A Stranger on the Beach(38)

“Right. Well, I can understand why you might’ve jumped to the wrong conclusion. I did myself, at first. But that woman was a disgruntled worker. She’d screwed up some paperwork, he complained, and they fired her. She was harassing him.”

“Is that what Jason told you?” Stacey said. “Because I’m pretty sure I would have heard about that if it was true.”

Crap. I’d forgotten that Stacey’s husband’s law firm represented Jason’s company. If my white lie had been true, her husband would indeed know about it, and might well have told Stacey. By repeating Jason’s explanation that the Russian woman was a coworker, I’d ended up confirming for myself that my husband was lying.

“Oh, you poor thing,” Stacey said. Which pissed me off.

“I don’t need your pity.”

“It’s sympathy. And maybe you need some honesty. Look, I can’t really say much, but I think Jason has issues at work. You should ask him about them.”

“What kind of issues?”

Stacey made a zippering motion across her lips. Class was about to start. We headed for the spin classroom.

“Stacey, look, we’ve been friends for a long time, right?” I said.

“Since Gracie and Hannah were little. I love you, Caroline. You can trust me. You don’t have to pretend to be okay when you’re not.”

“That’s the thing. I can’t trust you. I know you’ve been gossiping about my marriage. And now you’re trying to make me doubt my husband.”

Stacey flushed bright red and put her hand over her heart. “No, you’ve got it all wrong,” she said. “I was not gossiping. I would never gossip. I wasn’t trying to do anything except look out for you.”

“Well, thanks, but I’m fine, and I’m asking you to stop talking about me to our mutual friends. Jason and I are doing great together. It’s hurtful and damaging to have people say otherwise.”

“Look, if that’s how you want to play it, I’ll butt out. I was only trying to be helpful.”

“I hear that, but it’s not helpful.”

“Fine. Message received,” Stacey said, holding up her hands defensively.

We took bikes side by side but didn’t look at one another. I wasn’t sure what my diatribe had accomplished. Would Stacey stop gossiping, or would she simply stop talking to me? Maybe I wanted her to stop talking to me. Her vague insinuations about Jason having trouble at work only caused me more anxiety. I remembered Jason’s boss, Peter Mertz, acting so skeptical at the party when I talked about Jason’s business trip. I’d had a feeling for a while now that something was off at Jason’s work. But I was hesitant to confront him about it when our reconciliation was so new. Not without more information, anyway.

Gabrielle, the spin instructor, mounted a bike at the front of the room, adjusted her headset, and fiddled with the controls. An image of a road winding through hills by the sea popped up on the video screen behind her, and the overhead lights dimmed. The music swelled, and I started to pedal. From the corner of my eye, I noticed a straggler entering the studio. Gabrielle paused the music. She hated tardiness, and I’d seen her eject latecomers. I was expecting her to say something nasty, but to my surprise, she gave a big smile.

“Hey, new student. Awesome, we need more guys in this class. Come on in, take a bike.”

I turned to look, gasped, and grabbed the bike handles. It was Aidan, and he was walking right toward me. He wore biking shorts and a cut-off sweatshirt, like he actually planned to take this class. It wasn’t a coincidence. It couldn’t be. He was stalking me.

Aidan held my gaze as he walked up to the cycle next to mine.

“Hello, Caroline,” he said, with a chilling grin, as he got on the bike.

Stacey’s head whipped around. She couldn’t believe that this good-looking young guy knew me.

“Hey, I could use some help with my settings,” Aidan said.

I had a terrible urge to run. But I needed to stay cool, and act like nothing was out of the ordinary, so Stacey didn’t get suspicious. She was gossiping about my marriage enough already.

I dismounted and stepped over to Aidan’s cycle. The music came back on, loudly enough that I wouldn’t be overheard. I leaned down, my mouth at his ear.

“Stop following me,” I said, the words coming out like I’d spit them.

“I’m not following you.”

“Then how did you know I’d be here? You went through my phone, didn’t you?”

Aidan looked hurt, even bewildered.

“You told me a lot of things when we were together. You told me how much you love this class, and that I should try it.”

“No, I didn’t. You’re making that up. I never told you about this class. And I certainly never said you should come to it.”

“Maybe you don’t remember all the things you said.”

From the front of the room, Gabrielle spoke into her headset.

“Everything okay over there, folks?”

I gave Gabrielle a thumbs-up and climbed back on my cycle. I forced myself to do the class, but the entire time, I was flooded with panic at Aidan’s presence. I couldn’t have him making a scene in front of Stacey. I was afraid that he might follow me home. (Though I realized he could already know my apartment address from my phone.) I had no idea how to defuse the situation. I pedaled maniacally, dreading the end of class.