3. Chapter Three
~Gabriel~
My sister answered my call in the middle of shouting directions at a colleague. “That’s the wrong cue, it’s coming in too early! Number forty-seven. Four-seven. Yeah. Hello?”
I couldn’t be sure she had switched to talking to me, but I answered anyway. “Monica?”
“Hey, Gabe. Sorry, you caught me at a bad time.”
“I know it’s tech, and I’m sorry.” My sister worked as a lighting designer in the theatre, and just before a show opened, technical rehearsals consumed her from dawn until dusk.
“If you know, then it must be important. What’s going on?”
Hopefully, she would agree that my reason for calling warranted interrupting her day. “I just need a woman’s opinion. Which would appeal to Celine more: a romantic dinner, a massage, or a walk on the beach?”
Monica groaned into the other end of the line. “Seriously? Don’t you have any other women in your life you could ask?”
“None that know Celine as well as you do. I won’t keep you. Answer the question and I’ll be out of your hair.”
“Why does it sound like you’re apologizing for something?” she asked suspiciously. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. At least, I don’t think I did.” It would explain the change in her, but no matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn’t come up with any transgression I might have committed. “I just want to do something special for her. That’s all.”
“Well, you should know your wife best,” Monica pointed out. “What do you think she’d like?”
Honestly, I had no idea. The things we used to do together didn’t seem to excite her anymore. At that exact moment, I felt like I could better predict what Jen, the woman I spoke to earlier that day, would like. “Please just answer the question.”
She probably would have argued with me more if she didn’t really need to get going. “Well, she’s a picky eater, so I’d say dinner would be tricky, and the thought of you having your hands on her gives me the creeps, so I’ll go with the beach walk.”
I pressed a frustrated hand to my forehead. “Helpful as always.”
“And yet, you keep calling me. Good luck, Gabe. Gotta run; the director’s ready. Start again from twenty-six?”
She’d already gone back to work by the time the phone disconnected, and a heavy sigh deflated my shoulders as I looked around the empty kitchen. Monica and Celine never really got along as I hoped they would. Though they tolerated each other for my sake, their strong personalities clashed with each other. It didn’t help that Celine had once overheard Monica wondering if Celine would feel the same about me without our parents’ money, and she appreciated being called a gold digger about as much as any woman would. On the surface, they’d moved on, but I knew that unresolved feelings still lingered on both sides.
Keeping in mind their differences, I decided that if Monica suggested the beach, I probably shouldn’t go with that one. Instead, I decided to set things up for a massage. With scented oils and candles, I turned our room into a mini-spa with a fluffy towel on the bed for her to lay on, while warming up a few finger foods that I could feed to her while she relaxed.
I actually felt pretty damn proud of myself as I surveyed the finished scene, until the phone buzzed in my pocket.
Sorry, I’m still at Allie’s. I’m going to stay here again tonight with Brad still away. Enjoy the peace and quiet .
My eyes flitted from the screen back up at the preparation I’d just finished, and my stomach sank with the realization that it had all been for nothing.
Fuck.
She said the day before that it would just be one night, and I took her at her word. More fool me, apparently.
What could I do? Demand that she come home? That would only upset her, and maybe Allie really did need her. Getting upset wouldn’t help with my larger goal of reconnecting with her, so I’d have to put my hurt feelings aside and approach it differently.
If she wouldn’t come to me, maybe I could go to her instead.
After blowing out the candles and putting everything away, I called a taxi to take me to the upscale grocery store that Celine liked. She would have preferred to shop there exclusively but our budget didn’t allow it. As a treat, I picked out a few pastries and asked the taxi to drop me off at Allie’s house next.
I couldn’t see our car in Allie’s driveway, but the open windows suggested people were at home, so I went up and knocked. Celine’s younger sister opened the door to me, her baby strapped to her chest, and her eyes registered her surprise as she took me in.
“Gabe! What are you doing here?”
“Celine said you needed some help, so I came to help too. Don’t worry, I brought treats.”
Allie licked her lips when I held up the box of baked goods. “How did you know the secret password?”
Taking the box from my hand, she stepped aside to let me in as I bent down to say hello to my nephew. “Where is Celine?” I asked, glancing into the empty living room to my right.
“She ran out to get a few things for me, actually,” Allie explained. “With traffic, she might be a while. Let me send her a text and see where she is.”
Walking to the kitchen, Allie tapped away on her phone while I trailed after her, noting the immaculate cleanliness of the house. I couldn’t see any signs of Allie’s apparent struggle to keep up with things with Brad away, nor any sign of Celine’s presence. Usually, she had a couple of different coffee cups on the go and would leave them strewn around wherever she happened to put them down. It had become a running joke between us to see if I caught them all before I ran the dishwasher at night.
At Allie’s house, I didn’t see any.
Though I didn’t know exactly what it meant, something seemed off, and that feeling got even stronger when Allie put her phone down and looked up at me with a forced smile. “As I thought, she’s stuck in traffic. It might be a while. You’re welcome to stay and watch TV here if you want.”
“I don’t want to intrude. I came to help, but it seems to me that you have things under control.”
Her eyes slid away from mine and my feeling of unease got even stronger. Though I couldn’t remember even deciding to ask, I heard the words coming out of my mouth anyway.
“Can I see that message Celine just sent you?”
Allie’s eyes darted down to her phone for a second and she reached out to pull it closer to herself. “What? Why?”
“Because I’d like to see it.”
I didn’t see a need to explain myself any further than that, and when Allie hesitated again, I had my answer. Something on her phone was worth hiding, but she didn’t owe me those answers. My wife did.
“Wait,” Allie called out after me as I headed back to the door. “It’s not what you think.”
“What do I think?” I asked, daring her to say the words out loud that I wouldn’t even admit to myself. I couldn’ t, but the seed of doubt had been planted, and I couldn’t deny that, just like Allie couldn’t bring herself to answer my question. “Goodnight, Allie.”
The taxi had already left so I had to call another one, and by the time I reached the dark house again, my thoughts were threatening to drive me crazy.
I needed a distraction, any distraction, and though I could think of a million reasons why it wouldn’t be the best idea, I found myself texting Jen, the woman I’d spoken to earlier.
You said speaking in the evenings is better for you, and it turns out I’m free tonight. Do you want to continue our conversation?
~Jennifer~
After how uncomfortable Gabriel seemed about the idea of speaking to me outside of work, his offer to do just that took me by surprise. Maybe I’d been wrong about him. It felt like this would be the conversation where I’d find out for sure, so I set the scene as well as I could, quickly changing into a skimpy bathing suit and going to sit out in my backyard. I could claim to be sunbathing while offering him a little visual temptation.
When I had everything ready, I texted him back.
Absolutely! I’ll give you a call.
After hitting record on my phone, I placed the video call, and a moment later, Gabe’s handsome face filled my screen. He sat in a comfortable-looking living room, with a large framed wedding portrait on the wall behind him.
That really didn’t suggest a guy looking to cheat on his wife, nor did the way he winced at the sight of me. “I don’t want to interrupt if you’re in the middle of something. ”
“I’m just enjoying the sunshine,” I said, offering him a flirty, inviting smile, but he could barely look at me. His eyes kept darting to the side, and I got the distinct feeling he would hang up if I didn’t make a change.
So much for the direct approach.
“It’s getting cooler, though. Let me grab a cover-up.”
Placing the phone in its holder, I angled it so he’d have a perfect view of my ass as I walked away to grab one of the caftans I kept handy. The low, wide neckline still exposed a good amount of cleavage, but a lot less than the bikini did, and by the time I sat back down, he looked relieved.
If this guy was a cheater, I might have to consider a new profession because I couldn’t get anywhere with him at all.
I wouldn’t give up though, not as long as Celine had me on the clock.
“All alone tonight?” I asked sweetly once I’d picked the phone back up.
Gabe’s lips tightened, just for a second. “Yeah. What about you?”
“Just me here. You’re lucky I had anything on when you called. Sometimes, I walk around naked when there’s no one around.”
Gabe’s blue eyes looked away again. “Maybe we should talk later.”
Fuck. He looked on the verge of hanging up with me, so I’d either have to dial it right back or go all in.
I decided on the latter. Eventually, I had to make a move or we’d just end up chatting about travel forever.
“I’m sorry. I’m really not very good at flirting.” Putting myself down almost always worked to encourage men to compliment me in return, but Gabe only tensed further, so I kept talking. “I know you’re married. You said so, and I can see your wedding picture behind you. But some people have open relationships, or are at a different place in their marriage, and I just wanted to let you know that if you’re at all interested, I am too. It doesn’t have to be anything long-term. One night would be fine with me.”
Gabe glanced back over his shoulder at the large picture on the wall, as if he’d forgotten it hung there. When he turned back, he exhaled deeply before replying. “I’m sorry if anything I did gave you the wrong idea but I’m not looking for anything sexual. At all. You’re very attractive, but I’m not that guy, so if that’s the only reason you got in touch with me…”
“It isn’t,” I quickly countered. “And please, don’t apologize. I thought it might be possible, but I didn’t mean to insult you. I suppose you’ve never even been tempted?”
I didn’t know what the odds were that he’d confess any previous cheating to me even if he’d done it, but I might as well ask while we were on the subject.
“No. This really isn’t the conversation I want to be having, not tonight, so I’m going to…”
He reached for the phone as if to end the call, so I quickly blurted out the first thing that came into my head. “Why not tonight?”
His hand hovered in front of the screen. “What?”
“You said ‘not tonight’. What’s different about tonight?”
Slowly, the hand lowered, revealing his face to me again, and the uncertainty and confusion in his eyes seemed genuine. I leaned forward, as if I could somehow get closer to him that way.
“I shouldn’t talk about this with you. Not after what you just said.”
The words were so quiet, I had to turn up the volume to catch them all. “Forget about what I just said. I took a shot, but you’re not interested, and I respect that. Honestly, I do,” I added when he seemed unconvinced. “Like I said, I’m not very good at flirting. I know that. I come on too strong.”
“And you flirt with married men,” he pointed out, a little of his regular charm coming back. “That might be part of the problem.”
An almost-real grin flashed across my face. “It’s not usually my go-to move. I thought I felt something between us, but I read it wrong, and that’s fine. If there’s something you need to talk about, you’ve already got me here, and I’ve literally got nothing better to do. Talking to me has to be better than sitting in an empty room, isn’t it? Please say yes. ”
My plea at the end made him smile, and he sat back completely, his intention of hanging up forgotten for the time being. “You’re really easy to talk to, Jen. That’s not the issue.”
“What’s the issue, then?” I pulled the top of my caftan tighter together to try to make him even more comfortable.
His mouth opened and closed a few times as he debated how to begin, before he sighed. “This really isn’t your problem.”
“Probably not, but sometimes, it’s easier to share a problem with a complete stranger. I can give you my unbiased view.”
I honestly had no idea where he might be going with all of this, but since this would probably be the last time we spoke, I didn’t necessarily want it to end just yet. Once we hung up, I would be telling his wife that he passed and close the job, but first, I could be a sympathetic ear for him as a thank you after wasting so much of his time.
“This is going to sound crazy,” he warned me. “And it probably is, but I don’t know what else to think right now.”
He’d started to sound a lot like the women who messaged me on a daily basis, so I answered him the same way I answered them. “If it’s bothering you, it’s not crazy. You just need to see the situation clearly, so why don’t you tell me about it?”
Gabe exhaled through his nose in a short, huffing sound. “It’s ironic, since you were just talking about cheating and I… well, I’m starting to think that my wife might be cheating on me.”
Thanks to years of experience, I kept a neutral expression, betraying nothing of how I felt, but inside, my mind raced in confusion. What the hell? Was this some kind of ploy to get my sympathy? But why would he lie if not to sleep with me? I just flat-out offered that and he turned me down, so it didn’t seem likely he’d try to manipulate me now.
I had no idea what to think.
“What makes you think so?” I asked as calmly as I could.
He described a situation very much like many of the stories I’d heard from my clients before. The gradual distance growing between them, spending less time at home, even staying away overnight .
“She told me she’s been staying with her sister, but I think her sister might be covering for her based on what happened today.” Gabe’s shoulders slumped after he finished recounting the whole story. “Or it’s all in my head and I’m making myself crazy over nothing. What do you think?”
I thought Celine had some explaining to do, but I needed more information before I exposed my actual purpose in making contact with him. Maybe a reasonable explanation did exist for all of this, and I asked him to consider that possibility too. “Is there any other scenario besides her cheating that would explain everything you’ve noticed?”
He thought about it for several seconds, his brow creased as he worked his imagination. “I suppose she might be working on something secret as a surprise for me? That’s not really her style, but I guess it’s possible.” With a sigh, he dropped his head into his hands. “I need to talk to her, don’t I?”
“That would probably be for the best. Open communication usually solves an awful lot of problems.”
Another sigh followed, but he nodded too. “You’re right. I’m going to go and figure out what to say and how to say it. I’m sorry for dumping all of this on you.”
“I’m the one who should be apologizing. Hitting on you was questionable at best in the first place, and knowing that you had all this on your mind only makes it worse. I’m sorry, Gabe.”
“It’s alright,” he assured me, and even though it wasn’t, I believed he meant it. He really did seem like a genuinely nice guy, an extremely rare commodity in my life as of late. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to talk about travel.”
I smiled at his attempt to lighten the mood, and Eda’s words came back to me about needing to travel more. Maybe she had a point. “Well, I’m not ready to commit to Uzbekistan yet but I could do with a weekend getaway and I’ve been thinking about Napa Valley. That’s practically your backyard, so you must know all the secret spots. If you’re looking for a distraction, you could send me some ideas. ”
What the hell? I shouldn’t be making plans to be in touch with him again, not after he passed my test and especially not with the strange situation with Celine. But the words came out anyway, and a bit of light sparked in Gabe’s eyes again.
“I can definitely do that. I have a lot of discounts with places up there so I can get you a great deal if you want to book. When are you thinking?”
“This weekend?” I kept digging a deeper hole for myself, for no good reason at all.
“Okay, let me see what I can do. Thanks again for listening, Jen. Have a good night.”
I managed to keep my mouth shut that time and simply wave while he hung up, but as soon as his face disappeared from the screen, I let my head fall back with a loud groan. This job had gotten way more complicated than it should, and the smart thing for me to do would be to back away from it entirely.
I could almost convince myself that I would do it.
~Gabriel~
Almost the same moment I hung up with Jennifer, the front door opened, and I quickly shoved my phone into my pocket and rubbed a hand down my face to get my bearings before I stood up. Talking with Jen had been helpful, but the person I really needed to talk to walked into the living room a moment later, her forehead creased in concern as she dropped her handbag onto the chair and folded her arms over her chest .
“What’s going on? Allie said you came over, acted really weird, and left before I got back.”
I answered Celine’s question with one of my own. “Where were you?”
“When you went to Allie’s? I went down to the organic market to pick up that vegan cheese spread she likes so much, and to the drugstore to get some more diapers and wipes for the baby. Didn’t she tell you that?”
Celine’s tone didn’t sound defensive so much as angry as she gave her very detailed answer, and it threw me off. Based on the suspicions that had crept into my mind, I expected her to look guilty, but instead, she stood there looking me straight in the eye, demanding an explanation for my behaviour.
“She did tell me that, but she also sent you a message that she wouldn’t let me see,” I pointed out.
“When has she ever shown you her messages? Why should she? What a weird thing to ask her to do. I’ve been over there trying to help her cope with everything, and you went in and upset her for no reason.”
In the face of her anger, I tried to grab hold of that feeling I had earlier, that uneasy certainty that things weren’t as they seemed. “She seemed to be coping just fine to me. The house looked spotless. There weren’t even any of your coffee cups lying around.”
Celine let out a snort of disbelief. “ That’s the reason you wanted to see her phone? Because I cleaned up my coffee cups before I went out instead of leaving them for my postpartum sister to deal with? That’s pretty weak, Gabe.”
She sure made it sound that way, and I tried to remember what else had seemed odd to me. Nothing concrete, just a feeling I got from the way the house looked and the way Allie acted, but I couldn’t say any of that to Celine. It would only make things worse.
Still, I wasn’t ready to completely give in yet either. “Maybe I overreacted, but you’ve hardly been around lately. You say that we’re going to talk and then you disappear again and come home with a weird smell on you… ”
“A weird smell?” Celine repeated, enunciating each word slowly, her face scrunched up tight. “Do you mean Brad’s cologne that I sprayed on myself after the baby threw up on me? I didn’t realize you were keeping track of my scent . This possessive side of you is not a turn-on. And if we’re not talking, it’s only because you’re on your phone all the time, or travelling somewhere that I can’t reach you.”
She brought that up every time we had any kind of argument, and it frustrated me every single time. “Some countries don’t have reliable roaming. I’ve explained this to you. And what do you mean that I’m on my phone all the time? When you’re here, you have my full attention. You’re just never here.”
“Oh, really? You’re never doing anything on your phone? So, you wouldn’t have any problem with me looking through your phone right now?”
As she held out her hand for it, my stomach dropped.
Even though the DM conversations with Jen were completely innocent, if Celine took one look at Jen’s profile, she would jump to the worst conclusions.
Frozen by indecision, I hesitated a moment too long, and Celine let out a huff. “That’s what I thought. You freak the fuck out at Allie for not showing you her phone, and you won’t even let me look at yours. I’m going back to Allie’s to reassure my sister that she didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t even want to look at you right now.”
With that, she turned on her heel, grabbed the bag from the chair, and headed back out the door, her long hair flipping over her shoulder as she rounded the corner in one final fuck you.
In the silence that followed the door slamming, I sank back down onto the couch beneath our wedding picture. We’d had fights before, but never like that. She never just walked out without talking things through, and I knew deep down that going after her wouldn’t make things any better. For better or worse, we both needed some space to calm down before we spoke again .
Would she really cheat on me? She had an answer for everything, but something still felt off. I couldn’t think of any other reason for the change in her. It had come on so gradually that I hadn’t noticed just how far the cracks between us had grown, but I barely recognized the woman who just yelled at me.
Maybe I should have let her see the messages when she asked. I’d always intended to tell her about them, she just never gave me the chance, and now, they felt like something dirty even though they weren’t.
Or had I messed up just by answering Jen in the first place?
Now that I knew she actually had been flirting with me, the smart thing to do would be to cut off all contact, at least until Celine and I got past whatever the hell was going on between us.
First, though, I’d promised to help her arrange a trip.
Desperately needing a distraction, I placed a call to my favourite boutique inn in Napa Valley to see if they had any availability for the weekend.
“Hey, Gabe, nice to hear from you.” The owner, Manuel, appreciated the business I’d sent his way over the years, and I appreciated how well he treated the clients I sent him. It made for a mutually beneficial friendship. “You’re in luck! I just had two cancellations for this weekend, a family group that can’t make it. I intended to advertise on our social media that they’re available but I can reserve one for your client instead, if you like?”
I didn’t know how serious Jen had been about making the trip, but if I didn’t take it, the opportunity would disappear. “Let’s do it. Put it under my name for now, and I’ll send you the client’s information tomorrow.”
If she didn’t take it, maybe I could use it, either with Celine if we patched things up before then, or by myself if I needed a getaway. At that point, I had no idea which way it might go.
“All booked,” Manuel confirmed. “I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”
Despite the late hour, I sent one last text.
I reserved a room at the Four Winds for you. Here’s their website. If you want the room, please call them directly to confirm. I’m going to be offline for a few days, I need to take some time to sort things out in my personal life.
With that taken care of, I headed to bed alone.