Touch & Go (Tessa Leoni, #2)(44)

The girl’s voice broke off bitterly. She gave up on her cigarette, her arms wrapped tightly around her waist, that whole armor thing, except it was too late.

“How long did it go on?”

“Not long. Maybe four, five months.”

“Ended?”

“His wife found out. We’d started texting. I mean, he traveled a lot. Four, five days a week. Then his family… It wasn’t easy to get together. I imagine his wife felt like she got the leftovers of his attention once his work commitment was done. But I was one rung even below that. I got the leftovers of the leftovers. The whole…affair… It wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

“He ever fly you out to meet him?”

“Maybe, um, a couple of times.”

“Define couple.”

“Five or six times. In the beginning.”

“Definitely you were one rung above leftovers, then.”

Kate flushed, looked away. “Only the first month. When everything was new.”

“So the relationship starts to cool. You see him less. Text him more.”

“He didn’t like me texting. He worried about his wife. ‘That’s how they all get caught,’ he’d say. But toward the end…” The girl looked up, her face suddenly set. “I wanted him to get caught! I wanted the whole thing exposed. Because I thought”—she swallowed hard, eyes welling—“I thought, stupid, stupid me, that he’d choose me. That his wife would find out, kick his sorry ass out the door, and he’d come running to me. To me!”

Tessa waited a beat, let the girl calm down. “But that’s not how it played out.”

“He dumped me. Called me up, said he’d made a terrible mistake, he loved his wife and it was over. Don’t contact him again. And that was that. I waited. Thought maybe, after a few days, he’d call or text. Or even just show up downstairs. But nothing. His secretary took over his travel plans. That was it. I loved him, you know. I was stupid and naive and…and I loved him. I thought, maybe, he loved me, too.”

“You ever visit his house?”

The girl shook her head.

“Ever meet his wife?”

“No. Just saw her once or twice, in the lobby. I thought she was beautiful. She had on this real artsy skirt and form-fitting turquoise top. She looked like she took care of herself, you know. People said she was nice. I didn’t… I didn’t ask too many questions.”

“What did Justin say about her?”

“He didn’t. Our time was our time. He wanted to keep it that way.”

“And you never asked him questions? Like why he was having lunch with you, instead of her?”

The girl had the good grace to flush again. “He just said they’d been married for a long time. She was a good mother, he respected her—”

“Seriously?”

“But, um, you know, then he’d seen me. And there was something magical—”

“Ah, please.” Tessa bit her lip, belatedly trying to call back her own interjection. Always better to let the subject talk.

But Kate was nodding right along. “I know. I look back at it now, and I was so unbelievably stupid. I knew, I think I always knew. But he was just so attractive, and he had this way… He made me feel special. As long as I didn’t think about it too much, of course. But for those moments, when we were together…”

“He gave you gifts?”

“A bracelet. From Tiffany’s. I keep thinking I’ll give it back, but I haven’t, um, seen him.”

“Did his wife know? About the bracelet?”

“I don’t know.”

“She ever find you?”

Kate shook her head. “I wondered if she might try. If she’d call, or worse, come to the office. I tried to think of what I might say… I don’t know, what do you say?”

“She came. She saw you. She thought you were very young. And given Justin’s skills, you never stood a chance.”

The girl wilted. Why not, Tessa figured. Imagining yourself as hated by the ex-wife was one thing; discovering you were actually pitied, instead…

“Are they really missing?” Kate asked.

“Yes.”

“I don’t know anything about that. I mean, I haven’t even seen Justin for weeks and I never spoke to his wife. I guess I figured they were working things out. I mean, when Justin ended it with me, he ended it. Just like that. He loved his wife, and he wasn’t coming back.”

“And you let him go?” Tessa pressed. “No notes slipped under his windshield wiper, calls to his private line, visits to his job sites?”

“Oh, I called. Third time, he even answered. Told me very firmly…like, like a father, that I was not to bother him again. That his decision was made and his family came first, and he knew he’d been selfish, and now he needed to work on the irreparable harm he’d caused to his loving wife, blah, blah, blah.”

The girl broke off suddenly, flushing as if she understood how callous she sounded. She added, heatedly, “He said if I was struggling this much with the end of our relationship, maybe it would be better if I sought a new place of employment. Well, I got that message loud and clear. He was threatening to get me fired! I haven’t finished college yet. You know how many jobs I can’t get out there? I need this one. Trust me, I got the message just fine. I let him go and that was it.”