Roger groaned and rolled on his back. The light from the ceiling light was too bright and he closed his eyes, only to open them up wide again. He sat up on the bed and rubbed his face. He had only intended to relax for a little while after getting out the shower, but instead had fallen asleep instantly.
He looked at his watch. It was just passed 7 o'clock, which meant that he had an hour left to prepare before picking Holly up next door.
"For our date," he said out loud, grinning broadly. He was going to declare himself during dinner. He had decided at first that it would be best to wait until they were alone, in either one of their rooms, but he figured afterwards that she might be more compelled to listen to him if they were in a public place. It would not be so easy to shut him out in a restaurant.
Roger sighed. He was no fool; he knew that he had his work cut out for him. Until last night, he had not given a reason to Holly to trust him in a very long time. Why would she believe him? Why would she leave a perfectly decent man, who Roger knew she cared about, to go back to him? He better pick his words carefully, for this was the speech of his life.
He went in front of the mirror and practiced a few different openings, then made at face at his reflection. Everything that he said sounded silly or trivial. There were no words that could express how he felt, and what transformation he had undergone in the last few hours. Scratch that, he thought; in the last few years. The reality of what he done to her had sunk in quickly enough after falling to the bottom of that cliff; he had been a changed man since then.
He was about to put on a black vest over his shirt when the phone rang.
"Roger Thorpe."
"Mr. Thorpe, I have your wife on the line. Her call was transferred from your previous hotel. Would you like to take the call?"
Roger frowned; he had specifically asked that only messages should be transferred, not calls. "Does she know that I've changed hotels since last night?" he asked.
"I couldn't say, Sir."
"Alright, please tell her that I'm out. I will call her later," he felt compelled to explain to the desk clerk. He hung up with more force than was necessary. Luckily, this was not the same clerk who had talked to him and Holly before. If this one wondered why he seemed to have two wives instead of one, he kept his musings to himself.
Still, the whole incident made him feel uncomfortable. He had never really been bothered by having to lie before, but there was finality in this one last lie, and it saddened him in spite of himself. Alexandra and he were having their problems, but she loved him, and he had cared about her too, once upon a time.
He put his vest on and checked his reflection, and then the phone rang again. "Yes?"
"Sir, your wife is calling again. Shall I put her trough?" There was something strange in the way the clerk accented the word "wife" this time, as if he was enjoying a private joke. Roger supposed that he was amused by Alexandra's insistence. "You don't know her in real life, buddy," he thought to himself before replying, "I guess she won't take no for an answer this time. Please, go ahead."
There was a short silence on the line before a soft feminine voice was heard on the line. "Roger! I've missed you so much; where have you been?"
Roger almost dropped the phone and blood drained from his face.
Mindy.
He had completely forgotten about Mindy.
"Roger, are you there?" Mindy called into the phone.
He took a big gulp of water from the glass on his nightstand before replying. "Yes, I'm here, he replied hoarsely.
"Why didn't you tell me that you would change hotels? I had to tell the other place that I was your wife and that this was an emergency for them to put me through."
And that is why the clerk was making fun of me, Roger thought with a sigh.
"Holly and I had to switch location to follow a syndicator. We made a deal with him and it went through today."
"That's great!" Mindy replied cheerfully. She hesitated a little before adding, "So, how are things between you and Holly? Are you getting along or does she still want to scratch your eyes out?"
Roger cleared his throat. He would probably be more comfortable on a bed of coal than having this conversation.
"We're doing – better. Yes, better."
"Okay," Mindy said uncertainly. It had always been easy talking to Roger, except about this one subject. Whenever she mentioned his ex-wife, she felt as if she was hitting a wall, and it scared her. Alexandra she felt like she could outlive in the end; Holly, she was not so sure. The official story was that she and Roger hated each other. How could she fight an enemy that had not declared itself?
"Will you come back tomorrow as planned?" she finally asked.
"Yes, my flight is at 11AM. I'll come by in the evening if I can get away."
"I really hope that you can make it."
"Me too," he said gravely.
He hung up and stared at his feet for a few seconds. He did not have the heart to break up with her over the phone. He would have to do it as soon as he came back.
As he made his way to Holly room, he wondered fleetingly what he would do about Alexandra and Mindy if Holly turned him down, then chased the unwanted thoughts away.
She answered on the first knock, and all Roger could do for the first few seconds was to stare at her.
"You look – stunning," he finally managed to say.
Holly gave him the once over and retorted with a smile, "Thank you, and you look very handsome."
It seemed to him that she was literally glowing as she took his arm to go down to the plaza. As for him, he was too overwhelmed to speak. The only think that he could keep repeating in his head over and over was that failure was absolutely, definitely not an option.
