Niles had met Eleanor three weeks earlier at a party celebrating the anniversary of the TV network that had bought Maxwell and CC's show, and that the two producers had to attend with their families. The party was big, crowded, hosted in a large, ridiculously opulent villa. After a couple of hours, Niles was a bit bored, looking from a distance at his wife engaging in professional conversations. She looked so amazing, both in looks and demeanour, so out-of-this-world unattainable, he couldn't believe his luck. He felt so small next to such an extraordinary woman.
He was snapped out of his admiration by this small, young blonde who stroke a conversation with him at the bar counter. Eleanor was twenty-five years old and the daughter of one of the network's big bosses. She was born rich and was used to having everything she wanted without even fighting for it. In some ways, once he had got to know her, she reminded him of CC, as they had clearly had a similar upbringing – materially rich but devoid of love.
Eleanor was also bored, really bored. Bored of LA, bored of parties like this, which she attended in the hope of seducing men to entertain herself. This old guy, looking so out of place, seemed an interesting diversion in her dull life, and once she heard his odd British accent and peculiar story, she knew she had to have him.
"Hello! Did you lose your way and ended up at this party? I have never seen you before and you don't look like you work on TV."
"Well," Niles laughed at the girl's frankness, "I am just a plus one, I guess. My wife is producing a show with her business partner."
"Oh! The Broadway people! I have heard a lot about them. My father is one of the heads of GHX Network. I'm Eleanor, nice to meet you…"
"Niles. My pleasure." He extended his hand, not noticing the strange sparkle in Eleanor's eyes.
Eleanor was so pleased with the challenge she has chosen. Not only he was married, which would score her more points both at her own game and in the popularity contest with her equally rich and bored friends, but his wife had already gained a certain fame in the business. She was supposed to be strong, direct, demanding, and easily angered. She sounded like a nightmare, Eleanor thought, but also someone she would enjoy stealing something from. Her marital bliss, for example, if not her husband.
During that night, CC didn't particularly notice the young girl flirting with her husband – the following week would see the last round of comments and changes for their sitcom, and she had to spend the party concentrating on acting super brilliantly with everybody, which gave her a mighty headache – only partially booze-induced.
CC didn't notice her husband swapping phone numbers with the girl. She didn't notice the piece of paper with the phone number he was twisting through his fingers inside his pocket during the cab ride home. She didn't know Eleanor had rung Niles about a week later – he had almost forgotten her, truth to be told, but she liked to act out her plans slowly and teasingly. He had laughed at her invite out for a drink, but a couple of days later, at the weekend, alone and bored, he had returned her call. CC was out working, Fran was busy with the kids, and he was in need of adult conversation. What harm could it do, he thought, it is just a drink after all.
CC didn't know that her husband had consumed several drinks with a twenty-five year-old at a beach bar in Malibu, that Eleanor had teased him so much, stroking her fingers on him as often as she could, clad only in a bikini top and shorts, until he felt like he could explode with sexual tension. He had spent a long part of the afternoon trying to focus on CC, planning to go back home and release all that desire on his beautiful wife, but he didn't make it that far as Eleanor had pulled him into a beach cabin and planted her hand on his private parts while planting her tongue in his mouth. It was only 6 months ago, he thought, when he was hiding like this with CC in Home Depot, and other places, frantic with excitement. He pushed Eleanor away from him, cursing under his breath. But as she stroked his face encouragingly, weakness overcame him and he pulled her back to finish what he could have stopped, but didn't.
CC didn't know any of this, because that Saturday she was moving from meeting to meeting, editing documents on the go, and reminding Maxwell of every detail he had forgotten. She didn't know why Niles hadn't answered the phone when she had tried to call him to say she would be home late again. She didn't think much of his lack of answer, it wasn't like he should be at home chained to the phone, and she had too much work to really dwell on it anyway.
CC was also not aware of where Niles went the following Thursday afternoon, as she argued endless contractual points, skipping lunch and dinner again while her husband had strawberries and cream in Eleanor's bed.
Niles didn't know, when Eleanor turned up on his doorstep that Friday late morning, that CC would come back home early. He was reluctant to have Eleanor around for so many reasons, but weakness had the better of him again. He was feeling a bit lonely and underachieving again, undeserving of a career woman as a wife, and guilty for betraying that wife whose only faults were perfection and working too hard (okay, as well as many other faults that he had chosen to love). And Eleanor in front of him was so delicious, and, well, easy. She reminded him of his wife so much, just smaller and younger, so surely that counted for something? Didn't it mean that, after all, he missed his wife? He knew that it was the most stupid line of defence he could think of.
He kept just trying not to think about it. It really felt like a parallel world, those crazy, forbidden moments with Eleanor seemed so detached from his life. That is how he was able to come back home and sleep next to his exhausted, overworked wife. That is how he could continue his daily routine, his work at the Sheffields' and helping Fran with the babies, his writing plays on the side, his going for groceries for both him and CC (who was never home except for breakfast anyway).
Seeing CC's stunned face behind Eleanor's body still attached to his woke him from his reverie with the force of a slap. Something broke inside him too, at the same exact time CC died inside. But neither of them knew that about the other, that surreal moment creating a fracture, a distance between them so great that there was no way it could be crossed again.