Along the Borderlines by Caroline Kraus

Author:Caroline Kraus [Kraus, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781734957914
Publisher: Moments of Truth Project Books
Published: 2020-12-02T01:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

When a customer started coming around the store for repeat visits to see Jane, I figured out where she had been disappearing to several nights a week. I had suspected Susan, but apparently Jane had put her on hold. The customer’s name was Garrett, and he looked like a Garrett. He had short dark hair and a square, confident jaw, and when not saving lives in his ambulance, he obviously worked out at a gym. His love for Jane was so obvious, it was embarrassing.

I mentioned him one evening when Jane and I were in our beds, hoping to hide my worry. Jane immediately kicked off her covers and started pacing around my room, naked. She found one of my cigarettes and cracked the French door, puffing into the moonlight. “What I do is my business,” she said hotly.

I pouted. Eventually Jane came over and sat next to me. “Honey?” she asked. “Do you think the girls look swollen?” She glanced down at her breasts. I had often been called on to inspect regions of Jane’s body that most people restrict to doctors, but this time I looked away and shrugged.

“Garrett has a beautiful body,” she said. “When we fucked—”

I turned my head back slowly and stared Jane into silence.

“Oh, get over it,” she said. “What are you worried about? It’s just sex, for God’s sake. You are in a completely different category. You are my wife.”

“Whatever,” I said. Truth be told, I had no good argument for why I cared.

“Sometimes you are a totally unenlightened thinker,” Jane said, taking my hand. “I love you. And reassuring you all the time is getting old. Just accept that I will always love you the most, and let’s move on. If I ever get married, we’ll all live together, okay?”

Somehow, that was not reassuring.

At work, Susan was looking gloomier and gloomier. She brightened only when Jane was near, and when they disappeared she came back glowing. While they were on one of their outings, Garrett came into the store and right up to my register. “Is Jane Lowell here?” he asked.

“She is working today,” I said, “but out for a while.”

“Ah. Do you know when she might be back?”

Just then I saw Jane and Susan coming in behind him. When Garrett followed my eyes, he caught Jane ducking, and his face went white. When Jane popped her guilty head up, she saw that she’d been made.

“Surprise!” she said weakly. Then it was Susan’s turn to blanch when Jane galloped over to Garrett and gave him a movie star kiss. He fell back from her, profoundly confused.

“Were you hiding? From me?” he stammered. “You didn’t want me to see you?”

Jane’s smile faltered, and then she turned cold. “Don’t corner me,” she snapped.

“Well, it’s pretty humiliating,” he said. “I’d like to know why—”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Jane said evenly. When Garrett didn’t move she said, “Swa-ha,” and disappeared into the back room.

He stood for a long time in front of my register as customers came and went.

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