Obsessed With You (2 page)

“
I believe you,” she said.

Aaron rushed over to Cathy and
swooped her up in his arms. He kissed her tenderly all over her face
before claiming her mouth. He picked her up and carried her into the
bedroom, laying her gently on the bed. He undressed her and they made
love passionately, crying out together as they climaxed.Chapter Three

Cathy wished she could get the
woman out of her mind, but she couldn’t. It kept creeping back in
when she least expected it. She packed the last of the boxes, trying
to stay focused on her task.

And then there it was again.

She asked herself why a woman
would do that to another woman if it wasn’t the truth. She asked
herself why a woman would want to do that to Aaron. Someone who hated
her? She couldn’t imagine who that would be. Someone who hated
Aaron? But who? His charisma made him invincible to hate.

On Tuesday night, the day after
the call, Cathy brought it up again.

“
What if she calls back?” she
asked Aaron.

“
I blocked all private number
calls on your phone,” he said.

“
Oh,” she said. That bothered
her a little bit. It seemed that Aaron was afraid the woman would
call her back. Maybe tell Cathy some more truths. She tried to shake
those negative thoughts out of her head.

The movers came on Thursday
afternoon and moved the boxes, the bed, a dresser, and the couch and
one chair. All would be replaced after the honeymoon when Cathy could
research furniture for the house at her leisure. She looked forward
to having leisure time, something that had been rare in the five
years she had worked for The Scene. In those years, she attended
endless events and conferences, meeting Atlanta’s celebrities and
movers and shakers. It was at one of those events that she met Aaron.
She considered it to be the best thing that ever happened as a result
of her job, making years of stress and misery worth it.

And after tomorrow, those years
would be over.

Cathy and Aaron ordered a pizza
on Thursday night and made love in their beautiful four-bedroom house
in Buckhead for the first time. The next morning, Cathy kissed Aaron
goodbye and drove to work for the last time. She had been able to
push the woman’s call out of her mind for the most part since she
had been so busy with the move and with work. There was a lot to do
to leave the job she had held for five years. A lot of loose ends to
tie up so that a new person could step into her job and not have it
be a chaotic nightmare. She would finish a very detailed notebook for
her replacement that day, and then she would be done.

The phone rang incessantly,
making it nearly impossible for Cathy to work on the notebook. The
printer called to confirm the count for the next issue. The graphic
designer called to confirm approval for the special autumn layout.
Marlena called to see how she was progressing on the notebook. Cathy
would not miss Marlena and her micro managing.

Co-workers called and stopped by
her office to wish her luck. Then the phone would ring again. It was
all impossible, and she wasn’t going to miss it one bit.

The phone rang again and she
picked it up, resigned to answering one more question before she
could get out of there.

“
Cathy?” a woman said.

“
Yes,” Cathy said with a
harried tone.

“
Did Aaron tell you about us?”
the woman asked.

Cathy felt the blood drain from
her face. Her hands felt icy cold as she gripped the receiver.

“
He has no idea who you are and
why you’re playing such a sick joke on him,” Cathy said
venomously. “He’s going to sue you.”

The woman laughed throatily. “I’d
like to see him try,” she said. “Everything would come out then,
and he’d have nowhere to hide.”

“
Why are you doing this?”
Cathy asked.

“
I just think you should know
who he really is before you give your life away to him,” she said.
“Consider it a woman to woman thing.”

“
I don’t believe anything you
say,” Cathy said.

“
You should believe me,” the
woman said.

“
Prove it,” Cathy said.

“
Aaron comes from a little
farming town in north Georgia,” she said.

“
So,” Cathy said. Plenty of
people knew that.

“
His little sister was killed
in a farming accident when he was eleven,” the woman continued.

Cathy knew that was something
that Aaron didn’t discuss with many people because it was so
painful. As he had comforted her over her parents, she had comforted
him over the tragic loss of his sister.

Even still, Cathy said, “That’s
not private information.”

And then the woman went in for
the kill.

“
He’s got a birthmark shaped
like a strawberry on his left butt cheek.”

“
I think people might’ve seen
that,” Cathy said. “It’s high enough up. . .”

“
And he has another birthmark,”
the woman interrupted. “And you and I both know where that is.
About the size of a dime, I’d say, when fully aroused.”

Cathy’s blood ran cold. Her
grip on the receiver was so hard her fingers had turned white.

“
You must be an old girlfriend
of Aaron’s,” she said.

The woman laughed again. Cathy
hated the sound of her laugh.

“
No,” she said. “I’m
Aaron’s new girlfriend.”

Cathy slammed the receiver into
the cradle of the phone. She got up and locked her office door before
she burst into tears. She sobbed for several minutes before she
managed to get it down to sniffles. Two people knocked on her door
during that time.

It was time to get out of there.
Cathy picked up her purse and her tote bag that contained her
personal belongings and walked out of her office for the last time.
She didn’t stop by Marlena’s office on her way out because she
thought she might start crying all over again. She didn’t want that
to be the last vision anyone had of her.

Cathy was grateful the
receptionist was away from her desk as she passed by it and through
the main doors. It was difficult to maintain her composure, but she
managed to ride the elevator to the first floor and walk out into the
sweet autumn air without seeing anyone she knew.

On the trafficky drive home,
Cathy allowed herself to sob some more.

Forty-five minutes later, she
unlocked the door to her Buckhead house and dropped her purse and her
tote on the floor in the kitchen.

Her heels clicked on the hardwood
floors as she walked through the vast and empty rooms, the clacking
sound echoing eerily. Cathy went up the carpeted steps to the second
floor and pulled her laptop out of the closet. She sat on the bed and
pulled up Google. She keyed in “signs of an affair.” Right away
she found a site that listed eleven signs your husband or boyfriend
may be having an affair.

Number one: Sudden changes in his
appearance like alterations in his hair or clothing to try to look
better.

No, Cathy thought. Aaron always
looked great. He couldn’t look any better than he did.

Number two: his attitude toward
you dramatically changes, such as getting irritable with you or
starting fights and storming out.

Cathy had to say no to that one,
too. Aaron was always agreeable and never irritable with her.

Number three: He’s become
distant because he can’t handle having two relationships at once.

That was another no. Aaron was
always loving and caring.

Number four: Guilty behavior as
in showering you with gifts and affection to hide the affair.

Cathy thought about that one.
Aaron was always affectionate and he sometimes bought her surprise
gifts like jewelry or flowers. That hadn’t changed. But, as she
thought further about it, he had texted her a lot more than usual
since the woman called. Simple texts saying “I love you” or “I
miss you.” He had always done that, but not several times a day as
he had lately.

Number five: He displays
secretive or unusual behavior such as being elusive about where he is
or shutting down the computer when you walk into the room.

Aaron’s schedule was so busy
and erratic, she had never cared to know about every appointment he
had in a day. Often, he had appointments with clients after hours or
on the weekend. It was hard to know if anything changed there because
his schedule was always changing, always different. As far as
shutting down a computer when she entered a room, Aaron used his
laptop in the living room, openly.

Number six: You never see him
anymore; he’s working late or traveling for business a lot.

Well, that had always been the
case so it was hard to detect any differences there.

Number seven: He’s frequently
unavailable or unreachable.

Again, that had always be the
case with Aaron due to the nature of his work. He did always get back
to her, but sometimes it would be hours later. Aaron was working hard
to maintain good relationships with his clients because he planned to
start his own company in a couple of years and hoped his clients
would follow him. That had always made good sense to Cathy. Was it
possible all of that was just a cover so Aaron could have the freedom
to have affairs?

Number eight: Your gut tells you
when something is wrong.

Cathy’s gut had told her no
such thing.

Number nine: He’s different in
bed, wanting it more or less than usual.

Cathy and Aaron had always had a
healthy sex life. That never changed.

Number ten: He starts talking
about a new woman in his life, like a new coworker or business
associate, because he’s lessening his guilt by being half-truthful
or because he loves to say his mistress’s name. But she’s “just
a friend.”

Cathy thought about that one for
a while. Aaron talked frequently about people he met through his
work, both men and women. Occasionally, he mentioned his secretary,
Marsha, a plump woman who he said was a whiz and understood the
business better than any secretary he’d ever had.

He talked much more frequently
about Mrs. Davidson, an attractive middle-aged widow who Aaron wined
and dined at least once a month. Cathy had even been to some of those
dinners. Could it be Mrs. Davidson? She was only forty-two and took
excellent care of herself. Cathy dismissed the thought instantly. The
self-possessed and wealthy Mrs. Davidson would never stoop to such a
level. It was clear she liked and admired Aaron, but she had never
gone gaga over him like a lot of women did.

Aaron mentioned various women he
met through the course of his business, but none he mentioned
frequently. Except for Mrs. Davidson, and that was because she was a
number-one client with a huge portfolio. He wanted her to remain his
client when he started his own company.

Number eleven: He’s overly
defensive.

Aaron was never defensive. He was
the most self-assured, straight-talking person she’d ever met.

The article had been an exercise
in futility. The only thing Cathy had to go on was that a woman was
calling her saying she was having an affair with Aaron. That was it.

Then she went a step further and
keyed in “woman calling you saying she’s having an affair with
your man.” Her heart fell as she read the opinions of people in
forums. The overall consensus was that the woman was telling the
truth and that the man is a liar. Either believe your man or work
through it with him.

Or leave him.

Chapter
Three

Cathy changed into jeans and a
T-shirt before going downstairs for a glass of wine. She sat on the
couch, which looked drab and shabby in its new surroundings, and
stared at the fireplace. It was surrounded with hand-made green tiles
and may have been the feature that sold them both on the
Craftsman-style house.

Aaron texted her around six.
“Sorry, the meeting ran late and now we’re going out to dinner.
I’ll be late. I love you.”

The seed of doubt that had been
planted in the back of her mind came to fruition full force. Why did
Aaron always text her? Why couldn’t he just call her, at least some
of the time?

Because text was safer. No chance
of one-on-one interaction if she had questions.

She didn’t text him back.

Her doubt grew stronger as the
night wore on. Aaron could really be doing absolutely anything right
now and she would never know the difference. He could be at dinner or
he could be in a hotel room with his mistress, drinking champagne and
having sex.

Women were drawn to Aaron, and
not just because he was so handsome. He had an air about him that was
attractive, and women—men too—just wanted to bask in his light.
Women flirted openly with Aaron even when Cathy was on his arm! She
had come to accept it as part of the deal. She was secure in his love
for her.

Maybe she shouldn’t have been
so trusting. Maybe a man like Aaron needed more than one woman. She
saw it on the news all the time, powerful men having affairs while
the wife waited for him at home, having no idea what her man was
doing. Until it came out in the news. What amazed Cathy was how most
of those women, who had been publicly humiliated, stood by their man.
It pained her to look at them as they stood stoically by the podium
as their man made his apology.