The Other Other Woman (36 page)

He called me as soon as he landed.

I greeted him. “What?”

“Nice!”

“What do you want, Matt?”

“Damn, baby, I’m sorry! I thought I told you a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t think it was that big of a deal that it needed mentioning again. I’m just down here for a couple of appointments and looking at some properties tomorrow. I’ll be home Sunday night.”

“So, I shouldn’t care if you blow up in a fiery plane crash. Got it.”

“Of course you should care!”

“Well that would require me to know that you are on a plane. To Miami. For four days.”

He sighed. He could sigh all he wanted to. “You are exactly right. I’m sorry.”

“Enjoy your stay,” I replied, and I hung up.

A text came through a few minutes later.

I’m really sorry. Didn’t mean it. Will call you tomorrow.

He had sent me a few funny texts later that evening and the next morning trying to make amends, so by the time he called me I was mostly over it. We talked about some of the condos he saw and whether or not he should buy one of them. He was getting ready to see more that afternoon, so I let him go. Over the weekend, however, I didn’t hear a single word from him. I swear, it was happening all over again, just like I predicted. I talked to Brooke on Sunday, completely pissed off and upset about the entire situation.

“What could he be doing down there that he just doesn’t contact me for two straight days? I mean, really?” I asked her. “I cannot keep doing this. If he is alone down there, he would have no reason not to call me.”

“Mal…” she said quietly, “Um… I don’t know how to tell you this… I wasn’t sure if I should or not.”

“WHAT?!”

“Well I don’t want to hurt you… but… well…
she’s
down there.”

“KATYA?!”

“What? NO, YOU DUMMY! Sandy! His wife!”

“Huh?”

“She came into the office to sign some papers Friday morning and told me she and Mitchell were flying down to meet Matt that afternoon.”

“Oh my God,” I exclaimed. “That’s it?! That’s what he’s been hiding, that he has his family with him!?”

“You aren’t upset?”

“No! Of course not, Brooke, she’s married to him. She sleeps in his bed every night in Atlanta so why would I care if she’s also down in Miami? She’s his wife! That’s his kid!”

“Oh good, well I’m glad you feel that way because I was afraid you were going to blow a gasket.”

“No, you have no idea how much better this makes me feel. My mind was going to all sorts of other places. And Jesus, he knows he can tell me stuff like that. I don’t know why he thinks he has to be all shady about it. I’m not jealous of her! I feel sorry for her more than anything; being with someone who doesn’t love you, who plans to leave you, and who has so little respect for you. I’m starting to understand exactly how she feels, actually.”

“Well, that’s definitely what’s going on. She told me herself.”

“Hey Brooke…” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to this question. “Is she nice? He’s always made her out to be some awful shrew. But from the few pictures I’ve seen on Facebook, she looks like she might be kind of nice.”

“She’s always been very nice to me.”

“Ugh, I was afraid of that,” I said, suddenly feeling very guilty.

“Yeah, but you never know what goes on behind closed doors,” she added reassuringly.

He texted me bright and early Monday morning.
Going into second appointment of the day, busy weekend but will call you later!

I wasn’t going to mention what I knew, that would just get Brooke in trouble. So I simply replied:
Well, did you miss me at least?

Of course!!!!!! Give you a call around 2, babe.

Okie dokie.

He never did mention his family being down there, but I couldn’t either. I guess he got one over on me.

As the Grandover conference drew nearer, I started getting more nervous. I couldn’t even explain it. I just had an overwhelmingly bad feeling about it. He was still keeping in touch with me for the most part; he definitely was acting “busy” during the day but would sometimes make it up for it later at night. One night we even talked for hours while he was on his Memphis trip, but my gut was just telling me that something had changed. Enter Ivan, Stage Left.

The day before he was supposed to leave for the conference, Ivan showed up unexpectedly at his office. He said he had no place to go and wanted to come home. Matt tried to make it seem like it was no big deal, but I knew better. My first thought was that he was either going to have to cancel the trip or go home early, skipping our plans. I knew it was selfish, but I started crying as soon as I heard. I didn’t let him know I was upset, that was the last thing he needed to hear. It just didn’t seem like we were meant to be together, at least not from his side. He hadn’t canceled yet, but he was going to meet with Ivan later that evening. So I just sat tight and tried to prepare myself for the inevitable letdown. I hadn’t heard from him all night to make sure he was still coming, and I needed to make some arrangements, so I texted him…
Got a few?

Give me 15 to 30 min.

It’s nothing important, just making sure you are still coming tomorrow before I get packed up. No need to call if you are busy.

He answered a little later.
Hey. Sorry, been dealing with the kid, am headed up to Greensboro in am.

I assumed, is everything okay?

I guess. I had to turn him away for the night. Depressing, but gave him parameters to work his way back home if he is serious.

Maybe he’ll surprise you this time. You never know. Sleep well and I will catch up with you tomorrow.

Thx. ttyl.

Well, he was still going to Grandover, at least. That was half the battle. I would have offered to stay out that way with him to make it easier, but the place would be crawling with brokers and executives from our company. Frankly, I didn’t care if he wanted us to stay in a cardboard box. I just wanted him to stay. I felt like I was going to be holding my breath for the next 36 hours when his meetings would be over, and he was free to go.

It got worse before it got better. Normally when he had a long drive, he would call me. It was an easy way to pass the time; talking to the girl you care so much about. But Thursday morning I got a text instead.
Driving. In pensive mood. Will call you when I get there.

My eyes filled with tears and I called Brooke.

“This is not good, not good!” I cried. “I feel like something is up.”

“He’s heading up there, Mal. He knows how much you are looking forward to seeing him.”

“So, he’s going to spend nearly five hours in a car thinking about how much he doesn’t want to talk to me!? What’s to stop him from just saying, “Sorry, still thinking, heading home, better luck next time!”

“Mal, that’s crazy, he is not going to do that to you!” she said. “I’m sure he’s just thinking about what to do with Ivan. I’m sure it has nothing to do with you.”

“I hope you’re right, but I have a bad feeling about this. I’ve been feeling weird about it all week. What do I even say? ‘Um, okay, thanks! Don’t want to talk to you either!?’”

“I would just keep it simple. Don’t freak out. Just say ‘Okay.’ Don’t let him know it’s bothering you like this.”

“Okay.”

“Let me know what happens.”

I texted him back:
Ok, hope everything is all right.

Once he arrived at his client’s company in Burlington, I received:

Here but have mtg starting now. Will buzz you when I finish before heading to Grandover.

Then he left me a voicemail but I couldn’t hear anything he said.
Sorry, your voicemail was all jumbled up
. Please let it not be that he said he suddenly hates my guts and wonders why in the world he ever came up here.

Sorry, my fault, signal sucks today. At hotel, going to next meeting in a minute. Check on any places that we can hike tmrw also. Will call you after next meeting.”

My eyes read those last lines and absolutely burst forth with big sloppy happy tears. He was still planning on coming after all. I don’t think I have ever replied so fast. I was at a car dealership that afternoon getting ready to meet my mom to finally trade in my minivan.

Hike?! As in, on foot? LOL! We could do that winery that we skipped before. But I will try to think of something (else?) to occupy the time. You can drive my new car!”
I texted him a picture of my beautiful new SUV that I just spotted on the lot, waiting for me to purchase.

Great, send me the address of the winery… and where should I stay
?

The winery is not that far out, so go ahead and get a hotel in the same general area as before, I think there’s a Holiday Inn Express, a Marriott and a Hilton all right there on I-40, all are fairly new. Then we can meet there and ride out to the winery in my purple car!

I was sitting at the desk with my mom and the car salesman when his name popped up on my phone. I was so disappointed that I couldn’t grab it because I had missed talking to him all day. I was able to excuse myself for a few minutes to listen to his voicemail.

“Hey, Mal, it’s me. Gosh, just not able to catch up right now… Um I’m going downstairs for cocktail hour and to have some dinner so I guess I can catch up with you in a couple of hours. I want to have a chat with Ron Lassiter about some things, but otherwise I’m just going to eat and come back to my room so um… I’ll call you, and once the girls are in bed we can talk or something, okay? Talk to you in a bit, babe. Thanks, bye.”

I called him back very quickly hoping to catch him before he left his room, and I did.

“Hey sweetie!” he said, sounding fairly cheerful.

“Hey! Geesh man, I thought I would never get to talk to you today!”

“I know, sorry about that. My service sucks today and they’ve had us in meetings nonstop. Then every time I call you don’t answer!”

“I know. I’m sorry. I had to run out early to meet these people about the car.”

“So you are actually buying a new one?” he asked.

“Well, sort of. My mom is helping me, but we’re trading in the van. She’s going to buy the car in her name to keep it from being a marital asset for now.”

“Ooh, well played, babe! It definitely suits you more than the minivan.”

“I know, isn’t it gorgeous? You can drive it tomorrow if you want.”

“Definitely,” he said. “Okay, well I’m going to head downstairs, I’ll call you later tonight or in the morning, okay?”

“Sure, babe, talk to you later.”

He called me when he was heading to bed later that evening and we talked about Ivan for a few minutes, but he never said what was bothering him on the trip up. He seemed to still be coming to Raleigh to see me and that was all I cared about at that moment. I knew once we saw each other everything would be okay.

The next morning I got my stuff packed and loaded up in the car. He texted me mid-morning. My heart skipped a beat and I did a little jig when I read it.

Will be leaving here around noon! :)

Groovy. Are they going to feed you?

They will but I think I will skip it and head on to Raleigh.

Okay, good.
Great, was more like it.

I knew the winery didn’t have much for food, so I offered to pick up some snacks from Fresh Market, knowing in the back of my mind that I wanted him to have plenty to eat. I grabbed some pumpkin bread, mozzarella cheese balls, honeycrisp apples, which I had been telling him he should try, and a box of crackers.

Once he got closer to town, he called to tell me he made a reservation at the same Holiday Inn Express where we had first slept together over the summer. Easy enough, but my good mood disappeared suddenly when he asked me to meet him in the lobby. I thought that was really odd. Why not just go to the room, put our stuff down and be able to relax and greet each other for a minute? Then we could go off to the winery. Did he not want me to be in the room with him? Was he afraid I would try to have sex with him? I thought that was one of the main reasons he was here in the first place. It just made no sense to me, and it filled me with dread. He caught me completely by surprise so I just said, “Okay, I guess?”

When I pulled into the parking lot he was still sitting in his car. He waved at me and jumped out, coming over to my window. I started to get out and he sort of stopped me and gave me a quick peck. “Hey, I was stuck on the phone anyway so I figured I’d wait for you… what are you doing?”

“I thought you wanted to drive my car…?”

“Oh, no, sweetie, you can drive it. You just got it!”

He ran over to the other side to jump in. He seemed okay, but when he leaned over to kiss me, he was almost jumpy. It immediately put me on edge. We buckled up and I headed back out on I-40W toward the winery. It wasn’t that far away but it was hidden deep in the woods. I felt sorry for him being my passenger because I loved going fast on some windy roads. I saw him grab the “OH SHIT” bar above his window a couple of times mid-sentence.

Fisher's Grove Winery was a tiny, family owned place. Just an old farmhouse with a couple of little tables inside and a tiny gift shop, not much to it at all. But it was very quaint and had lovely wooded surroundings outside with trails. Unfortunately it was raining off and on so we were stuck inside for the moment. The owner seemed a little surprised to see people on a Friday just after lunch, and she started asking us a lot of questions. “How did you hear about us? Where are y’all from?” I let him answer, curious to see what he would say, if he would even act like we were a couple at all. He slipped and said that we worked together and were playing hooky but that we were in different offices. She probably knew exactly what was going on, I bet she saw it all the time. Adulterers looking for more private places to hang out together. He mentioned that, “We just got back from Miami,” and I laughed because that was sort of true, just not at the same time. We were both into red wine more so than white and were disappointed when she didn’t have a single red one to offer us. Her husband was from South America, however, and had brought back some really good whites. We settled on one in particular, he ordered a bottle of it and we moved over to a table to enjoy it with our snacks.