“You’re a single mom without any of the advantages,” Sally said, pouring her another glass of wine. Drive home drunk. What do I care?
“There are advantages, aren’t there?” Lynette leaned forward and lowered her voice, although Molly was at a friend’s and Sam was up in his room with Lynette’s Duncan, playing the SIMS. “No one ever says that, but it’s true.”
“Sure. As long as you have the money to sustain the standard of living you had, being single is great.”
“How do you do that?” Asked with specificity, as if Lynette believed that Sally had managed just that trick. Sally, who had long ago learned the value of the non-reply, raised her eyebrows and smiled serenely, secretly.
“I think Alan cheats on me,” Lynette blurted out.
“I would leave a man who did that to me.”
Lynette shook her head. “Not until the kids are grown and gone. Maybe then. But I’ll be so old. Who would want me then?”
Who would want you now?
“Do what you have to do.” Another meaningless response, perfected over the years. Yet no one ever seemed to notice how empty Sally’s sentiments were, how vapid. She had thought it was just men who were fooled so easily, but it was turning out that women were equally foolish.
“Alan and I never have sex anymore.”
“That’s not uncommon,” Sally said. “All marriages have their ups and downs.”
“I love your house.” Logical sequences of thought had never been Lynette’s strength, but this conversation was abrupt and odd even by her standards. “I love you.”
Lynette put a short stubby hand over Sally’s, who fought the instinctive impulse to yank her own away. Instead, it was Lynette who pulled back in misery and confusion.
“I don’t mean that way,” she said, staring into her wine glass, already half empty.
Sally took a deep breath. If this were a man, at a party, she would have laughed lightly and accused him of being a terrible tease. To Lynette, she said: “Why not?”
Lynette put her hand back over Sally’s. “You mean—?”
Sally thought quickly. No matter how far Sam and Duncan disappeared into their computer world, she could not risk taking Lynette to the master bedroom. She had a hunch that Lynette would be loud. But she also believed that this was her only opportunity. In fact, Lynette would shun her after today. She would cut Sally off completely, ruining any chance she had of luring Alan away from her. She would have to see this through, or start over with another couple.
“There’s a room, over our garage. It used to be Peter’s study. He took most of the things, but there’s still a sofa there.”
She grabbed the bottle of wine and her glass. She was going to need to be a little drunk, too, to get through this. Then again, who was less attractive in the large scheme of things, Alan or Lynette? Who would be more grateful, more giving? Who would be more easily controlled? She was about to find out.
Lynette may not have been in love when she blurted out that sentiment in Sally’s kitchen, but she was within a week. Lynette being Lynette, it was a loud, unsubtle love, both behind closed doors and out in public, and Sally had to chide her about the latter, school her in the basics of covert behavior, remind her not to stare with those cowlike eyes, or try to monopolize Sally at public events, especially when Alan was present. They dropped their children at school at 8:30 and Lynette showed up at Sally’s house promptly at 8:45, bearing skim milk lattes and scones. Lynette’s idea of the perfect day, as it turned out, was to share a quick latte upon arriving, then bury her head between Sally’s legs until 11 a.m., when she surfaced for the Hot Topics segment on The View. Then it was back to devouring Sally, with time-outs for back rubs and baths. Lynette’s large, eager mouth turned out to have its uses. Plus, she asked for only the most token attention in return, which Sally provided largely through a hand-held massage tool from The Sharper Image.
Best of all, Lynette insisted that, as much as she loved Sally, she could never, ever leave Alan, not until the children were grown and out of the home. She warned Sally of this repeatedly, and Sally would nod sadly, resignedly. “I’ll settle for the little bit I can have,” she said, stroking Lynette’s Prince Valiant bob.
“If Alan ever finds out—” Lynette said glumly.
“He won’t,” Sally assured her. “Not if we’re careful. There. No — there.” Just as her attention drifted away in conversation, she found it drifting now, floating toward an idea, only to be distracted by Lynette’s insistent touch. Later. She would figure everything out later.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Sally told Lynette at the beginning of their third week together, during one of the commercial breaks on The View. “Peter found out about us.”
“Ohmigod!” Lynette said. “How?”
“I’m not sure. But he knows. He knows everything. He’s threatening to take the children away from me.”
“Ohmigod.”
“And—” she turned her face to the side, not trusting herself to tell this part. “And he’s threatening to go to Alan.”
“Shit.” In her panic, Lynette got up and began putting on her clothes, as if Peter and Alan were outside the door at this very moment.
“He hasn’t yet,” Sally said quickly. “But he will, if I fight the change in the custody order. He’s given me a week to decide. I give up the children or he goes to Alan.”
“You can’t tell. You can’t.”
“I don’t want to, but — how can I give up my children?” Lynette understood, as only another mother could. The truth would destroy her; the secret would tear apart Sally’s life. And even if Peter agreed not to tell for now, the danger was still there.
“Would he really do this?”
“He would. Peter — he’s not the nice man everyone thinks he is. Why do you think we got divorced? And the thing is, if he gets the kids — well, it was one thing for him to do the things he did to me. But if he ever treated Molly or Sam that way…”
“What way?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. But if it should happen — I’d have to kill him.”
“The pervert.” Lynette was at once repelled and fascinated. The dark side of Sally’s life was proving as seductive as Sally’s quiet companionship.
“I know. If he had done what he did to a stranger, he’d be in prison for life. But in a marriage, such things are legal. I’m stuck, Lynette. I won’t ruin your life for anything. You told me from the first that this had to be a secret. I just hope Peter will be satisfied with destroying me.”
“There has to be a way…”
“There isn’t. Not as long as Peter is a free man.”
“Not as long as he’s alive.”