A New Kind of Bliss (12 page)

I
shared the news of my running into Teddy and lunching with him with Rosalind, as well as his thoughts on what we were planning for our class reunion. She admitted that John had vetoed the idea of the reunion being held on their property. Her sheepish expression suggested to me that there were a few expletives involved, but I couldn’t blame him.

At her suggestion, she and I stopped in at Cleo’s, a bar on North Avenue, to see if it could work for our reunion. The bar wasn’t the most elegant place in the world, but in dim lighting it didn’t look too shabby. You couldn’t see that the tears in the vinyl seats of some of the bar stools had been covered with black masking tape. Besides, if we had it at the bar we wouldn’t have to deal with RSVPs or with collecting payments in advance. They also had a kitchen that the owner said we could use provided we clean up after ourselves. We took a good look around, and Rosalind turned on the oven and all the burners in the kitchen. I opened the ancient refrigerator, the inside of which was both clean and cold, which was all that mattered.

“I think we’ve got our site,” I said to Rosalind.

“I think so, too. All we need is somebody to man the door and collect the cover charge as people come in. I can probably get John to do it.” Once again she looked slightly embarrassed. “You know, he keeps asking me why I even want to bother getting our class together in the first place, but I think it’ll be fun.”

“Especially since you’re not inviting them to your home,” I said. “Teddy Simms told me that he wouldn’t want anyone to even know his address, much less invite them over. Rosalind, you have to face the fact that some of our old classmates are up to no good.” I thought of some of the people he’d told me about, like the quiet, soft-spoken girl who’d been convicted of grand theft for taking Social Security numbers from the reputable tax-filing service she worked for and then establishing credit with it and buying furs and jewelry, and the guy who’d been in and out of jail on various drug charges.

We had to give the bar owner a date. We both thought Thanksgiving weekend would be the best time to hold it, since a lot of people who’d left Euliss came to spend the holiday with family still living there. Rosalind wanted to hold the reunion on Saturday night, but I liked Friday.

“Sunday is such a huge travel day for people going home,” I explained. “I think a lot of people leave on Saturday to get ahead of the traffic. If we hold the reunion Saturday night, they won’t be able to attend.”

Rosalind relented. “Now, we need to get the word out.”

“That’s easy,” I said. “Flyers. We’ll put them up all over Euliss. I’m sure if we ring enough bells we can get somebody to let us in the major apartment buildings. There’s always a bulletin board up in the laundry room. The supermarkets always have bulletin boards, too.”

“So do barbershops,” Rosalind said. “They’re so junky to begin with, with those two-year-old magazines lying around, another piece of paper will hardly make a difference. And all the black beauty salons.”

“Don’t forget Classmates e-mail,” I said.

When we finished making arrangements, we went to Applebee’s for lunch. By the time our food arrived we’d moved on to the reunion menu. I was grinding pepper over my steak fajitas when Rosalind said, “I must tell you, Emily, Tanis called me last week and asked if I thought things were serious between you and Aaron. I mean, she worked it into the conversation.”

“Oh, yeah? What’d you tell her?”

“I asked her what would make her ask that out of the blue. She said she talked to Aaron’s daughter Arden at the dance studio. Her daughter goes to the same one as his girls, you know, even though she’s a lot younger than they are.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Anyway, when she asked about Aaron, Arden told her he was in Indianapolis for a few days. She said she knew you’d gone out there to close out your condo.”

No doubt Tanis knew my travel plans from her mother. Mom had reported that Mavis continually inquired when I was returning home, obviously put up to it by Tanis, who was eager for me to leave town. “Rosalind, I sure hope you asked her why she felt my relationship with Aaron is any of her business.”

“What I told her,” Rosalind managed to say with remarkable dignity, considering she spoke between chews of a grilled portabello sandwich, “is that I certainly hoped so, since it was my idea to set the two of you up in the first place.”

“Good answer. I bet that shut her up.”

“It did.”

“I wish Tanis would mind her business and stay out of mine. Isn’t she supposed to be getting divorced?”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure that Tanis had Aaron all picked out to replace Rob. She didn’t count on you showing up and putting the eighty-six on her plans.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. But it looks like this is one time Tanis won’t get what she wants. Look, I’m tired of talking about her.”

“Fine,” Rosalind shrugged. “Tell me what Teddy’s up to these days.”

“He works for one of the dentists in the same building I work in.”

Rosalind nodded. “That’s right; it’s a medical building. Is he a dentist? Somehow he doesn’t seem like the type.”

“He’s a denture technician. He creates bridges and crowns, and even full sets.”

“Definitely a viable skill, but it can’t compare to Aaron.” Rosalind flashed a devilish smile. “So how was it, breaking in a widower?”

“Now, now, Rosalind. You’re getting a little personal, don’t you think?”

“Hey, I’ve been with the same man so long, I get a kick out of living vicariously through you.”

I’d practically forgotten that Rosalind and John had such a long history together. Immediately I went to work trying to figure how I could pry without it seeming like I was prying.

“You and John didn’t have a lot of sexual experience when you got married, did you?” I asked, praying it sounded casual and not like I was conducting a survey. Which, of course, I was.

“Of course we did. We went to different colleges, remember?”

I’d forgotten. Neither the Gills nor the Hunters were thrilled with their childrens’ interracial relationship, so they steered them to different colleges. Rosalind and John both chose colleges in Virginia, but their parents were satisfied because Hampton University was on the Atlantic Coast and Virginia Tech was in the western part of the state. The distance made it impossible to maintain a steady relationship, but they hooked up again shortly before graduation, and it soon became clear that it wasn’t mere puppy love. Their families had no choice but to accept the inevitable.

So much for my hopes of getting a better understanding of my predicament with Aaron. And I also had another problem to deal with. Rosalind was sharp, and I knew she’d find my question strange.

“What on earth makes you ask that, anyway?” Then she asked a question that really put me on the spot. “Does it have anything to do with Aaron? I know he married his college sweetheart.”

I did what any self-respecting woman would do. I lied. “Oh, I guess I was just curious about where people who’ve only had one partner learn their technique.”

“Oh, everybody learns,” Rosalind said with a smile. “The important thing isn’t where Aaron picked up his skill; it’s that he did pick it up.”

I grinned. “You can say that again.”

And that was no lie.

My heart sank in what was becoming a familiar Friday night routine. I couldn’t understand it. Every time Aaron and I made love, after exciting foreplay, he’d climb on top of me in the same position. Hadn’t he learned anything about variety in all those years of marriage? I mean, what was the problem here? A lot of sexually inexperienced childhood sweethearts got married and lived happily ever after. I didn’t believe for one minute that sex was so ordinary for all of them.

The whole thing struck me as implausible. Women who married young might have had only one sexual partner, but didn’t all guys have
some
experience? I mean, didn’t there exist in every town the slut who fucked like the Energizer bunny, as well as those sexually aggressive older women who liked their partners young, like those notorious schoolteachers who have made headlines? And if neither of those was available, what about that old sex-ed standby, the porn movie?

I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. I was afraid that if I should suddenly start riding him or kneel seductively on the edge of the bed I’d scare him off. Maybe I shouldn’t do anything at all. I mean, it wasn’t that he didn’t have what it took to get the job done. He’d been gifted with more than healing hands. It was just that I’d like some variety and spontaneity, so that the initial excitement that made my heart pound would continue and, yes, even increase.

By Saturday morning, when Aaron left for the Hamptons, I doubted that doing nothing was the answer. Sex with Aaron was as mechanically organized as a Detroit assembly line. I merely lay back expectantly and told myself diversity wasn’t everything. At least I
tried
to convince myself of that.

It might not have been so bad if I could have had my misery in peace, but everyone around me assumed I was the luckiest woman on earth. My own mother repeatedly told me how overjoyed she was for me. Rosalind ribbed me about standing up for me at the wedding. My friends from Indy, all of them looking for Mr. Right, wanted to hear every detail of our courtship, their listening interrupted by an occasional romantic sigh.

And then there was Marsha Cox, whom I caught up with on the phone. At the end of our lengthy conversation we agreed to get together for an early dinner at the Outback on Saturday night, which I had free because Aaron was in Sag Harbor.

“You don’t know how lucky you are, Em,” Marsha said wistfully when our fried shrimp was delivered to our table. “You snagged a doctor.”

“I haven’t snagged anybody, yet,” I said, just a teensy bit envious. Everyone telling me how fortunate I was was starting to get tiresome, especially since I didn’t see it as a complete gift. God certainly had a sense of humor. Aaron was a prize in every way but one.

“Trust me, he’s as good as got. The man’s wife died. He’s probably been really lonesome, and along you come. Pretty, charming, witty…”

I started to feel better. There’s nothing like a load of compliments to perk up a person’s ego.

Marsha’s next words quickly made me realize it wasn’t just about me. “You know, the only job I could get after Roger got killed was as a bank teller, which was what I did before I met him. Me and my kids are living with my mother in Sherwood Forest, and at this rate I’ll never get out of there.”

Sherwood Forest was probably the only public-housing project in Euliss that wasn’t named after some long-deceased public official no one’s ever heard of.

Marsha sighed. “I guess I should have taken advantage of Roger’s money and gone to school, learned how to do something.”

That was my thought as well, but of course it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to point that out. “Does the bank offer any type of tuition reimbursement?” I asked instead.

“Yeah, the key word being
reimbursement.
It’ll probably take forever for me to get the money together just to pay for one course. I’m forty-three, Emily. Getting a degree will take too long.”

“Lots of people go back to school and get their degrees when they’re in their forties. Remember our old English teacher in high school? She was past fifty when she got her bachelor’s, and she was one of the best teachers we ever had.”

“Sure. She was a nice, cozy, stay-at-home mother whose kids had grown up and left home and her husband was at work all day. She wasn’t a widow with no money and two kids to support. Teaching was more of a hobby for her, not a necessity.”

I hesitated only a moment before proceeding with a slightly prying question. “Didn’t you get any cash at all after Roger was killed?”

“Not a cent. He was barely cold when the FBI showed up. They attached everything: the house, the furniture, the cars, the bank accounts. We were only allowed to take our clothes. And of course I didn’t get to keep any of my furs.” She grunted. “I’m all right for the time being, but eventually everything I’ve got is going to go out of style.”

I felt she was safe for a while. Marsha wore a cap-sleeved knit sweater and plain tan Capri pants. Somewhere along the line she’d learned that classics worked best. It would prolong the stylishness of her wardrobe. “This isn’t any of my business, Marsha, but didn’t it ever occur to you that one day something like this might happen? Roger’s profession isn’t exactly known for career longevity.”

She sighed. “You know, Roger never told me how he made his money, other than he was a hardworking entrepreneur. He had a couple of businesses set up that were pretty much bogus, as fronts to launder his money.”

“You wouldn’t be the first wife who got duped into thinking her husband was an honest businessman.”

“He did an excellent job concealing it from me. In fifteen years there were no calls in the middle of the night or things you might expect from a drug kingpin.”

“You really had no idea, Marsha?” I hated to sound so doubtful, but come on. “Not in all that time?”

She shrugged. “All right. I did start to get suspicious once I realized how he always kept his cell phone on. He kept it on vibrate and slept with it under his pillow. And how some of the stores he owned didn’t seem to carry much merchandise. But, Emily, by then I was so caught up in the lifestyle. If there was anything I wanted, I could just go out and buy it. He never complained about the bills or anything. Our kids went to the best private schools.” She chuckled. “Of course, some of their classmates were kids of mobsters, and some porn king had his kids enrolled at those schools, too. Then again, Eddie Murphy used to live in Englewood Cliffs, so there were residents who made their money without breaking the law.” A wistful smile formed on her lips. “Emily, there’s nothing like being able to buy anything you want without having to ask the price. It’s a whole new…” She trailed off, perhaps overcome with emotion for what she once had had and lost.

I’d had a taste of what she described just from my brief time with Aaron. I understood why it left her speechless. It was a whole new kind of bliss, one that poor girls from Euliss could only dream about.