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Chapter Eleven: Lay Down a List of What Is Wrong

Christine woke up before Drake the next morning. It was the weekend, and she'd planned on meeting Mindy, who was in town, for breakfast that day. She left the house without a sound.

Mindy now worked in the medical field doing genetic research. She had left San Diego about a year after she and Josh broke up and now lived in Denver. Christine hoped that seeing her again would reassure her. After all, Mindy had been the one who had seen that Drake and Christine cared about each other in the first place, right? Mindy was smart, she could help her figure this out. Then again, as smart as Mindy was, maybe that wasn't enough. If Mindy could build a time machine then maybe Christine could go back to before all of this happened and fix things. But that was impossible. As intelligent as Mindy was, that was something she just wouldn't be able to do.

Christine finally met Mindy at the restaurant inside the Four Schneiders hotel of San Diego. It held probably one of the nicest restaurants in the area. The room was always kept beautifully decorated, and the food was always good. Christine couldn't bring herself to enjoy what was going on around her, though. And, of course, Mindy realized something was wrong.

"What's up?" she finally asked.

"Oh, not much," said Christine. "I just haven't been feeling well lately."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"You're lying. There's something wrong."

"Please don't bother me about that. Drake's already bothering me enough."

"Christine, he knows you better than anyone. If he's begging you to tell him something's wrong, you should tell him."

"There's nothing wrong," Christine said too quickly.

"Fine," said Mindy. "There's nothing wrong." However, there was no fooling her. She could only wait things out and see if Christine would tell her what was wrong.

Their food arrived, and they were silent for a little while until Mindy realized Christine wasn't eating much.

"That's it, what's going on?" asked Mindy.

"Why does something have to be wrong? Can't a person have an off day?"

"I hear you've been having a few off days."

"Mindy..."

"You wouldn't not eat if something wasn't wrong."

"I just..."

"Come on. You can tell me."

"I just don't know what to do," Christine replied.

"It's okay. Just tell me."

"A couple weeks ago, the younger receptionist at Drake's office said some things to me."

"Okay..."

"She tried to tell me that she and Drake were having an affair. I didn't believe her, but I was worried about how we were supposed to keep something like that from happening. I went to my dad, and soon I felt better about everything. Drake and I talked about it, and things seemed great."

"That doesn't seem so bad."

"Then he said he'd talk to Debra and get her to leave us alone. I said okay. Well, Debra had been on vacation and finally came back to the office. I'd been sick anyway, so Drake was more concerned about that. However, when he finally was going to talk to her, I was supposed to go to lunch with him that day. I got to the office, and the other receptionist told me I could find him in one of the back rooms. So, I went to find him. When I opened the door..." She felt tears in her eyes. A sob caught in her throat. Saying it made it seem all too true. "He was kissing her," she finally broke down.

Mindy reached across the table toward her friend.

"Christine, are you sure?"

"What am I supposed to believe?"

"Did you say anything?"

"No. I shut the door and ran. I couldn't face him. I called him and told him I was too sick to go to lunch. He's been asking me ever since if something's wrong. I can't tell him. I just can't. I've been trying to figure it out in my own head, but I can only go back to the fact that I saw him do it. I saw them. I haven't been able to look him in the eye ever since."

"Well, it's true that you can't change what happened," said Mindy. She didn't know what to do. "Tell you what, let's go get breakfast somewhere else. I think you could use a chocolate donut."

Christine let out a small laugh.

"There you go. We'll figure this out. Everything will be okay. I promise."

Drake dug around the papers in the folder he'd brought home. He knew he'd left something at work, but he didn't know what it was. He knew he needed it too.

"Angela," he called.

"Yes, daddy?" she asked, coming down the stairs.

"I forgot something at work. Can you come with me and be a good girl while I go look for it?"

"Yes," she replied.

Drake quickly got her into the car and drove to his office. He took her by the hand and led her inside.

"Hello, Dr. Parker," said Barb. "I wasn't expecting to see you today."

"Well, I left something, so I had to come in and get it."

"Oh, I see." She glanced down at Angela. "Is this your daughter? She looks so much like you."

"She looks a lot like Christine too," said Drake.

"Yes, I see that too," said Barb. "A good mix of both. Would you like me to watch her for you while you dig up what you're looking for?"

"You don't have to do that..." said Drake.

"Oh, I'd love to. I think I might have some lollipops back here," she said to Angela. "If that's okay with your daddy."

"Uh, sure," said Drake. "I'll be back in a little bit. Will you be okay?" he asked Angela. She nodded, and Drake hurried down to his office. He rummaged through his drawers until he finally found what he was looking for. His cell phone suddenly rang. He glanced at the number. It was Rob's. Wait...he was up already?

Drake answered his phone to a very frustrated Rob.

"Why won't anyone answer the phone at home? Where is everyone?"

"Whoa," said Drake. "What's the matter?"

"No one's answering the phone at home. I'm worried."

"Christine is with Mindy, and I had to run back to the office for a little while, so I took Angela with me."

"I see," said Rob.

"Feel better now?"

"No. Drake...what's wrong with Christine?"

"What? Why do you think something's wrong?"

"Because I called before...she answered the phone. It sounded like something was wrong, and I asked. She said nothing until I pushed some more. She finally spilled to me that she thought you might be having an affair."

"WHAT?" Drake yelled.

"She just...Drake, I don't know...she didn't want me to say anything, but...HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO HER??? DO YOU EVEN REALIZE WHAT YOU'RE THROWING AWAY?"

"Rob, calm down!" said Drake. "I didn't cheat on her. I don't know where she'd..."

"I asked if she had proof. She said, 'sort of.'"

Drake sat thinking. What would have given her that idea? He heard the door to Dr. Graves's office close down the hall. Oh no.

"She saw us," Drake said quietly.

"What?" asked Rob.

"When I went to talk to Debra, I was going to tell her to leave Christine alone and to forget about me. She backed me up against the wall and kissed me. I wasn't sure at the time, but I thought I heard a door slam. Now I know I did, and it was Christine. That's why she's been acting strange. She saw it."

"You kissed another woman!" yelled Rob. "That's just as bad!"

"I didn't kiss her! She kissed me! I got away when I could, but...it doesn't matter now."

"Drake, you have to tell Christine the truth."

"How? What do I say? 'Yeah, she kissed me. You missed me get away from her.' Is she really going to believe that? She knows what she saw. I can't change it."

"Why can't you try to fix it?" Rob snapped.

"I didn't say I wouldn't try," said Drake.

"No, but you can't sit there questioning what can't be changed, and that's exactly what you're doing. You two can't split up. You just can't."

Drake was surprised at Rob's reaction.

"All I can do is try," said Drake. "I won't be able to change everything, but I can try to make things better. I'm sorry this has worried you."

"Just change it, please," Rob begged.

Christine couldn't figure out what to do or say now. Mindy knew, and it felt like less of a burden, but Christine couldn't help but wonder if her marriage might be over. Ten years they'd spent together, and this was how it ended? She couldn't cope with that. Especially not now.

It was nearly noon. The events of the morning led to long talks and walking through the park several times.

"I don't know what to do," said Christine. "He just couldn't have..."

"We'll figure it out," said Mindy. "Don't worry."

Lana walked by on her way from her office. She was on her way to lunch and then going home. She noticed Christine and who she recognized as Josh's ex-girlfriend. She wasn't sure about Mindy being there, but everyone had described Mindy as nice — besides Drake — and Christine looked so down that she had to say something.

"Christine?" Lana asked, walking toward her. "Is everything all right?"

"No," Christine finally admitted. She couldn't say anymore. She looked at Mindy, and her eyes begged her for help.

"She saw Drake kiss Debra," said Mindy. "We don't know if he's cheating on her."

"Oh," said Lana, falling next to Christine where she was sitting. "Come on. That's not like Drake."

"Well, I would have expected this back in school," said Mindy. "Then things changed. I don't understand. You can't just go for years being one way then suddenly change again. I can only see it if he'd made up his mind to do it. And I don't think he would."

"Did you talk to him about it?" asked Lana.

"No," said Christine. "I can't. He'd only say he didn't do it, then where would I be?"

"He wouldn't lie to you," Lana insisted.

"I want to believe he wouldn't. I want to believe what I saw wasn't real."

"Christine..." said Mindy softly. This was ridiculous. What was going on? "You said Debra approached you. Did anything happen before that?"

"Drake said she tried to seduce him in his office. I don't...can we go talk to my mom, please?"

"Are you sure?" Lana asked. She knew exactly what had happened at Christmas. How was this going to go over? Wouldn't Tim be the first to say, "I told you so?"

"Tim's not there today," said Christine, nearly reading her friend's mind. "I'll be fine. Mom will know what's right and what's not. She's been through it. I don't want to tell her what's going on, but maybe if I can get her to tell me what she saw happening to Dad at the time, I'll be able to make sense of this."