Something Forbidden (23 page)

“Well I hope so. Spent the whole day getting beauty treatments. You know how it is.”

I didn’t, but nodded anyway. Now that she mentioned it, her face glowed.

“So what brings you here this afternoon?” Tuesdays were always pretty dead. 4 o’clock on a Tuesday meant her presence doubled the number of paying patrons.

“Looking for you,” she winked as I set her vodka tonic down. “You fixing yourself one?”

Chloe was synonymous with vice in my head, and she continued to live up to that reputation. I didn’t see a problem with indulging her this time, so I fixed myself a drink.

“What’s the occasion?” I raised my glass.

Her eyes met mine, smoky and ringed in dark eyeliner. Her response was husky, offered with a half-smile. “How about: to something forbidden.”

“Such as?”

She tipped her lowball against mine, a smile consuming her face before she replied. “Our spouses fucking on the other side of the globe.”

I wasn’t sure what dropped faster, my jaw or my stomach. Both fell like lead. “What?”

Chloe checked her watch. “They’re probably done by now. It’s pretty late there, but maybe not. They both seemed pretty into it last time we got together.”

“What are you talking about?” I understood the words, but they didn’t make sense. “Katie’s in Hong Kong...”

“So’s Greg. They had dinner tonight. Or last night. Or whatever.” She pulled her phone from her purse. “Here.”

On her phone was a self-portrait of Greg and Katie. They looked like they were sitting in a rickshaw with the vibrant lights of Hong Kong smeared behind them. Even bundled up as she was in a puffy winter coat and a hat, Katie’s beauty shined through. Greg, beside her, had one arm around her shoulders and the other held out to hold the camera.

My insides sizzled with jealousy.

“He was out there for business and looked her up.”

Something about that situation didn’t sit well with me. “What a coincidence,” I said flatly.

“Hey, he’s a financier. He goes where he wants. I’m not saying that Katie being alone in a foreign city
didn’t
factor into it, but I didn’t ask.”

“And you don’t have a problem with that?” I pointed at her phone.

Chloe reached across the bar and slid her fingers over mine. “Oh, I’m broken up about it. I was hoping you’d help me forget.”

She didn’t look broken up at all. She
looked
like a fox eyeing a sleeping hen.

I pulled away. “I don’t think you understand, Chloe. You and I? We’re not going to happen. I think you’re sexy. If I was single, I’d be all over you without a second thought.”

Although maybe not. There was something sinister about her, hiding beneath her vanilla scented perfume.

“But I’m with someone else now—”

“Someone who’s cheating on you right now,” Chloe hissed. “Someone who’s naked in bed with my husband. Right now. And you know what? I bet she doesn’t tell you tomorrow.”

The word
cheat
rang like a bell. “No...”

Chloe rose out of her seat and downed her drink. “I’ll call you tomorrow after I talk to Greg. We’ll compare notes. Then we’ll talk.”

She sauntered out. I watched her the whole way.

“What was that all about?” Nadia asked once Chloe was gone.

I wondered how much she’d heard. Chloe and I had been speaking in hushed tones, but the bar was still empty.

“Nothing. I...”

Was Katie cheating on me? Was this the first time? I looked at Nadia—John’s husband—who had an
understanding
.

“Has anything ever happened between Katie and John? Like on one of their trips?”

Nadia looked taken aback. “Anything like...?”

“Did they ever have sex? Please be honest, Nadia. I need to know.”

“Are you kidding me? Really? Katie? She’d never do anything like that. Ever. She loves you too much and she’s just not that way. And even if she was, John would never go there. Too complicated, what with you being my boss and all.”

I nodded, still not convinced. I thought about Katie’s confession so long ago, about the kiss she had with a young man in New York. John was on that trip.

“I think they may have kissed. A long time ago.”

Nadia shook her head, and at first I thought it was out of anger. A moment later, I realized it was something else. “They didn’t. Did Katie say that?”

“No.”

“Then you’re just being irrational and jealous—that’s not like you, Maxwell Callahan! But trust me, if they had, I would have heard all about it. John’s had a thing for your wife forever.”

“Maybe he didn’t want to tell you,” I offered.

“But Max, why would he lie? He tells me a lot worse than just that a kiss.”

“I don’t know.” I really didn’t.

“Max.” She pulled out her phone and fired it off to John.

–have you ever kissed katherine callahan? now, before we met, or ever?

His reply came a moment later.

–i wish. why?

“See? So tell me, Max, why would she make that up?”

“Now that’s a long story.”

“We’ve got all afternoon…”

I didn’t tell her all the details, although I told her most. I told her about my first meeting with Greg and Chloe, about Nadia’s wedding and how I’d gotten jealous of John’s gay cousin (which drew a big laugh from Nadia). I told her about Halloween, about Greg and last week at Azure.

Throughout, though, I talked about my excitement and my fear, and how one was almost never without the other.

And in the end, it was cathartic. I felt the way I had after walking out of Confession when I was a boy: the realities were still all there, but now they weren’t so bottled up anymore.

“Wow,” Nadia said at the end. “I had no idea you had all that hiding in your closet, Max. We need to close early and get out of here. We’ve got to make up for lost time.”

“But now she’s with Greg.”

Nadia said the thing that had been tickling the back of my brain for a while: “I don’t trust those two.”

“Yeah.”

Nadia pressed. “How did they even know she was even in Hong Kong?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s got some contact in the firm?”

She tapped her lips. “Maybe... Whatever the case, I don’t trust them. That woman who walked out of here isn’t the type of woman who is told no, and you’ve been telling her no since you first met. Be careful, Max.”

“Thanks for the warning. And thanks for listening, too. I needed to get that off my chest.”

“I can help you get all kinds of things off your chest,” she said with a wink. “But until you clear that with your wife, I’ll continue to dream.”

****

The elation of being able to share my experiences with someone lasted about an hour. Then the reality of the situation came crashing down around me. Katie had taken another man into her bed behind my back. Even if she confessed tomorrow, that fact would remain.

And if she didn’t? That left the door open to all kinds of other questions. Was this the first time she’d fooled around with another man? How could I trust her again?

I recalled my conversation with Greg—a conversation that felt like a lifetime ago, but was only about a month. Was I like him? Was it the possibility of her being bad that turned me on? I couldn’t deny that part of this did turn me on. Thing was, the
not knowing
part ruined me. The deception. The loss of trust. I could handle Katie getting physical with another man—I knew that without a doubt now. I could handle it whether I was there or not. But I needed to know about it. I
had
to know about it.

I wanted to call. A half dozen times, I had her number drawn up. All I had to do was press send. But I couldn’t bring myself to do that. I imagined the phone ringing on the nightstand by the bed as she moaned beneath Greg’s pumping body. What if she answered then? How fucking humiliating would that be?

The worst part was that a small piece of me got excited by that prospect. But it was small, and getting smaller by the minute. Like the patrons who’d be flooding into The Katherine in just three weeks, I only wanted the illusion of something forbidden. I wasn’t Chloe or Greg. I didn’t actually want it.

“Hey hon, how are you?” I called Katie the next morning after a fitful night’s sleep. It was already her evening. I wondered what she was up to. Was he there? Was she getting ready to go out with him?

“I’m good. How are you?”

“I’m good.” How awkward was this? I took a deep breath. Time to get into the uncomfortable details, the ones that governed our future. The talk that wasn’t The Talk. “So how was your day?”

“It was an interesting one, that’s for sure.” She sounded exhausted.

“Want to tell me about it?”

“Greg showed up yesterday.”

That thing that I’d been so worried she wouldn’t tell? There is was, offered without effort. All that bottled apprehension released with Katie’s tired admission. And for the first time since Chloe had walked out of my bar, I began to wonder if there was anything to admit. How quickly I’d jumped to her spoon-fed conclusion.

“That’s an odd coincidence.”

Katie sounded reenergized. “Isn’t it?”

“You don’t think it was?”

“He says he’s here to close a big deal, but I’m not sure what to think. I’m still working that out.”

“Okay. Keep me posted.” Then the obsessed part of me had to go and ruin a perfectly good conversation. “So he showed up yesterday, huh?”

I could practically see Katie’s eyes roll in her tone. “Max, not tonight. It’s been a long day.”

“I’m sorry. Had to ask.”

“You know I wouldn’t do that, right? Not without you here.”

“You did it before, when I wasn’t there,” I said.

“That was different. We talked about it first. You’d really be okay if something had happened?”

“No, you’re right. Before was different. It’s just…” I thought about telling her about Chloe’s visit, the picture, and the blonde’s suggestion. Instead, I kept all that to myself. “I don’t know, I miss you. I can’t wait for you to get home.”

“Well, looks like I may be finishing up here early. I should be back by the weekend.”

“Oh, thank God.”

“Night, Max. Or good morning. Or whatever it is there.”

“Good night and good morning to you, Katie. Bye.”

I pulled myself out of bed and took a shower, feeling like a new man. Katie hadn’t slept with Greg. She hadn’t cheated on me. What was most disturbing was how quickly I’d jumped to that conclusion. I puzzled through that as I pretended to read the news on my iPad.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” I said from the door to our daughter’s room.

“Good
morning
,” she croaked, her voice still full of sleep. “Where’s Mommy?”

She’d asked the same question every morning since Katie had flown away. This time, when I answered, I felt the same rush of impatience for my wife’s return that Mya must have felt every day. “She’s away right now, but she’ll be back.”

“She’s on a trip,” Mya confirmed. Her voice was so pure. When she spoke, everything was matter-of-fact. It was reassuring. “She’ll be back soon.”

“She will. Very soon. And this time, we’re not going to let her leave.”

Chapter
11

When Chloe called later that day, I answered, resolute in my confidence. Oh, how easy she picked it apart.

“So you two talked?”

“Yeah, talked to Katie this morning. She even mentioned Greg, so there. You were wrong.”

Something about the tenor of Chloe’s laugh was pure evil. “I didn’t say she wouldn’t mention Greg. I said she wouldn’t mention them fucking. She didn’t, did she?”

“Because they didn’t.”

“Did you ask?”

It was so satisfying to answer that one. “I did, actually. We talked a little about it. She said that she’d never do that without checking with me first.”

“Huh. Well, seems we got very different stories from our spouses!”

This was absurd. I knew where my trust lay, and it wasn’t in the woman on the other and of the phone. And yet, I kept listening anyway.

“Want to know what I heard?” she asked. When I didn’t reply, she took it as an indicator to continue. “They had a great dinner together, just talking then—apparently they have a lot in common. Maybe it’s
me
who should be worried. They took a pedicab tour around Hong Kong before heading back to your wife’s hotel. She actually invited him up, although Greg swears they were both just going up for a night cap—”

“This is bullshit, Chloe. You can stop now.”

“But I’m just getting to the good stuff. Apparently your Katie had an awesome view of the city. Did you know that? Something like the 66th floor?”