Excerpt: Ever After

We went to Beverly's Chicken in the Rough right across Northwest Expressway from the hospital. Ruth had been the one who told me that John Steinbeck had mentioned Chicken in the Rough in Cannery Row. It used to be a nationwide chain of restaurants, and now just this one was left.

Ruth herself didn't want breakfast. She ordered a club sandwich. I got the two egg breakfast. I always want to eat breakfast before I go to bed when I work graveyard.

Ruth gave me a wistful sort of smile.

"You are afraid of electricity, in more ways than one," she told me.

I was too tired to pick up on the metaphor.

"I know that in residential electricity, you never work on a live circuit, and the chances of getting hurt are really pretty small. It's just that I accidentally stuck my finger in a live socket when I was about four, and it really scared me."

"I'm talking about a different kind of electricity, a different kind of spark. How long has it been since you told me and Constance that you weren't ready for another relationship?"

"What does that have to do with anything? And what's wrong with being single?"

"You seem to get so frightened when Constance and I argue."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything. Ruth didn't push the subject. We sat in silence for a few minutes until the waitress brought our food.

"So how did you and Constance get together, anyway?"

"You mean that we argue so much that you wonder why we decided to be lovers in the first place?" Ruth was clearly amused.

"Just answer the question," I said.

"I fell in love with her and I eventually persuaded her to see things my way."

"But I thought she noticed you first, years before you two got together, and thought you were cute."

"I was married to a man, and she wouldn't date a straight woman as a matter of principle."

I thought that seemed like a reasonable point of view. Not just that Ruth was straight, but that she was also with someone, and it usually doens't work real well to to get involved with someone who is in another relationship. Instead of saying any of this, I opened up a little packet of grape jam and spread some of it on my toast.

Ruth continued with her story.

"Robert and I had an open relationship. I told him long before we married that I was bisexual. He said he was fine with that, didn't mind if I got involved with women, or with other men. We were both fooling ourselves. I like sex. I could tolerate men. So I told myself I was bisexual. Robert was head over heels in love with me, and he told himself that he loved me enough that he could hold me with an open hand. So he was the one who suggested the open relationship. It was safe. It was comfortable. He was very good to me. Frankly, he was very good in bed."

Ruth had never seemed so open with me before.

"So what happened?" I was eager to hear the rest of the story, but also exhausted. It was past noon already. I couldn't suppress a yawn.

"You need to sleep," Ruth told me. "Do you have to work tonight?"

I shook my head no.

"Come down to Sauced and have a beer with me tonight. I'll tell you the rest of the story then."