Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 73013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Also, she probably had a very strong and accurate suspicion as to what had happened behind the closed doors of the beautiful house loaned to Rick and me.
“So hi,” I said, wanting to cut through the momentary silence and get the small talk started. “It’s nice to see you!”
On one level, I had spoken the truth, because I did feel, quite unexpectedly, that I liked April—that if we did move to Rocky Falls she and I could get close, have girls’ nights, that kind of thing. At the same time, I knew I had just lied, that it was definitely not nice to see April. Riding in her car, driving toward what looked like the other side of town, where the day spa must be located, heightened the conflict inside me a little bit more with every revolution of the Mercedes’ wheels.
The very fact that April drove a Mercedes seemed to deepen my inner struggle. How could I not want a nice car like this one? Of course I couldn’t keep myself from envying April, the sensible part of me said. And if April drove a Mercedes, Scott must drive something nice, too—and Rick deserved a nice car, even more than I did. He would see, as I had, that we could have everything we wanted, but without any of the craziness.
The craziness. I shifted on the leather seat, which felt soft enough that I only winced a little at the reminder of that craziness: of my husband’s thick jeans belt whipping my bare bottom over and over.
It was not nice to see April, because she seemed somehow just with her compassionate smile to make my struggle more difficult. Sitting in the passenger seat of her Mercedes, watching the lovely streets of Rocky Falls go by, I tried to imagine Rick accepting the bargain I wanted to strike. April’s gorgeous, petite body next to me, my absolute certainty that she had struck no bargain with Scott, seemed like a scornful rebuke of my sensible thoughts in bed as I had read Rick’s note.
This luxury car, their luxury lifestyle: they hadn’t come from April telling her husband that she would do her chores and play along if he let go of his notions about old-fashioned discipline and strict compliance with her conjugal duties.
I realized that April hadn’t said anything yet, in response to It’s nice to see you. I had focused my attention on the sights out the window, to make sure she couldn’t see the pink in my cheeks, but now I risked a glance over to the driver’s side. To my surprise, I thought I could see a blush covering the other woman’s own face.
“I know you’re probably dreading this,” she said, taking me by surprise as she looked over at me. Her smile had faded, leaving a look of shared anxiety that made my liking for her even stronger. “I mean… how could you not? I did, when I was the one visiting Rocky Falls for the first time.”
I turned to look straight out the windshield ahead of us. I let the first thing to pop into my head come out my mouth, so that I at least had something to say—so that I could feel like I might be able to move the conversation off whatever it was April had meant by this… the thing I surely dreaded. I could think of a lot of things that could fall into that category, each of them more mortifying than the last.
“When… when was that?” I asked. “When did you… and… and Scott…”
Somehow I had forgotten how to ask a simple question—how to put words together into a sentence. April saved me at least for a moment, though, appearing not to notice that my brain had failed to add a verb.
“Two years ago,” she said quietly, as if the memory represented a time she didn’t tend to revisit with other people. Taken aback by the shift in her tone, I looked over at her again, to see that she had a fiercely pink spot on the cheek I could see. Then she said, confusingly, “You’re the first girl I’ve been asked to sponsor, so… I guess I’m a little embarrassed.”
I felt my face go through the motions of confusion: wrinkled nose, lips open with an unasked question. Up ahead, through the windshield, I saw a little shopping center appear around a curve in the road—exactly the kind of place that would have a day spa as one of its lovely shops and boutiques.
“Um,” I said. “About what?”
A very large part of me—equal parts brat and good girl, it seemed like—didn’t want to know. I found myself liking April so much more than I had expected, though, that my overriding urge told me to try to make her feel at ease.