Living Single by Holly Chamberlin

Author:Holly Chamberlin
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2012-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-one

Erin—celebrated my birthday with a two-day party! didn’t get your card and present—did I give you my new address? will be here for another week. Love, Mother

Another girls’ night out, though I really wasn’t in the mood to talk, having forgotten—consciously?—to send a birthday card or gift to my mother and now suffering big pangs of guilt.

But judging by JoAnne’s conversational opener, I was going to have to get into the mood.

“So,” she asked me, “have you and Doug taken pictures of yourselves in the nude?”

Abby’s mouth fell. “You mean, naked pictures?”

“The pictures aren’t naked, Abby,” JoAnne said calmly, “the subjects are naked. Don’t look so shocked. Everybody does it.”

“No, they don’t,” I said, kind of shocked. “I don’t. Haven’t. Yet. Doug hasn’t suggested it.”

“Of course he hasn’t,” Maggie snapped. “Why would he want to have a hand in producing blackmail material?”

“I would never blackmail him! That’s a horrible thing to say.”

“Well, I know you wouldn’t, but does he? How much trust can there really be in an illicit relationship? The possibility always exists for you to rat him out to his wife. The possibility always exists for him to dump you cold and ‘go back’ to his wife. Like he ever had the balls to be honest with her and actually leave in the first place.”

A moment of brutal silence followed Maggie’s outburst.

I had to say something, didn’t I?

“God, I need a drink.”

Maggie’s smile was wobbly. “You have one. But I’ll buy you another.”

Peace was offered and received.

“How are things going with Doug, really?” JoAnne said after some rambling talk about job stress and health insurance.

“Well,” I said, “I do have a little problem. Doug’s birthday is next Sunday.”

“And the problem is ... ?”

“The problem is I can’t be with him on his birthday because it’s on the weekend. Weekend is family time. It’s sacrosanct. That means, no Erin. I can’t even call him. And I won’t be able to talk to him unless he can sneak a call to me. Which is unlikely, given the fact that his wife is throwing a big family party for him Saturday night, even though he’s told her time and again that he hates big family parties. Any parties, really.”

“How selfish of her,” Maggie murmured.

Abby shrugged. “Why can’t you and Doug celebrate on Friday? Like, at lunch or after work. Go have drinks somewhere.”

“We’re going to do that, but it’s not the same as being with someone on his actual birthday. I feel—deprived.”

“When you date a married man, you take what you can get,” JoAnne said. “You’ve no right to complain, Erin. You knew what you were getting into.”

“Did I? Sometimes, I’m not so sure.”

“What are you getting Doug for his birthday, anyway?” Abby asked.

“That’s another problem,” I said. “I can’t give him a normal gift—like a tie or a book or tickets to some event—because then he’d have to explain to his wife where it came from.”

“Can’t he just say he bought it for himself?”

“Maybe some men could but Doug never buys anything for himself.

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