Was Andrew fucking her on the side?
The thoughts going through my mind were making me crazy, and unable to deal with them, I all but ran toward the front door. Once outside, I leaned against a column and gulped in humid air.
Lawyers? What was going on? And why hadn’t Andrew told me about it?
I dug my cell phone out of my purse and dialed his cell. It went straight to voice mail, meaning it was shut off.
“Andrew,” I said after the tone beeped, “I’m at the hotel. I came to see you, but you aren’t here. I heard that you’re meeting with lawyers?” My statement turned into a question. “What’s going on?”
As I hung up, I found I was worried. Worried about Andrew and if the issue he was dealing with was a serious one. It didn’t matter that he’d hurt me: my protective feelings for him surfaced, and I hoped he was okay.
Two hours later, when my cell phone rang and I saw Andrew’s name on my caller ID, I quickly pressed the talk button. “Hello?”
“Sophie. Hi.”
He sounded calm, and that set my heart at ease. I asked, “What’s going on?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at home.”
“Good,” Andrew said. “Can I come see you?”
“What’s happening?”
“I’ll tell you everything when I see you, if that’s okay.”
“All right.” My concern returned. Andrew might sound calm, but the fact that he didn’t want to tell me what was happening on the phone meant that whatever was going on was serious. “Are you coming now?”
“Yes.”
I hung up, and spent the next twenty minutes worrying. I was in the living room, the cat on my lap, and I stroked her as much for my comfort as hers. The moment the front door opened, Peaches leapt to the floor. I stood to face Andrew as he walked into the living room.
He looked worn-out. There were dark circles under his eyes, and a tired expression on his face.
“Andrew?”
He tossed his keys onto the end table beside the sofa before meeting my gaze. “Hello.”
“Why were you meeting with lawyers?” I asked, getting to the point. I didn’t want to be kept in suspense. “Is someone suing the hotel?”
“Sit, please.” Andrew motioned to the sofa.
I didn’t argue. I sat, and he sat on the sofa beside me. The light smell of his musky cologne wafted into my nose, and part of me ached to touch him. I longed for the familiarity of his lips on mine.
But his touch wouldn’t be familiar anymore, would it? He had tainted what we had when he had fucked someone else.
“I want you to know,” he began, “that the only reason I didn’t mention this before is…” He paused, fiddled with his hands. “It was bad enough telling you about the affair. I felt it was best to wait, give you a chance to deal with that first.”
My stomach twisted at the word affair. But I tried to push the awful feeling aside and concentrate on the here and now—the legal issue Andrew was facing. I’m sure that some women, learning their husbands had cheated, wouldn’t care if they got hit by a bus, or if they were struck with terminal cancer.
Clearly, I wasn’t one of those women.
“There’s no other way to say this,” Andrew went on. “Someone has threatened a lawsuit against me.”
“A lawsuit! Oh, my God.” I reached for his hands, took them in mine. It was a reflexive act, but I didn’t pull away. “Why?”
Andrew hesitated, lowered his gaze, then raised his eyes to meet mine. “She’s claiming sexual harassment.”
I narrowed my eyes as I stared at him, not understanding. It took a full five seconds for his words to register. And when they did, I jerked my hands away as though I’d been scalded.
It was one thing for Andrew to have met a woman in a bar and fucked her, but someone he worked with…
“You jerk.” It was the only thing I could think of to say.
“She’s lying, Sophie. She’s the one who came on to me.”
I slowly stood. “You fucking jerk. What are we talking here— millions of dollars? Are we going to lose our home because you couldn’t keep your hands off this woman?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Andrew said. “If anything, I should be able to charge her with sexual harassment.”
I snorted.
Andrew got to his feet, standing in front of me. “She’s lying.”
“You think that’s what matters here—that she’s lying? What matters is that you put yourself in the position to jeopardize not just our marriage, but our assets. All because you had to fuck someone else.”
For several moments, neither of us spoke. The only thing to be heard was our loud, frustrated breathing and the cat’s concerned meows.
“So you do work with this woman,” I said.
Andrew nodded.
“How much does she want?”
“She came up with the crazy figure of five million dollars.”
“Are you serious?”
“She wanted me to leave you, I wouldn’t, and I told her it was best she find another job,” Andrew explained hurriedly. “That’s when she claimed sexual harassment.”
I shook my head, disgusted. “So we’re going to lose everything.”
“She hasn’t sued—yet. She’s threatening to.”
“If you don’t leave me,” I said. A statement, not a question.
“I…I guess.” Andrew threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know what’s going on in her warped mind.”
I turned away from Andrew, rethinking my earlier position on how I’d feel if he got hit by a bus. A million thoughts going through my mind, I wandered toward the window that faced the backyard.
I looked out at our deck. Two years ago, we’d added a gazebo and a hot tub, but we hardly used either. We had everything we needed for romantic nights and weekends right here, and yet our romance had fallen by the wayside.
“Maybe you should,” I began slowly. I turned. “Maybe you should go to her.”
“No!” Andrew protested. “I don’t want her!”
“If it will stop her from suing you…” I said the words, but I didn’t really mean them.
Andrew rushed toward me. I didn’t move. Not even as he placed both hands on my shoulders.
“I don’t want her,” he repeated. “Yeah, I screwed up. I learned my lesson the hardest way possible, but I’m going to make this right.”
I said nothing. I felt only numb.
“I think I know how to make her go away. Make the problem go away. I got some good advice from my lawyers.”
I said nothing.
“Say something, Sophie. Please.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I want your forgiveness. I know it won’t be today. Maybe not tomorrow. But I want to know that at some point in the future, we’ll be back to normal.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible.”
Andrew