When We Were Married Ch. 05B

"A very good...and close...friend," I couldn't help adding with a little bit of bravado.

She looked me over, catching the bruise on my lip and mint-smelling lipstick on various parts of me, and said, "Well, I have to tell you, Bill, I'm feeling better about you. Lew told me about your little booty call with that former Assistant State Attorney, the one he always called Dimples. We were both glad you were finally getting some action, after Debbie. But this woman..."

"She's special, Mona. I can't say anything more than that, but she's special. She's done me a world of good."

"Then I like her, even though I'm jealous as hell. What is it with you, anyway? First you nail the biggest and hottest pair of tits in Jacksonville, until that Myra cow came along, and now you're got Audrey Hepburn's reincarnation on your arm."

"You think she looks like Audrey Hepburn? How the hell do you even know who Audrey Hepburn was?"

"I watch old movies, Bill. No, besides being brunette and slender it's not that obvious...but she's got the COOL thing down pat. Anyway, you are so transparent. Does she know you're about one date away from asking her to go steady?"

I shook my head.

'Can't, Mona. I can't say anything more than that. But we really are just friends."

She looked over at Aline dancing like a professional in a gliding dance with her husband, then at me and a look of what I could only call shock came over her face.

"She's married? She's not wearing rings, but....How did you, of all people, get hooked up with a married woman?"

I pulled her to me and whispered in her ear, so I wouldn't have to look her in the eye, "It's a long story, Mona. Be a friend and after you leave forget you and Lew ever saw me and her together. It's not going anywhere. It can't. But she's going to be here for a few weeks. It may be the last time I ever see her. I don't want anything screwing up our time together."

She hugged me tight against her.

"Oh, God, Bill, I am sorry. You just aren't having any luck with women at all, are you?"

"I was very lucky to have met Aline, Mona, no matter what...and what are you doing in town? I thought you spent about three weeks of every month running around the globe doing good things for the poor and powerless."

She gave me another one of those looks that men can't possibly fathom and said, "Lew and I both lead very busy lives. It just seems to get busier. We have to make a date to be in the same town the same night to get together. But...he wanted me here to celebrate his big victory when he cleaned your clock in that Killer Granny case. He was certain he was going to win."

She smiled and leaned over to whisper in my ear, "Don't ever tell him I told you this, but he is a lot more human, a lot more like the guy I fell in love with, when he gets knocked down a peg or two. Sometimes he just gets too full of himself."

After awhile we wound up back at a table, the four of us, and we shared drinks and introductions.

"Talk about your Harlequin Romances," Lew said downing probably one too many straight Scotch on the Rocks. "His boss kicks Bill out of his job and ORDERS him, that's ORDERS him to get lucky, and who does he meet but the most beautiful French woman walking the earth."

He gave Mona a sloppy kiss and said, "I can say that dear, because we both know you are Russian by heritage, and there is no lovelier Russian lady walking the earth than sitting right beside me."

She tapped him lightly on the side of the face and said with a straight face, "That's what I call a fast recovery, darling, but it's wasted. You already got lucky tonight."

Lew turned his attention back to Aline and laid his hand lightly on hers, adding, "I meant getting lucky in the sense of meeting a beautiful woman, not in the-"

"You were right the first time," she said, staring at him until he almost blushed. "Bill got lucky, but I did too. Very lucky."

"You both got lucky," Mona said. "I don't know you Aline, but I know Bill. Any woman that can entrance him the way you obviously have, has to be a special lady. I hope you know just how good a man he is."

"Stop it," I said, "Or I'll start blushing. Jesus, I just got divorced. I didn't' die and come back. I'm just a middle aged, divorced guy who was lucky enough to meet a beautiful woman with not-quite-so-good eyesight."

"You're not just a middle-aged, divorced guy, Bill. You're a man who was a good husband for 20 years, and a good father until your bitch ex-wife forgot all that....and I hope any woman you meet realizes how fortunate she is to be with you and doesn't re-open the wounds."

Another look passed between the two women and this time I knew there was something being conveyed from Mona to Aline, but I'm not that perceptive. Aline just nodded slightly.

Lew looked over at me and said, "Before I get too drunk, Mona and I wanted to know if you have any plans for Saturday."

It took me a second but I shook my head.

"No. The kids asked me and I told them I'd like to put things off for a couple of weeks. There's just too much going on. We can do it in a couple of weeks if you guys want to get together."

"Saturday?" Aline asked.

"Didn't Bill tell you," Lew said. "He'll become an old man officially Saturday. It's his 42nd birthday. That's the birthday when everything really does start falling apart."

She gave me a look and I already felt like a henpecked husband as I told her, "I was going to tell you. I've just been trying to avoid thinking about it, honestly."

"Why? 42 is not old?"

"If you're a tree....Turning 40 didn't bother me, but for some reason, turning 42 bothers the hell out of me."

We talked for a little longer and then Aline and Mona decided they had to hold hands to go to the bathroom and went together as women will do. When they were out of earshot, Lew leaned over and said, "My God, Bill, she is gorgeous. If I was ever going to cheat on Mona, I think it would be with her. Be straight with me. You banged her on the big boat?"

"You're such a pig. But yes. Repeatedly and in every orifice!"

"And I was feeling sorry for you because you'd been cut off from Deb's tits. But noooooo...you go and bang the French cutie, and Dimples, and if you haven't banged that lady cop you're going to some time soon. I thought she was going to unzip you and give you a blowjob in court this afternoon. When you decide to end your celibacy, you don't mess around."

"I'm proud to have impressed you, Lew, but remember, you have Mona to come home to, whenever you two get together."

He looked down at the empty Scotch glass and pushed it around on the table.

"Lawyers lie, Bill. You know that. I don't know what it is...but"

For just a second the mask he presented to the world slipped a bit and I saw something I didn't want to recognize.

"I guess it's just the seven year itch, or doldrums, or whatever, but Hell, nobody's marriage can stay hot forever. We'll be fine."

"Is there anything-"

"Naw. I love her. She loves me. That's what counts."

And who the hell was I to give anyone romantic advice, so I kept my mouth shut.

Then Aline and Mona were back and we made our goodbyes. As Lew and Mona stood, I said, "Look, please, keep...this to yourselves. I don't want anyone in the office buzzing about this, and God knows I don't want Debbie hearing anything. Okay?"

"My lips are sealed," Lew said as he leaned over to kiss Aline on the cheek, as Mona gave me a hug and they walked out. As they walked out together, I noticed they weren't holding hands and I tried to remember the last time I'd ever seen them when they weren't holding hands. It was a young lover thing, and they'd always had it. I tried for just an instant to envision either of them with someone else. Couldn't.

When I tried to pay O'Brien, as usual he refused to take my money, kissed Aline on the hands in a Gallic gesture and said, "Au revoire."

When we got back to my condo, we stripped off, took showers and lay our naked bodies down in my small bed. As her nipples rubbed my chest and I nestled one knee in the cleft between her legs, I should have been getting hard, but I didn't. It just felt good. I held her to me and breathed in the smell of her newly dried hair.

"Your friends are nice," she said in a sleepy whisper in my ear. "Do they....are they....getting along?"

"As far as I know. Why?"

"Nothing....just....a feeling I got....from Mona. There's a sadness...there..."

"I know they've been trying to have a kid...without any luck...that might be it."

"Probably."

In a minute...

"Bill, do you mind if we don't....it just feels so good holding you like this and I guess the trip took it out of me..."

I kissed her on the tip of her nose and said, "My huge cudgel of masculine destruction will be disappointed, but..."

"I promise to make your cudgel very happy tomorrow....okay?"

As I drifted into sleep smelling her sweet breath against the side of my face, I tried to imagine what it would be like to do this every night...

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