Dead to Her(33)

Marcie wanted to laugh. What did William sound like? Save your energy. It was pathetic, really, this need in older men to impress younger women. Maybe they were the only women some men could impress. “I’ll call Julian and Pierre. We could have them over to your place for brunch and see what they can do for your Fourth of July party. But it’s not that far away, they may be booked up.”

“They’ll do it,” William said. “Julian used to be like family.” His mouth tightened at the same time as a solitary wisp of cloud drifted across the parched sky, and Marcie couldn’t tell if the shadows were from that or a slight darkening of his mood. Maybe he didn’t overly like the boys. Maybe Julian had been a favorite of Eleanor’s. She’d have thought the couple would have been too pansy for old-fashioned William.

“Hey!” Keisha suddenly exclaimed. “I almost forgot. Guess who Charlene says she was sure she saw at the mall yesterday?”

They all looked at her.

“Jacquie. Charlene said she called after her but she couldn’t have heard. She was too far away to catch up with.”

“Jason’s Jacquie?” William said.

“Can’t have been Jacquie.” Jason’s voice was cold. “She wouldn’t come back here. Must have been someone who looked like her.”

Marcie barely noticed as the waiter brought her salad. Jacquie? Sneaking back into town? After she’d raged and cursed at Jason, even as she walked away with a lot more than Jason had to give her in the divorce, yelling, I’d rather die than come back to this snake-infested place and I’m not talking about the wildlife!

No, it couldn’t have been Jacquie. If it was, she’d have breezed into the club for lunch with one of her old friends to rub Marcie’s nose in it.

“I guess not then,” Keisha said, drawing her chair up closer to her oozing burger. “Anyway, I’m starving. Let’s eat.”

But if it was Jacquie, Marcie wondered as she picked up her fork, what could have brought her back here?





22.

It had been a long time since Marcie had slept naked, but after a shower she’d stretched out on the bed, the open shutters to the Juliet balcony letting the evening breeze in, enjoying the air on her skin. She’d felt such a surprising rush of freedom she hadn’t even bothered to put any underwear on.

It was odd being in the house alone. It was far too big for two people, let alone one, and without Jason there it felt enormous. A beautiful Italianate seven-bedroom mansion that somehow felt like a mausoleum. For what though? Her marriage perhaps. Jason with his bad moods and secret phone calls—if it wasn’t Keisha then who was it?—and eyes for other women. She hadn’t heard from him since they’d landed and she wasn’t surprised. Distracted didn’t cover Jason at the moment. And now, on top of everything, maybe Jacquie was back. Was that bothering him? Did he already know? Jason liked to be in control, she knew that, but maybe he was learning that women often only gave the illusion of submission.

God, she was bored with thinking about Jason, and now she had her own distraction. It wasn’t thinking of Jason that had her sleepless in the night. She looked at her phone again. Keisha had texted almost immediately after William had left for the airport. Let’s do something this weekend. Kx. Marcie hadn’t answered, not right away. She wasn’t sure why. The quiet drumming in the pit of her stomach that screamed both danger and excitement. Was it the memory of that kiss?

No, not even that. It was the reminder of who she’d once been. Free. Wild. Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. If she went back to that, who knew where all this would end? Running away in the grip of a scandal and working in a diner after screwing up her life? A person could only do that once with any sense of energy and she’d used up her shot. It wasn’t worth the risk simply to have the thrill of something illicit. In the end she’d set up Sunday brunch with Julian and Pierre and sent a formal text back to Keisha saying she’d see her then. There had been a pause and then, Okay thx. I’m about all weekend so if u get bored before then let me know.

Still though, Marcie couldn’t sleep. It was one thing to tell yourself not to do something, but it was quite another to stop thinking about it. Her mind was turning over and over, her body tingling, while her head went places she never ever thought she’d go about someone she actually knew. Hot places, as if now that she was no longer worried that Keisha would tell William, something had been unlocked inside. Doing the kind of things she’d only seen in porn. It was ridiculous, and yet she couldn’t stop.

She stared at the ceiling. Keisha had said that when she’d seen Marcie it had been like a lightning strike. Is that how it had been for her too? She could still vividly see Keisha coming down the stairs on William’s arm, wearing that too short Versace dress, so glorious it had almost hurt to look at her. Had her envy and fascination actually been attraction on some subliminal level and she hadn’t realized? God, it was all so confusing. But she couldn’t stop herself fizzing with fantasies of what might have happened if the men hadn’t come home so soon.

She stared at her phone again. Still nothing from Jason, and all she felt was irritation rather than hurt. Even when he’d gone to Europe last year for some client or other, and she’d been stuck at home with an awful stomach bug in their cozy old house, he’d at the very least texted her every evening before bed. How times had changed. Maybe they’d been changing then.