Secret Lives Of Husbands And Wives Read Online Free PDF Page A

lately! It’s so stupid, really. I guess that’s what happens when you are going through a nasty divorce.” She bitesthe gloss off her lower lip in an effort to calm down.
    “I’m sorry to hear that.” I truly am. Upon hearing this, she relaxes enough for me to grasp the fabric from the inside and try again.
    “Don’t be. I’ve never felt so—so frightened, and yet so relieved and exhilarated too.” She wipes away a tear. “He’s a hard worker, a good provider. He’s one of those guys everyone calls ‘perfect.’ But if I’m not happy around him—if I feel as if I’m
trapped
—then I guess he’s not perfect
for me.
I can’t live someone else’s ideal. So why waste time in a marriage that doesn’t make me happy?”
    I don’t know how to answer her. Because I don’t know that answer myself. For her sake, I hope she’s thought it through. “You were that unhappy?”
    She stares at herself in the mirror, as if seeing herself for the first time. “It took fifteen years, but it finally hit me:
I don’t love him.
”
    Just like that? No, it’s never just like that. There is always the one thing that pushes you over the edge. . . .
    Her eye catches mine in the mirror. Her smile is hard. “My God, just saying it out loud, it’s like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders!”
    As she breathes in again, the zipper gets the last bit of traction it needs. I guide it slowly down her back. “There, it’s moving again.”
    She steps out of the dress, all smiles again. “Thanks. Hey, do me a favor—”
    Before she can finish her sentence, her cell phone rings. She holds up one hand that stops me from backing out the door as she fishes it out of her purse with the other. “Yes? Bethany? . . . He says
he won’t
? But . . . Damn him! He can be so vindictive. . . . Yes, I know it’s his ego. Well, he’s used to winning, to getting his way. But you’ve
got
to convince him that he’s not thinking about what’s best for the kids! My God, he won’t even know what to do with them. He’ll probably palm them off on an au pair. He’ll have to, if he wants to stay a partner. . . . I don’t care what he says, this has nothing to do with anaffair. . . . Seriously, do you really want to know? . . . Ha! I thought not. Trust me, there is no way . . . Careful? Yes,
I know
.”
    Angrily she tosses the cell back into her purse. Then, realizing I’m still there, she scoops up the three dresses that are hanging and hands them to me.
    “I don’t like this one, but you can ring up the others for me, okay? I don’t think he’s thought of closing my account here, but just in case, you better do it fast.”
    It’s on the tip of my tongue to remind her that I’m not her salesclerk, that I’m her neighbor; that our sons play ball together, and our daughters dance in the same ballet class.
    But what’s the use? The Heights is no longer DeeDee’s paradise.
    It’s her war zone. And right now she doesn’t know friend from foe from shopgirl.
    That’s smart on her part, because I haven’t made up my mind which side I’m on.
    As my salesperson rings up the dress on my back, I hand off DeeDee’s frocks to her clerk with a thumbs-up, all the while wondering how many of the other dresses draped over the woman’s arm will make it onto Harry’s Nordstrom account before he realizes he’s even got one.

5
    “Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”
    —Robert Frost
    6:36 p.m.
    You’re a natural-born leader, you know? A
natural
. I’ve never met anyone like you! You say you were, what, in advertising? Account management, I’m guessing. . . . No? An
art director
? Well, that explains a lot. Like that natural flair you have for our big events. . . .”
    Margot Hardaway, the president of the Paradise Heights Women’s League, thinks she has to sell me on the idea of being her successor.
    And because I love being wooed, because I long to be desired, I’ve been