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with her?”
    The tremor in her voice made it clear that, while the memory of last night elated him, it caused her pain. He berated himself for not realizing how deeply his actions had hurt Julie last night. He left his cup on the counter and pulled her into his arms.
    “God no,” he said. “I swear I never saw that woman before last night. You know I’ve always been faithful to you.”
     
    It looked like Tom would spend half his Sunday doing the yard work he hated. He would have gladly paid for a gardening service, but Julie protested, saying she liked doing it herself. The problem was, she didn’t have time for all the work and he ended up doing most of it for her. Today, the real problem was that it gave him too much time to think.
    As he knelt, spreading fresh mulch around the roses, he confided his thoughts to the dog who followed his every move. “Why didn’t I tell Julie about that thing with The Woman, Max? She probably wouldn’t believe it happened, but I didn’t even give her a chance.”
    Max whimpered and laid a paw on Tom’s hand.
    He rubbed the dog’s head, sat back on his heels, and lit a cigarette. “I should go back inside, right now, and tell her the truth.” After a moment’s thought, he shook his head. “Too late. She’d think I’ve been out here cooking up an explanation. A fantastic one, at that.”
    Besides, he’d already decided that tomorrow, as soon as he could get away from the job site, he would go back to the Cineplex to see if The Woman was working. He needed to know what she’d seen last night when whatever it was had happened to them.
    “Maybe this was only a new experience for me. She could be some kind of psychic or clairvoyant or . . . whatever. Maybe things like that happen to her every day. You know?”
    Max cocked his head at Tom.
    “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not trying to put a move on her. I’m a happily married man—mostly. And hell, for all I know, she has a husband and six kids at home.”
    The dog offered no opinion.
    “It’s just too weird. I’ve got questions I need answered before I can let it go.” After he talked to The Woman, he could file the whole thing away and forget it. Someday, if he had one too many at a party, he might tell the tale. “Let me tell you about the weirdest thing that ever happened to me,” he would say.
     
    Julie stood at the kitchen window, watching Tom work in the yard. Last night hadn’t turned out the way she’d hoped—the way either of them had hoped, she thought. She couldn’t blame him for being irritated at sharing their first night out in three weeks with another couple—especially that couple.
    Surely there had been a moment when she could have stopped Patricia at the door, told her that she and Tom wanted to be alone, but she couldn’t remember it. It seemed that one minute she sat alone on the sofa waiting for Tom, and the next minute Eddie was shaking Tom’s hand. How had that happened?
    Still, that didn’t explain the woman at the Cineplex. Tom had denied knowing her, but Julie worried that something in his eyes said otherwise. Hadn’t she witnessed the longing as the two of them looked at each other? How could you long for someone you’d never seen before?
    She winced remembering the check-it-out nod Eddie had given her. The instant she turned and saw her husband gazing deeply into the eyes of another woman, the security blanket of her marriage had frayed at the edges. Her hurt anger had flared out in all directions—toward Tom for cheating, possibly, or at the least, for flirting right in front of her; toward Eddie for noticing; and toward Patricia for tallying up another strike against Tom.
    But this morning, he’d denied everything. He didn’t know that woman. He wasn’t having an affair with that woman. He hadn’t even noticed that woman. Were those lies? Was it possible her imagination had run wild? She laid a hand low on her abdomen. Her need to believe him was as strong as the