Sally had been sleeping with Eddie for months. She had only been married a few more months longer than that affair, but she had a hard time feeling guilty about it when she and Laurence had both known from the beginning that the marriage meant nothing.
It was just another business arrangement, an excuse to stay close while her career slowed down, to keep them both in the money. She made no attempt to be intimate with him and he extended her the same courtesy. That arrangement worked fine her, considering her lack of attraction to her former agent, but she still had needs. So when Eddie Blake showed up, matured and apologetic, she took her chance.
He had always been attractive to her, and she had always wondered what things would be like with him, but he was young and unrefined, and he made his move too soon, and then things turned sour between them. Now, however, things were very different.
She knew, of course, that he was in love with her, or at least thought himself to be. It was obvious from the gentle way he handled her, from the way he let her do everything she wanted, from the tenderness that he showed her. Nothing could make a man like him behave that way, unless he was in love.
Sally was not sure exactly how she felt about that. She knew better than to fall in love with the man she was having an affair with, particularly when she could not bring herself to love her own husband. A relationship like this was transient, and she didn't need to feel anything when it was gone. Perhaps she would miss some of their times together, but she had no intention of missing him.
Eddie, to his credit, at least understood how he should behave within their arrangement. Even if she could see how he felt, he did nothing to purposefully let on that he loved her. He was not a romantic, he had no expectations, nor did he try to meet any that she had not set for him.
Until he did. Laurence was out of town, as he often was, and she had called Eddie to let him know that the coast was clear. Soon enough, there was a knock at her back door and she opened it.
A dozen roses were shoved into her face. There were red ones, yellow ones, and even purple ones, and the hand holding the bouquet most definitely belonged to Eddie. He had brought her flowers. Just like some love sick boyfriend-type, he had brought her flowers, and she grabbed the bouquet from him. He was smirking behind them.
"Surprised?" he asked.
"I'll say," she replied.
"So, d'ya like 'em?" he asked, oozing a confidence that she had already figured out was an act. They had spent enough time together that she could see through any of his acts, especially the ones he put on to try and impress her.
"They're...nice," she said, watching as he face fell for half a second before his smirk returned, albeit a bit broken.
"What, d'ya hate them or something?"
"It's not that I hate them, it's just...why did you even bring them?" she asked.
"Well, because..." He paused, as if he hadn't thought about that before. "Because! We've been doin' this for a while and I thought maybe I could...I dunno, do somethin' nice for ya or whatever..." He looked ashamed to even be admitting this out loud.
Sally sighed, trying to fight off the wave of affection she felt at him saying this. It was such a touching gesture, one that had not been extended to her since she had married, and one that had never been extended to her by anyone she was actually close to before, but that was the problem. Giving flowers just to 'do something nice' was not something characteristic of casual encounters.
Giving flowers was something couples do, was something done to be romantic, and if Eddie was being romantic, then that meant he was not trying as hard to hide his feelings from her, and that meant she would have to openly acknowledge them soon. Worst of all, she would have to face how that really made her feel and how much she really cared about him.
"You know that's impractical," was all she said. "I can't very well keep them. You know Larry will wonder where I got them."
"Then throw 'em out tomorrow. Jesus, Sal, can't ya just appreciate it?" He looked so hurt it nearly broke her. "I mean, I knew ya couldn't keep 'em, but I still wanted to...ya know...give 'em to ya. Alright?"
"I know. I didn't mean for it to sound like that," she said at last, and the smile on his face, like a scolded child that had just been told everything was okay, did break her, and she smiled back. "Thank you, Eddie. They're beautiful and I love them." She leaned up to place a small kiss on his lips, and then she was in his arms, being carried to her bedroom, the bouquet in her hands.
It was discarded along with their clothes, forgotten like everything else was when their lust took hold, and they shut out the rest of the world. In fact, they shut it out so much that they did not hear Laurence return home unexpectedly until it was too late and he was standing in the doorway, watching them.
The rest of the night passed in a blur. Eddie hurriedly getting dressed, Larry yelling at him until he left, then turning his anger to Sally as she struggled to defend herself. And as she stood there, scolded for her infidelity, she noticed the flowers on the floor, trampled in the confusion of the night.
She bent down to pick them up, already knowing that they were beyond salvation, and then she realized that she had failed. In accepting these flowers, she had accepted his feelings and she had opened her own, and now it was over and Eddie was gone. She had allowed him to love her and allowed herself to love him just in time to lose him, and all her attempts to protect herself from that had failed.
She missed him.