Excerpt: Be Mine

Chapter One – Happy Thanksgiving

He’s late. He should have been here over an hour ago but so far he hasn’t even sent a text message like he usually does. I keep going to the living room window, staring out at Pine Street glittering with frost and fallen leaves, hoping to spot his arrival.
So far, nothing.
Jane touches my shoulder. “Come in the kitchen with me,” she says. “You need something to do besides car-spot.” This she says with a saucy wink. There’s no point in getting annoyed with her. She means well. Besides, she’s right. I am acting like a restless child, jumping every time I hear a car pass by or voices that sound somewhat familiar.
So I follow her into the kitchen, and she puts me to work with mixing the cornbread stuffing.
“Have a glass of wine too.” She plonks down a glass of chardonnay by my station at the kitchen island. “You’re way too geared.”
“You would be too if you were me.” Tomorrow is going to be a stellar day for Eric and me. Tomorrow he’ll arrive at our apartment with his boxes of all his belongings and we’ll finally start our life together. I like the sound of that—together. No more pretending we are simply colleagues, no more romantic evenings postponed because his in-laws are coming, no more subterfuge at all!
Jane knows all about Eric. She knew when I first met him that we’d end up together—well, she predicted we’d end up in bed together. I don’t think she expected us to embark on two years of sneaking around while his wife bitched and moaned about their townhouse in Fairmount not being swanky enough or how all of her friends were having babies and she wanted one too even though she’d agreed that neither of them wanted children. Jane knows all about this but she doesn’t approve. She never says she doesn’t approve because she is too good a friend to criticize me relentlessly but she’s already made it clear on one occasion that she does not condone my relationship with Eric because we are betraying his wife. And I can respect how Jane feels. She and Brian have been married for six years and—touch wood—no one has come between them. But she hates how my relationship with Eric forces me to lie.
“Are you sure he’s told Melissa?” Jane checks on the turkey again.
“He told her on Monday,” I say. “Apparently she acted like she’d been expecting this for a while.”
“Something isn’t adding up then,” Jane mutters.
I add a little more salt to the stuffing and stir slowly. I don’t want to hear her speculations of doom and mayhem when it comes to my future with Eric. I trust him. He’s never lied to me, never made promises he knew he couldn’t keep.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yes, you said something doesn’t add up but I’m not listening to you.”
“You should.”
“Jane, please.”
“No, you should know he called here earlier and said Melissa was coming with him.”
“I know—”
“April, he didn’t sound like a man who was about to leave his wife. She didn’t sound like a woman who knows that tomorrow her husband is leaving her for someone else.”
“You spoke to her?”
“I heard her in the background. She sounded chipper.”
“She always sounds chipper.”
“I’m just saying…”
“I know, I know. Everything is fine. You’ll see.”
Jane sighs. I recognize this long, exasperated sigh. It is the one she uses when she has given up on trying to make me see things her way. It’s also the one she uses when she thinks I’m being too petulant. So we work in silence with her iPod streaming a playlist of Norah Jones, Carla Bruni and a few other vocalists whose bittersweet love songs ought to be warning flags for me. But I tune them out, just like I tune out Jane’s pointed looks and the litany of sighs and head-shaking that are all part of her repertoire. I put the cornbread stuffing in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. Jane refills my glass.
We’re both a little relieved when the doorbell rings.
Eric’s voice comes to us down the long hall leading from Jane and Brian’s vestibule to the kitchen. I smooth my hair from my face and wipe my hands on my apron. I’ve dressed perfectly for my victory: my hair is pulled back and twisted in a stylish knot—Halle Berry wore her hair like this and looked fabulous, the cashmere cardigan I’m wearing is one that Eric chose for me, my pencil skirt and heels make me feel svelte and statuesque. I feel beautiful for the first time in a long time. He’ll tell me how beautiful I am, I am sure of it. He’ll let me know we’re still on track.