigh.

  ‘Why are all the women I like unavailable?’ he murmurs, making Gabby’s heart threaten to jump out of her body. She doesn’t know what to say. She wants to leave, knows she has to leave, but oh, how she wants to stay.

  ‘I should go.’ Her voice is a whisper, and mustering all the strength she can she reluctantly climbs to her feet.

  Chapter Two

  Minutes stretch into hours as Gabby thinks about getting out of bed. As a student at Bristol University, hangovers were a way of life for her. Her group of friends would toss back shots on pub crawls, but they still somehow managed to crawl out of bed the next morning and make it to lectures.

  Despite the hangovers, the nausea, she didn’t stop drinking. It was part and parcel of university life in England, part and parcel of growing up. She hasn’t been drunk in years, not since she and Elliott first started dating. Well, perhaps there have been a few times, a handful – fewer – since the girls were born.

  She now knows her limits. Being drunk may be fun, but it isn’t worth it. This isn’t worth it. She had no idea, last night, that she had drunk enough to make her feel as bad as she does now. Martinis. Irish coffees. Mixing drinks. That’s what did it. That’s why she feels like living death this morning.

  The bathroom used to be so close, but overnight it appears to have moved three miles away. If I can get to the shower, she thinks, I’ll feel so much better. She can almost sense the cold water pouring over her head, the relief the shower will bring, but making the journey from the bed to the bathroom seems like an impossible task. She actually doesn’t believe she can move. What she wants to do is think about last night, but thinking about it means thinking about the Martinis she drank, and if she thinks about those she may very well throw up. Instead she imagines jumping into a swimming pool, imagines the cool water surrounding her, bringing her back to normality. It helps.

  Her head is pounding, her throat is dry. She squints at the curtains, then at the clock, knowing there is nothing to do but wait until she feels strong enough to make it to the bathroom, the shower, life.

  Hours later, she stands under the shower, making the water as cold as she can bear, until she finally starts to feel human again. She scrubs her skin, then wraps herself in a terrycloth robe and goes downstairs to make some strong black coffee.

  Years ago, watching Cabaret, she was struck by the sight of Sally Bowles swigging a prairie oyster – a raw egg swirled with Worcestershire sauce – as a hangover cure. As a teenager she would do this regularly, not because she was convinced it worked, but because she wanted to be like Sally Bowles.

  As a forty-something mother, she’s pretty certain a prairie oyster would make her throw up. Instead she brews coffee so strong and thick it’s almost Turkish, and intersperses sips of that with sips of ginger ale.

  Elliott and the girls will be back later. She has hours for herself, but wishes she didn’t feel quite so awful, wishes she could actually do something with this afternoon off, rather than slump on the sofa with coffee and the remote control.

  Her phone buzzes.

  ‘I’ve been trying you all morning!’ Claire says. ‘Where have you been?’

  ‘I had the sound switched off and the phone was in my bag. I didn’t hear it. What’s going on?’

  Claire barks with laughter. ‘Never mind me, what’s going on with you? Or should I say, what was going on with you last night? When we left you were deep in conversation with the totally hot guy at the bar. Tell me you were a good girl …’

  There is a smile in Claire’s voice, only because she knows Gabby was a good girl. If she suspected anything else she would never ask with this lilt in her voice, never dare tease about something so serious.

  For a second Gabby is tempted to tell her how close she came, and how confusing she finds this today. She loves her husband, so how could she be attracted to someone else? And this morning she is quite clear: she was attracted to him.

  A problem shared is a problem halved, and even though this isn’t a problem, there is a part of her that wants to shout out that she is still desirable, that she isn’t as middle-aged and dowdy as she might appear, that someone young and hot wanted her.

  But she could never tell anyone what she’s thinking. Not even Claire, whom she trusts above everyone else. Except Elliott.

  ‘Of course I was a good girl.’ Gabby forces a laugh. ‘But God, he was so cute! And so young! If ever I am going to be a bad girl, please let it be with someone who looks like that …’

  ‘Aw,’ grumbles Claire. ‘We were taking bets on whether you’d be a bad girl.’

  ‘That’s terrible!’ Gabby says. ‘This is me you’re talking about, remember? I’m the last person in the world who’d misbehave.’

  ‘Exactly! That’s what I said, but Ella insisted you were in the zone, and once you’re in the zone rational thought goes out of the window. She was convinced you would have made out with him, even though I told her you’d never do that.’

  ‘What does that mean, “in the zone”?’

  ‘When lust takes over and you forget everything except the person sitting next to you at the bar,’ Claire explains. ‘I have to say that when we left you were engrossed. We were all trying to get your attention from the other side of the room but you never even looked up.’

  ‘Of course I didn’t look up,’ blusters Gabby. ‘How could I have done when the view was so pretty? Have you heard from the boys?’ she asks, changing the subject; there is too much noise in her head and she needs quiet to process what happened, or didn’t happen, last night. ‘Any idea when they’re getting back?’

  ‘Tim just called. They’re going to leave in a couple of hours or so after some off-roading. I’m glad the two boys did this. It’s good for them to have some time together, and even better for us to have down time. Don’t you love it when the house is completely silent on a weekend? This just feels like luxury. I’m exhausted. I’m still in my pyjamas, and I’m not sure I’m going to get dressed at all. I may just lie on the sofa and watch Downton Abbey, eating chocolates. Want to come and veg with me?’

  ‘I think I may veg on my own sofa,’ Gabby says, unsure that she can face more interrogation. ‘I’m feeling a day of back-to-back Mad Men coming on.’

  ‘Okay. I’m going to call Ella. She had to practically push that guy off her last night.’

  ‘Which guy?’
>
  ‘That guy Nick? Oh – you weren’t with us. He’s one of the dads from school, apparently, but he was there with a bunch of guys, and he totally came on to Ella. Can you believe it? I mean, I know Ella was flirting, but we all were. It was just fun. This guy thought she was up for it, and Ella knows his wife!’

  ‘Who’s his wife?’ Gabby is relieved someone else is the focus of the conversation.

  ‘Jeannie. Quiet, kind of mousy. Her kid is Phoebe.’

  ‘I know her. And I know the husband. He’s a sleaze.’

  ‘Now we know for sure. He invited Ella outside for a cigarette, then he grabbed her and tried to stick his tongue in her mouth! Can you believe it? Isn’t that the grossest thing you ever heard?’

  ‘Oh my God!’ Gabby says. ‘Ella smokes?’

  The truth is that she can believe it. She can believe all of it. When they moved to the suburbs in their late twenties, every couple with their first baby, no one would have dreamed of being unfaithful. Too busy building their families, shuffling to mommy and me groups, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, the women she knew were all wearing maternity clothes either as they waited for babies to arrive, or because they weren’t able to get their pre-pregnancy figures back.

  No one had time to exercise, unless it constituted a leisurely walk along the beach with children strapped safely in buggies. They certainly didn’t have the time, energy or inclination to have an affair.

  Even the marriages that perhaps should never have been – the marriages kept together by the glue of their children, by the routine of making new friends, building a home in an unfamiliar town – even these trundled along with no question of either husband or wife ever being unfaithful.

  The years have passed, and Gabby and her friends are no longer the newcomers to town, the young women who have just had babies and behave as though they are the only women in the world to have ever had babies, demanding that the world stops to accommodate them.

  Gabby finds herself standing in line at CVS as a young mother with a baby stresses out over the lack of the right formula. Everything in her body language, her speech, announces that she is a mother! She has a baby! She is more important than everyone else! Gabby looks around and catches the eye of other middle-aged mothers, their grey roots beginning to show, puffy shadows under their eyes, fleeces and clogs their uniform because they can no longer be bothered to dress to impress, and they exchange understanding smiles at these young, entitled women.