“Tonight?”
“I met her before tonight.”
That wounded her pride almost visibly.
“How long?”
“Ten days.”
“You’ve been planning a divorce behind my back?”
Claire made a sound somewhere between disbelief and disgust.
Vanessa turned.
“This is between me and my husband.”
Claire’s composure finally cracked.
“No. You made my marriage part of it.”
Vanessa looked away.
Claire continued.
“My husband admitted it.”
Silence.
“He admitted the affair.”
Vanessa’s eyes snapped back.
Claire’s voice remained steady.
“He admitted the hotel.”
Vanessa’s face drained.
“He admitted the Thursday nights.”
No response.
“He admitted Boston.”
That was the one.
Vanessa looked at Adrian’s wife as though struck.
I saw it.
Claire did too.
“Boston,” I repeated.
Vanessa’s mouth opened.
Nothing came.
I said:
“You want to tell me about that?”
She sat down.
Slowly.
“This isn’t what you think.”
Claire laughed once.
It was a terrible sound.
“What do you think we think?”
Vanessa pressed both palms against the edge of the table.
“Adrian and I were trying to figure things out.”
Claire stared.
“You were figuring things out in hotel rooms?”
Vanessa flinched.
“It wasn’t like that at first.”
Every affair apparently has an innocent beginning.
Lunch.
Talking.
Being understood.
Shared pressure.
Complaints about spouses.
A friendship nobody intended to cross a line.
Then somehow the line moves on its own.
Vanessa began there.
“It started at work.”
I said nothing.
“Adrian was going through a hard time.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“His father died.”
“Yes.”
“I was there.”
Vanessa looked down.
“He felt alone.”
Claire folded her arms.
“He slept beside me every night.”
“Emotionally.”
There are certain words that should never be used in front of the spouse you are betraying.
Emotionally was one.
Claire went very still.
Vanessa turned toward me.
“And things between us had been bad.”
I nodded.
“How bad?”
“You know.”
“No.”
“Grant.”
“I’m asking because apparently ‘bad’ meant something different to you than me.”
“You were distant.”
“I was working.”
“You stopped talking to me.”
“I asked questions. You called them accusations.”
“You never listened emotionally.”
That phrase again.
I almost smiled.
“Did emotional listening include the part where you asked Daniel to lie for you?”
Her face changed.
“What?”
I picked up my phone.
Showed her Daniel’s messages.
Vanessa stared.
Then closed her eyes.
“He sent those to you.”
“Yes.”
“That bastard.”
Claire looked almost amazed.
“Daniel is the bastard?”
Vanessa glared at her.
“Stay out of this.”
Claire stepped forward.
“I watched you kiss my husband tonight.”
Silence.
“I watched you leave a hotel with him.”