The Suburban Mom Pt. 02

Chapter 5

It was Connor who suggested it, and when he did Marcia knew at once that she should have said no. They could find someone else. They could ask Connor’s Ma and Pa to come over for a few nights. Anything but this! But Marcia had said nothing and Connor had put it to his friend David when he met him for one of their occasional games of racquetball.

“I’m sure she’ll be delighted,” David had said when Connor had first asked him if Alyssa would be able to babysit for them on Friday evening.

“It’ll only be till around 11’o clock, unless of course Alyssa wants to crash with us, as Marcia will be returning to make sure everything’s fine with the kids. Since it’s the company’s annual dinner, she’s letting me stay at the hotel overnight.”

There were still two days left until the dinner. That evening, Marcia asked Connor if he didn’t think Alyssa was a little old for that kind of thing and if they weren’t imposing on her. Connor told her that David had already got back to say that Alyssa was really looking forward to seeing the boys again.

Marcia felt like telling her husband that she didn’t even know the boys’ names, but what was she to do. Making a fuss would suggest she knew something about the girl that might disqualify her from the job. Marcia could hardly tell him that she was afraid the young lady might try and seduce her. She definitely couldn’t tell him that she might want her to.

Just when Marcia had reconciled herself to coming home and relieving the girl (she had her own car, as Marcia had learned when they did the creché together), Connor suggested that Marcia stay with him at the hotel. The sex had been so good recently that he thought the change of venue, plus the effect of the food and wine, would guarantee another unforgettable evening.

It is a reflection of her highly volatile state that when Connor put this idea to her 24 hours before the event, Marcia told him they didn’t know Alyssa very well and they couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t fall asleep or go into the yard for a smoke or whatever. She felt it was best to stick with the arrangements they had made. Maybe next year, though, she suggested.

When Connor thought of all the staff coming to the function from the company’s branch offices around the tri-state region, he wasn’t altogether disappointed that his wife had said no, but he was pleased that he had asked – showing her he wanted her to be there – and pleased too that she had thought so long and hard about things before deciding, as she had added, to give him the chance to really let his hair down with the boys.

It is another reflection of her state of mind that she started to think about what she would wear: not to the dinner (she had already decided on that) but when she got back – after she had taken a shower – before she sat down with Alyssa for a bit of girl’s talk. For a moment she even considered the short red silk nightdress embroidered with black lace around the generous V neckline. She had bought this online at great expense for their upcoming wedding anniversary but reckoned she could try it on tomorrow night to check that it fitted her nice and snugly. Dismissing such ideas as so much silliness, she got down to a bit of sewing and mending that needed to be done, before she turned in for the night, giving Connor a kiss on the mouth that left him wanting more.

Since Connor went to the hotel where the dinner was being held straight from work, Marcia was on her own when Alyssa arrived shortly after six. For Marcia, who had been wondering what the girl would be wearing, it was a source of some disappointment that she had spent so little care on her dress, just throwing on a sweatshirt that had seen better days and some old jeans, which were ripped in places (though not in an intentionally trendy way) and were even marked with some old stains. Her trainers too were scuffed and looked as if they were ready for the trash can.

Alyssa did at least compliment Marcia on her outfit: a short-sleeved, relatively tight-fitting turquoise dress with a conservative below-the-knee hemline. The younger woman thought that it showed off Marcia’s curves to good effect and told her so, as she took off her backpack and placed it on a chair by the door.

“You’ll definitely have the eyes of many of the men on you,” she said to Marcia, who coloured slightly, while noting that she said nothing about the women.

“I’m sure there will be many women there who are a lot younger than me,” she replied, knowing she was angling for compliments but not caring whether she was or not.

“It’s not just about age,” said Alyssa, touching Marcia on the arm and sending sparks shooting through her body. “It’s about what you’ve got inside and how much empathy you have…and are willing to share.”

Feeling a little more flustered than she cared to admit with the direction the conversation was taking, Marcia said goodbye to the children (telling them to be good and to do what Alyssa told them) and then, not knowing exactly how to manage the parting from her babysitter, even though she could have just walked straight out the front door to her waiting car, stood awkwardly in front of her and fiddled with the clutch bag she was holding.

“Enjoy yourself,” Alyssa said, sensing her clumsiness, before leaning forward and kissing her on the cheek.

Marcia muttered a hurried “Good night” and fled into the semi-darkness, so flustered that she went to the passenger’s side of the car before realising her mistake and doubling back to the driver’s side.

It was only a 30-minute drive to the hotel across town, but Marcia needed all that time to compose herself. She had told Connor she’d be there by seven and she was going to be in plenty of time. So much so that she decided to pull across at a convenience store and buy some mouth spray. In the end, she bought the most expensive the shop stocked, a herbal mist, which she placed on the passenger seat when she got back into her car. Before turning the engine back on, she told herself to make this evening about Connor and to be the loving wife. When she thought about some of the other couples who would be there she knew that she was lucky to be in a loving, caring and supportive relationship. Thus buoyed up, she travelled the remaining five minutes to the venue, handed her keys to the valet and walked in to see who’d arrived and hopefully find Connor.

Given the earliness of the hour, there were a lot of people already at the venue, some at the bar, others mingling amongst the tables in the ballroom, which had been converted into a vast dining room for the evening. Marcia had barely entered the room when she was hailed by Devon, one of the few black men who worked for giant accounting firm. Looking around for Sabrina, Devon’s wife, Marcia went up to Devon and kissed him on each cheek.

“My better half’s taking a call in the car park,” he explained. “Her phone is only silent when I hide it. I once threw one of them away. I think you know that, right?”

Marcia nodded. She remembered the fallout from that incident well. She was convinced they were going to get divorced, which Sabrina could have handled in her sleep – and without her phone – since she was a family lawyer.

“So many damned couples are getting divorced,” Devon continued in that sardonic way of his. “What can we do to keep them together, Marcia?”

“You should share your secret with them, Devon,” Marcia replied with a smile.

“Us?! You kidding?! She’s forever threatening me with trial separations and injunctions and restraining orders.”

“It’s what keeps you together, Devon. She needs someone to keep her sharp. You’re her whetstone.”

“Whetstone?! Hey, girl, I like that. I’ll pitch that to her later tonight. I think she may dig it.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve seen Connor, have you?”

“Why the rush, babe? Let me get you a drink. What will you be having?”

“Just a lime soda. I have to keep sober so I can relieve the babysitter. You guys are lucky having Sabrina’s folks living so near.”

“Lucky?!” cried Devon. “You call it lucky to have that battle-axe on your doorstep?”

“Oh, Devon, you’re incorrigible. Why don’t you go and get me that drink and I’ll give my husband a quick call.”

As it happened, Connor was tied up with the two people who were going to emcee the evening. There had been one or two last-minute changes in terms of personnel attending, the most important of which was the unexpected arrival of the CEO of the national operation, who had originally been scheduled to be in Mexico meeting a delegation from the EU. The final meeting of that congress had been cancelled (or, more accurately, moved to become the opening segment of next year’s congress), which meant that Big Tone, as he was affectionately known, was free to attend this shindig. What it also meant was that everyone would feel – rightly or wrongly – that they needed to be on their best behaviour, although in terms of exactly how long that feeling would last, Marcia for one had her doubts.

By the time Marcia finally hooked up with Connor it was well past eight and the dinner had already begun. She was quite happy in the interim to chat with the others at her table of eight, which included two couples she knew reasonably well in addition to Devon and Sabrina. Sabrina wondered why she hadn’t asked the babysitter to stay the night, so that she could spend the night with the rest of them at the hotel. Marcia replied, quite truthfully, that it was Connor who had made the arrangements and he had been under the impression that Alyssa was still at school.

“Typical man!” Sabrina responded, before adding, “at least he didn’t suggest you took the hotel room while he went home to relieve her.”

Marcia almost choked on the cherry tomato she was eating, which everyone took as the effect of her laughing at the expense of her husband, who chose that exact moment to take his place next to his wife at the table. When the joke was explained to him, he created even more merriment when he said that in this day and age how could he know what his wife might get up to with the babysitter in his absence.