ALISON
I can't believe this. What the fuck. He has Jade with him. Whatever I expected, it wasn't this. They came and sat across me side by side without a word.
"Hello Jade, I haven't seen you since… two hours ago. Cole, I thought we were going to have lunch alone? As husband and wife?"
Jade didn't say anything. She kept a poker face and studied the interior design of the restaurant. What a pussy. It was Cole who replied. "I changed my mind." He waved at the waiter and ordered us IPAs on draft. He hated IPA.
"She abandoned your loyal friendship years ago. Why would you even want her here?"
Cole ignored my question. "I have to admit; I haven't called you here to have lunch as husband and wife. I called you here to talk about your sexual relationship with Noah Solloway."
Straight into the vein. "What relationship?"
"What can you tell me about your relationhip with him?"
Shit. How is he calm? It's not like him. She must have prepped him. Sneaky bitch. "He's a tourist from NYC."
"Yes, he is. I asked you about your relationship with him."
"I'm not comfortable talking about this with you while she's here." I had to say something.
"Jade stays." I made a move to get up and he grabbed my arm in a flash. "You stay too." There's the Cole I knew and loved; passionate, unbridled, reasonably violent. But then Jade lightly leaned her shoulder against his and he loosened his grip on me immediately, like a damn puppet, changing his expression after a slow blink. What the hell is going on?
"Jade has seen you engaging in a physical relationship with him twice, with plausible suspicion for a third time. I believe it's my right as your husband to know whether you're cheating on me. So talk," he said simply.
What's this? Law and Order? Engaging in a physical relationship? Plausible suspicion? *DING DING*
"I… Cole… First of all, fuck what Jade thinks. No offense, Jade. Taking her word without even talking to me? Without hearing my side? She has been begging for a smidgen of your attention since we were kids. I'm your wife."
"Heheh," his chuckle was fake. "We knew you'd say that." Did he just say we?
"Come back to the main subject, Ali. Stop deflecting. What is your relationship with Solloway? Or would you prefer me to call the Butler residence and ask the Solloways myself? I hear that they are regular patrons of the Roll, I could just ask the merry family of six personally."
Shit. I had to give him something. "I'm sorry, we only kissed and only once, I swear. Jade is exaggerating this to fabricate a whole tale. It was just a kiss, and a bad one at that. It was a mistake and I felt guilty. I left immediately. I was going to tell you last night but you didn't come home."
He put on a fake smile again. "You didn't clarify whether you left because it was a bad kiss or because you felt guilty." Jade moved a little.
Maybe playing on his guilt would work, so I rebutted. "You stayed all night with a woman who has wanted you for years, and you're shoulder to shoulder with her right across me. How do you think that makes me feel? I could accuse you of the same thing. Are you cheating on me with her?"
Cole shook his head in disbelief and looked at Jade, who looked up at him both worried and guilty. Was I onto something? I don't think so. Cole would never cheat on me. But then their hands rose from below the table, already entangled. And he apologized. "Sorry Jade, I see it now. I really do. You were right about everything. I'm glad you brought me here. Hey, at least you got a college education out of this. Where are my benefits?" Jade rolled her eyes at him, still not saying a word.
What was he on about? He calmly turned to my bewildered face. "I talked to Oscar this morning. He corroborated your flings over the years we've been together. Now… Oscar is a braggart and an asshole, but this time, he actually had the decency to look guilty about it. He sat me down across him and told me all he could remember, actually checking his e-mail for concrete dates. Your last time wasn't hard to remember, as it was last week, when you prepositioned him in New York, out of the blue. That was strange, even for Oscar."
Well, shit. Fuck it. If I can't break loose, I'd stir up trouble. "Oscar is a liar who has repeatedly threatened Scotty that he'd report him to the police. You can't trust a word he says. He is trying to set us against each other, just like his vindictive sister."
Well, that got a reaction. "What police? What are you talking about? Jade?" The bitch shook her head innocently, eyes wide. Damn her angelic face.
I said louder than I should, "I'm talking about the cocaine?"
"Lower your voice, Alison, fucking hell." he spoke between his teeth while a few of people stared at us. He was furious. "Is Scotty dealing cocaine?"
"You didn't hear it from me… Better watch your back with the Hodges family you're apparently keeping close." I gave a side eye to Jade. "You could be careful also with the Lockhart family while you're at it. You'll thank me later. Thanks for the disgusting beer. I'm leaving."
He was too preoccupied to care if I left. Noah and I were safe for now; Cole would have a lot in his hands in the next few days. We just needed to be more careful. It's a pity that I had to use the last card in my sleeve already.
COLE
I couldn't get Alison to admit everything, but at least she admitted to kissing him. I had Jade to thank. If she wasn't holding my hand under the table for dear life, I would have lost it from the first second. The moment I took a deep breath, Jade would loosen her grip and draw circles on the back of my hand with her thumb, keeping me calm and grounded. Now knowing more about Alison's other side, I could tell how easily she lied to my face. I was having flashbacks left and right, it was dizzying to try and estimate the lie count. I felt so stupid. I had created an Alison in my head, following her lead. It was a flurry of smoke. There was nobody there. Rest in peace, imaginary wife.
Nevertheless, we had another, bigger problem to deal with. We? I mean, I. Why did I just annex Jade into this? She had nothing to do with it. Still, right as Ali left, she started whispering to me in panic.
"Did you suspect anything? Who else do you think knows? If Oscar knows, I'm sure there'll be more people. Let's go and talk to him immediately."
"I'm not sure it's a good idea for you to involve yourself in this. If you didn't come here to support me today, you would have known nothing about it."
"Indeed, I wouldn't have. Whereas now I'm an enabler if I don't do anything. If Alison's claim is not a bluff, you do want Scotty to stop dealing, right?"
"Absolutely."
"Then you have me right here. What do you need?"
There we were, a tight team that sprouted in less than two days, after all the lost years of radio silence. I was almost giddy with her last words. I trusted her entirely and I'd do anything for her to feel the same. I owed her more than either of us acknowledged. She wouldn't let me acknowledge her anyway.
Instead of saying all this, I opened my arms at her. She raised a suspicious eyebrow. "What's this?"
I rolled my eyes, murmured "Get in here", and pulled her into my arms. After a moment of hesitation, she relaxed into me and leaned her ear on my chest.
JADE
After that awkward bonding experience, Cole and I didn't separate from each other the following few days. We just continued where we left off. As best friends. That was enough for me, and we had work to do. I felt that I could hold back the rest of my love for him as long as we spent time together. That way it wouldn't overflow and burn me.
After Alison left, we bounced back to Oscar to fight crime in the neighborhood (!). Oscar was not capable of lying to me and when he saw my determination to fix things, he told us everything he knew about Scotty's side job. Apparently the operation wasn't big at all. His customers were limited to The End and to only a few tourists who knew him by sight. He had started just last month. We could guesstimate only a few locals who hated Scotty enough to testify, but people usually didn't snitch here. Oscar's threats were just to keep Scott on edge; Alison was bluffing.
From his sideway glances, I suspected that Oscar was happy with my newfound extraversion and what he probably saw as my attempt to get out of my shell. I saw him questioning me with his eyes when Cole wasn't looking, to ask what was going on with the two of us. I had no answer, so I looked away. We'd talk later and I'm sure he'd tell me to be more careful with myself this time. Only Oscar had a real idea how heavily I went through it all. Took care of me the year I had to take off between high school and college due to stress-related stomach ulcers, the year I lost Cole and started healing myself by writing. Ironically, that might be why Oscar never respected Alison's marriage with Cole and had sex with her whenever she offered herself. I let it sink in that it was partially my fault that Cole was betrayed.
Cole thought they were all lucky that Scotty was incapable of saving money. He bought only 1.5 ounce at a time from the dock, because he only ever had $5000 tops. That meant that he didn't owe them much. Strangely, we learned all this by questioning Cherry, their mom, out of all people. Like Alison, she was surprised and uncomfortable to have me there, but Cole insisted on my presence. He later disclosed to me that Alison apparently called his mom before our visit, tipping her that Cole had shacked up with a loose woman. Now he had to tell the Alison-Noah story to his mom. Incidentally, Cherry already knew about the cheating. She had found a forgotten note on Alison's bike while moving it out of the way. Alison clearly wasn't even bothering to cover her tracks.
The hardest part was questioning Scotty. He always competed with his only older brother Cole, always feeling like second best, never good enough. Someone should have told him that at best, he was only fourth best between the four brothers. At the end, with some cross examination of the timelines, Cole and I found out that Scotty was selling the coke to save the the Ranch from future foreclosure. Cherry had borrowed $80.000 from the bank as equity loan for one of the barns. She only let Scotty know of this, because she knew none of her other sons would consent.
The next day, Cole collected all the Lockharts –and me– together for dinner and announced to them an abridged version of what we learned the previous day. He didn't leave out Alison's betrayal either, and the brothers filled shot glasses with gramps' moonshine to drink for Cole's honor. Cherry offered me a shot, too, to give her thanks. I accepted gladly. We all drank in silence. It was an awful drink, fit for the occasion.
To fix everything, the brothers voted unanimously to sell Bounty the mare. She had a well-documented English pedigree and was already trained amazingly at such an early age; she heeled nicely even though she was in puberty. Within the week, the mare was shipped to North Bay Shore for $75.000. All the money went back to the bank and then some, with a written promise from Cherry to consult all her sons for important financial decisions to keep their family's seven-generation legacy over their heads.
