Fae Second Chance

Chapter 15 - Pearls for Lunch

Chapter 15

The breakfast tray is delivered a little while later and John has on dress slacks and a sweater.  This is about as causal as John dares dress.  He walks over to the tray and helps himself to some eggs and bacon and grabs the cup of coffee I poured him.  He is busy munching when his phone goes off.  He reaches into his back pocket and answers it.  He gets up from the table and wonders back to the bedroom.  He closes the door, but it doesn’t shut all the way.  I move to the seat closer to the bedroom and listen in.

“Hey mom. Yeah, I was wondering if you could take Amelia out shopping today. I know you must do everything for thanksgiving dinner.  No, I don’t want her to help you at the house.  Why?  Dad is why.  He will try to convince her to work for him.  Because I said so.  No, mom I don’t want him anywhere near her.  I am not being silly.  Just do as I ask.”

There is a pause then John speaks again. “Hello Dad.  I need mom to take Amelia out today.  She is mad at me that is why.  I didn’t do anything wrong she is just being emotional. Dad, just see if mom can do this.  Fine, lunch only will be fine.  It is none of your business dad.  I told you no.  Okay, I will see you tomorrow.”

I rise quickly and head back to the table.  I pick up my coffee and lean on the counter. 

“Mom, will be here in a couple of hours to take you to lunch.” John announces as he exits the bedroom.  “Wear that blue dress with the white sweater.  That will look good for lunch.”

I nod and set my coffee down on the counter.  “Let me go check and make sure it doesn’t need to be pressed.”

I walk by John, and he grabs my hand.  He pulls me to him and circles his arms around my waist.  I have no choice but put mine around his neck unless I want to make the situation more awkward. “You know I love you, right?”

“Yes, John, I do.”

“Good.” He kisses me quickly on the lips and turns me back towards the bedroom, giving me a quick smack on the butt. 

I am fuming at John.  I pull out the blue dress and start to change.  As I am looking at myself in the mirror, I wonder why I am letting him do this to me.  Do I believe him about Jessica? Nope.  I know something is going on there.  He agreed to let me talk to her.  Maybe he is not cheating.  But couldn’t she lie for him.  Why would a woman agree to sleep with a married man?  I have never understood that.  Does he love her? Does he love me?  My mind is whirling and one moment I want to start crying and the next moment I want to rage at him.

I put the final touches on my makeup and exit the bedroom.  John is sitting in the living room area.  He is scrolling through his phone.  He looks up to me and evaluates my outfit from the tips of my toes to the top of my head.  He nods his approval.

“Maybe a little less lipstick?”

I glare at him.  Daring him to critique me anymore. He then shrugs and stands up.  He walks over to me and wraps his hand around my waist.  He leans back to look me in eyes. 

“You look beautiful, dear.  I love you.  You do not need to worry about anything.”

He leans in and kisses me.  He pulls back and ‘fixes’ my lipstick.  Basically, he wipes a bit of it off.  He always finds a way at get what he wants.  His phone dings and he walks away from me to see who texted him. 

“Mom is downstairs and waiting on you.”

I nod and grab my purse to leave the suite. As I am exiting the room, I hear him tell me to have fun at lunch.  A couple of minutes later I am sitting in a town car with John’s mother.  We are being chauffeured to whatever restaurant she has picked.  The ride is silent and strained.  We finally get to the restaurants and exit the car.  Marie leads me to the hostess stand and gives her name.  A few seconds later we are shown to our table.

Maire picks up her menu and starts to look it over. 

“So, you and John had a fight?”

I am looking at my menu as well. “Yes ma’am, we did.”

“What was it about, dear?  Maybe I can help.”

I have no problem letting her know what the issue is.  I want her to rage at John as well.  “Some woman called his phone this morning.”

Marie lays down here menu and stares at me. “Maybe it is someone he works with.”

“I know all his staff; she does not work with him.  She seemed upset his wife answered the phone.”

Marie picks up her menu again, “it’s probably all innocent.  You just need to trust your husband.”

“Would you?  If you were in my place.”

“Oh dear, I understand that powerful men have urges that we wives need to understand and,” she pauses and is thinking of her next words.  “Overlook.  You can’t expect a man like David or even John to not have extracurricular activities.  As long as they don’t advertise them and stay discrete, it is our place to understand and forgive them.”

I am flabbergasted, accept and overlook, is this woman crazy?  I set my menu down and look her in the eyes.  I folded my hands in front of me.  “I do not share my husband.  If he wants extracurricular activities, he married the wrong woman.”

Marie giggles nervously, “It probably not that anyway.  So, no need to worry.”  I do not believe her, and I think she does not even believe herself.  What kind of crazy marriage does she have that she will accept that her husband is cheating on her as long as he is discrete.  I decide to ignore my anger and try to get some information out of this lunch.

“Fine, let’s talk about something else.”  I tell Marie.  She sighs a breath of relief.   “How is Thanksgiving meal preparation going?”

She happily chats about all her plans and food.  We order and eat.  I repeatedly refill her glass of wine.  About halfway through the meal I ask about what David is working on.  Again, she chatters about any company gossips she has heard.  Nothing about the actual company just who is mad at who and who is dating, etc. I decide to see if I can find out what I want to know through the gossip. 

“Have you heard about any prospect of David opening a branch in Border City?”

“Oh yes, he thinks it may be a great addition.  The acquisition manager wife, Janet, such a lovey woman a little more w*********h than I normally associate with, but we can’t help our upbringing.”

“What did Janet tell you?”

“Oh, that her husband is really excited about the new branch.  Apparently, his best friend from college is related to some magic people and they are helping him get everything set up.  He is hoping that this will get him a promotion at the office.”

“Well, I hope it goes through.  Maybe I can work there if John is still stationed in Border City for his next term.”

Marie waves her hand, “Don’t get me wrong.  I am proud of John accomplishments, but David does not think he will win a second term.  He is already prepping jobs for John and you as well as a nice house near us here.”

“I am not sure John will go for that.  You know how he feels about Boston.”

“He is just being silly, once you get here, he’ll be happy.”

“Why doesn’t David think John will get re-elected?”

“Well,” she starts to tap her chin thinking about it, “I don’t really know.  Something about making the wrong type of friends and creating the wrong type of enemies.  You know I don’t know anything about politics.”

I am pretty sure the enemy part of that statement refers to Mr. Clark, but the friends portion I am clueless.  Maybe this has something to do with the research project John is doing.  All I have found out about that is John has brought in a team of researchers, probably not from the government to study something.  I am guessing it is the magic people.  But what exactly they are looking into is anyone guess.

I know it is sad and pathetic, but I need to know if John is actually going out tonight with his friends or Jessica.  “Do you know of any John’s college friends?  They are going out again tonight.”

“Yes, yes, such sweet boys.  One of them works for David’s company you know, and one is a lawyer.”  She is thinking about the guys, and I am relieved that she knows who they are.  “Then there is William Craddick.  His grandparent lives in our neighborhood.  He has some international job now, but he is in for the week for the holidays.  His grandmother was so happy and excited.  She told me all about the plans she has for all of them last week during the charity dinner.”

I let her chat away about the charity dinner.  I remember William from John’s school.  William was a year older than John and they were fraternity brothers.  William was always into something.  He had the whole school wired.  If you needed test questions or dirt on a teacher, you went to William.  The weird thing is that William and John did not hang out.  Actually, I would say William disliked John, a lot.  I am surprised that he would be spending his family time to catch up with someone that he really didn’t like. 

We finish up lunch and are heading back to the hotel.  All I have found out from this lunch is John is hanging out with his fraternity brothers.  It appears the marketing manager college roommate is David’s hook up in Border City and I have no idea who Jessica is.  John’s mother thinks she is his mistress though.  I am starting to think she is right.

I walk back into the hotel suite and John is sitting at the small table working on his laptop.

“How was lunch?”  He asks me.

“Fine”

“What did you two talk about?”

“Nothing much, some charity dinner she went too, thanksgiving dinner, oh and how excited William Craddick’s grandmother is to have him in town for the holidays.”

John slightly flinches.  “Yep, I am hanging out with him tonight.”

“Tell him I said hi.”  I state as I stroll through the room to the bedroom to change.  I get the distinct impression that I was not supposed to know about William being in town.