A few weeks passed and Adele could not get the encounter with her former lover out of her mind. Although she had run from his kiss, she couldn't help but feel like she had in some way betrayed her husband. She was guilty of being in love with another man.
One evening, after Adele had put Cecila to bed, she sat in the drawing room reading as her husband poured over some financial reports, elegantly smoking a cigar. But Adele couldn't concentrate on the novel. It was one of the latest books all of Gregory's friends were reading. Women, of course, we not supposed to be big readers, but Adele read anyway and her husband did not mind. He liked that she was subtly different from all of the other cookie-cutter ladies of society.
All of the words on the page seemed to blend together, so Adele just gave up and took to staring out of the window where nothing in particular was going on outside. She had been unusually quiet and melancholy for days. Her husband thought it was just a female thing and let it be, until it seemed not to pass for weeks.
He looked up from his business reports to inhale a puff from his cigar. He watched his wife for a moment, looking so delicate and fragile in her chair.
"What's wrong, Adele?" he asked her, putting down his pen.
She shrugged and picked up the book. "Nothing at all. Just thinking. Cecilia was really wild today...so I'm just tired."
"But that's why we have a nanny." he volunteered, not buying her excuses.
She nodded, knowing he suspected something else was going on. She kept quiet for a full hour before opening her mouth again.
"Gregory, were you ever in love with another woman before me?"
Her husband nearly choked when he heard the question and masked it as a cough.
"I don't suppose so, no." he answered quietly. "Why?"
"Oh...just the book...tales of lovers. I was just wondering if there was any woman I should be wildly jealous of for having been your first love." she smiled.
He smiled back at her, putting his pen down once more. "No, no. You can be assured of that."
The following evening before bed, Gregory ruffled through the pockets of his coat, which was hanging on the hanger on the door, waiting for him to wear to the office the next morning. Adele, assuming he was looking for his tobacco, began taking off her overdress and taking her hair down, getting ready to retire for the evening. Just as she had slipped off her over dress and stood before him in her corset and underdress, he tapped her on the shoulder.
"I saw this at Tiffany's this morning and I thought of you." he smiled, handing her a familiar blue box with a white ribbon around it.
Adele grinned and opened the box at a lady-like slow pace and found a gorgeous silver necklace with a precarious diamond hanging from it.
"How gorgeous." she exclaimed, watching the diamond glittering in the light of their room.
"I thought you needed it. You seemed down lately." he told her, taking it from her and clasping it around her neck. "Rather dressy for undergarments, but you make anything look lovely."
She turned around and kissed his mouth delicarely. "Thank you. I love you."
The latter words were spoken more as a way to convince herself she really did love him. She had never doubted it before...
He smiled at her returning the sentiments and took her into his arms.
After they made love, Gregory lay on his stomach stroking his wife's hair and down her back the way he always did. She smiled at him lazily, feeling as though she would burst into tears any moment.
Suddenly, she turned away from him, her body rocking with sobs.
"Adele? What is it?" he asked sitting up and looking at her.
"Nothing. Its nothing. Just a female thing you know." she told him between sobs. Never before had being intimate with him caused her heart to break in two.
He laid back, feeling helpless. Had he done something wrong?
After a few moments of tears, she turned to him in the dim of the night. "Its not you. You're perfect." she whispered before kissing his lips and laying her head on his chest. She fell asleep this way on her husband's chest, but was dream of someone else entirely.
-
Mush, too, was having difficulties. Rather than show his wife he had any vulnerabilities, he decided to talk it out with Racetrack, one of his trusted friends.
He told Rachel he was taking Jacob to visit Race's children, the two-year-old twin terrors as Race called them. They liked to coo over Jacob and try to teach him to play with blocks.
Mush gathered the child who was growing by the minute it seemed, into his arms and walked the few blocks to the apartment Race, his wife and their two children lived in. There was no mistaking Race's apartment from all of the others. Inside he heard a harmonica playing and the laughter of his wife and the children dancing around wildly to it. He had to admit he was jealous of Race. He'd only truly loved one girl and never left her...and he wished he could've done the same.
He knocked on the door. Fiona, Race's wife, answered, looking flustered, her blond hair out of place from all the dancing going on. The twins were dancing wildly in the background, running around and giggling.
"Hey Mush!" she smiled in greeting.
"Hey Fi. Heya Race."
When the twins saw him, the two ran towards the door, screaming in their nasal voices "Unca Mush!"
"Sure is," he answered with a grin. "And look who I brought to play with."
He smiled at Jacob as his eyes lit up seeing his playmates.
Sensing a man-to-man talk was in order, Fi offered to take Jacob and the kids into the other room so they could spread out and play with the toys in the chest. Mush thanked her and sat down next to Race who had lit up a cigarette.
"So, what's goin' on. Ya nevah pop up uninvited unless ya got some crisis." Race smirked, putting his feet up and blowing a ring out of his mouth.
"Its...Adele."
Race bit his lip. "Adele? I ain't hoid about her since she got married ta dat guy two yeahs ago. You seen her?"
Mush nodded. "She came into my store by mistake when Rachel was vistin' her granny. She had a baby an' all. She was so pretty, Race...prettiah dan I remembahd. And I...I dunno. We tawked and I lost all me sense and tried ta kiss her, but she ran away and I ain't seen her since. Now I can't stop thinkin' about her and Rachel keeps askin' me what's wrong an' I tell her its nothin'. She don't believe me. She's says I'm actin' like we did when we was foist tagedda, in dat funk. But I ain't gonna tell her...I love her too much. But da t'ing is, I love Adele too..."
Race let out a low whistle as he took another drag of his cigarette.
"Sounds like you got yaself in a bind." He answered. "Ya shoulda married Adele, Mush."
"I know dat, I knew dat yeahs ago." he said, in almost a pleading tone. "What would you do?"
Race shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't know ya could love moah dan one person at a time. But I'd say just stop and think for a while. Listen ta your heart I guess...it should tell ya what it wants ya know...what's best."
Mush nodded. "Yeah, you're right...I'll think about it a lot. Could you guys invite Rachel ovah sometimes? I feel bad...she's gotten real sad since i've been sad and she needs some people who ain't all mopey all da time."
"Well, we ain't exactly da cheeriest people on earth, but we'll try. I'll talk ta Fi about invitin' her over some."
"Thanks," Mush answered with a smile. "Not a word, aight? Even ta Fi."
Race nodded, spitting in his hand and holding it out. Mush responded with the same gesture.
----
More to come! I'm not sure how to end this story actually...so if anyone has suggestions, let me know. :)