At the Café - Short Story
Beth took a long sip of her coffee and set the cup down neatly in its saucer, and then she smoothed the napkin on her lap a few times. She pushed a strand of hair from her face, wishing her bangs would grow out already.
Deidre knew the signs. Beth was biding for time. She was searching in the deeply packed library of her mind for the right comment, bit of advice, or sympathetic sentence. It wasn’t there. She didn’t have anything to say to Deidre. She had said it all before. Now whatever she could come up with would sound put-on, phony, or worse, unfeeling.
Deidre said, “I know what you’re thinking.”
“Do you, because I don’t?” Beth stared at Deidre and both women looked away at once.
The small restaurant is almost empty and Deidre is grateful. Aside from the two women, a young couple is giggling in the corner table. At another larger table, four men in business suits discuss things over drinks.
The waitress walks by, a carafe of decaf coffee in one hand and regular in the other. They’re both relieved for the interruption. She asks, “More coffee, ladies?” Beth nods once, while Deidre inches her half empty cup toward the young woman. As their cups are filled, their thoughts wander.
Deidre thinks again of James and instantly her stomach clenches, like a fist, making her sides ache. It’s not an unfamiliar feeling, but it is always unwelcome. She can actually feel the blood starting to throb in her temple and she has to take a deep breath to ward off an oncoming migraine. She looks discreetly at the waitress, who is in uniform – a short black skirt and top. She has shapely legs and a small waist. She sees how she has her long, brown hair up in a careless ponytail. She sees how it frames her pretty face. She thinks that this is just what James must do; he must size up his prey before he attacks. It makes her ill.
When the waitress walks away, Beth begins to pour some milk in her cup while she speaks.
“I want you to know that you can count on me and I mean that. Today is just the beginning. I know that I haven’t been as understanding before, but you have to understand me. It was really difficult for me to watch this all go down. It was difficult for me to watch you make the decisions that you made and then have to watch when it all fell apart.”
Deidre is nodding. She knows Beth is right. She knows that, aside from Beth, she also chose to ignore Meagan, Nicole, Eric and anyone else who actually had her best interest in mind. But now like a scene ripe for I-told-you-so, she is paying for her total disregard of their advice.
James cheated again. The same thing repeated over years.
He cheated four weeks before their wedding with the woman at the wedding center where they got their flowers and limousine. Her name was Annabelle. Deidre placed a formal complaint at the center and Annabelle was fired. It was totally against policy.
Deidre forgave James, even though her friends found out. The sonofabitch didn’t make an effort to hide his indiscretions. After they dropped a butt load of cash for a down payment on the flowers and car, James dropped Deidre off and then went right back to pick up the woman after her shift. He had been flirting the whole time they were there, but Deidre chose to pretend he was just being his usual charming, outgoing self. When he picked up the woman, Beth saw him while she waited for a light to change on
When Deidre found out, she was heartbroken. Beth was ruthless. “Deidre if you marry this goddamn cheat, you’re asking for trouble!” Deidre was going to call off the wedding, even though almost every detail was completed. James fell apart, begging and crying and wiping snot from his face to try and convince her he would never do it again. She believed him. Well, she didn’t believe him, but she wanted to. She forgave him. And worst of all, she took him back.
All Beth could do was shake her head in disbelief, but she attended the wedding. What else could she do?
The wedding went off without a hitch and it was the happiest day of Deidre’s life, except that she was miserable. In the wedding party, Beth made an attempt to smile for all the formal photos. By the end of the night, her facial muscles were actually sore from the effort.
James cheated in their first year of marriage with some tramp he met at work. Their affair went on for longer than she cared to know, but as usual people were only too willing to whisper loudly in her direction. The fight over this affair was even uglier than the one before the wedding. At least during the engagement she still had the option to break it off, she thought.
He changed jobs. That was his way of showing her he was through with Diane. That was the bitch’s name. He changed his cell phone number. That was the other bit of proof he tossed her way. Diane was history, but that didn’t mean that Julie wasn’t waiting in his not so distant future.
On their fifth anniversary, James came home with plane tickets to
“How did you find out about Julia?” Beth asks her. “It’s Julie. And I found out when I discovered a couple of nasty text messages on his phone last week. So I followed him after work in Eric’s car two nights ago. He left work, sat in his car talking on his cell for 15 minutes and then drove away. As I was following him, my phone beeped. It was James. I thought for sure he knew I was tailing him. My heart almost stopped. I opened my cell, trying to navigate Eric’s car, while keeping the cell out of the line of sight. It was a text from James: “Working late again, Babe.
Beth rolled her eyes. “What then? It’s too bad you were in Eric’s car, or you could have rammed into him, or run him off the road!” Deidre loved Beth. She was so direct!
Deidre said she knew before she allowed her mind to accept that she knew. Still, she followed behind him, like a lamb led to slaughter.
“He ended up at some three-story townhouse in Valley Ridge. Then he went in, and what kills me is that he went in like it was his own home. Beth, I waited in the car for over four
hours. Four freaking hours! I waited even though Eric kept texting me to forget about him and call a lawyer! Then I had to watch as some leggy bitch with long, blonde hair hang all over him in her doorway making him linger longer than necessary. When he drove away, I opened Eric’s car door and vomited in the street.”
Beth flinched and leaned back in the seat. It was as if she had to keep from falling off the chair. “Dear God. How could you ever even look at him again? I think if I ever found out...If Bill ever dared, I would kill him.” Deidre laughed a small painful little laugh. “Never say never, Beth. Look at me. Was I the kind of person you would think would put up with this shit?” Beth shrugged. “No, but you’re also not the kind of person I would ever think would keep going back to this shit over and over again.”
Deidre smiled. “Touché.”
The waitress strolled by again. “Anything else I can get for you ladies?” Deidre stared at the young women speechless. She often froze this way when she felt she was up against someone who could easily be one of James’s tramps. Beth swooped in to save her friend. “No. We’re done, Miss. Just the check.” The waitress nodded and walked away.
“Where is the swine now?” Beth asked her matter-of-factly. “James is at our apartment. He’s packing. He leaves tonight.” Beth smiled. “Good riddance! He should have been gone long ago!” Deidre smiled, but just as quickly tears filled her eyes and poured put from them. “He isn’t going to be with Julie. She supposedly dumped him. I guess she is smarter than me.” Beth reached across the table and held her hand. “I’m so sorry, Sweetheart, but you know this is what’s best. And just think, for all you know, Julie probably caught him cheating on her! ”
Deidre nodded through her fresh tears, wiping them away embarrassed. “Yes, Beth. It is what’s best, but it doesn’t mean that I am not absolutely terrified to start over now. Tell me...where does a 40-year-old woman begin again? Where is the rule book for the betrayed?”
Beth smiled. “That’s the beauty of it,
Deidre thanked Beth for standing by her, when everyone else gave up. She thanked her for lunch. She thanked her for listening.
“Think nothing of it,
Comments