“We live in a different world from the one we grew up in,” Marcia said. “One where 6-year-old boys can tell their parents to call them girls, and if they don’t they might have them taken away from them.”
“You’re right, dearest – as always,” Connor said. “You know, though, honestly I really wouldn’t try anything on with Alyssa.”
Chapter 9
Sunday was spent with Connor’s sister and her family, who lived only 15 miles away on an extensive property in what had once been in the countryside but had now been almost subsumed in the suburbs of the nearest large city. The big attraction of their place for the boys was their swimming pools – one outdoors (now all covered up) and one indoors (a good length too, at 12 meters). They also had a skeet shooting area on their property, where Connor sometimes tried his luck with Jeff, his brother-in-law, who’d made his fortune in real estate development.
It was while she was there, reclining poolside with her sister-in-law Emily, who had trained as a midwife, that she realised that she’d got a message from Vesna. Normally, she wouldn’t let Connor or herself use their phones when they had guests over or made visits, but she had made an exception on this occasion – excusing herself to Connor by saying that her mother had been unwell (which was kind of true, but no longer really applied). She decided she wouldn’t read it until she was on her own. She was about to go to the bathroom when Emily asked to be excused as she needed to put the pot roast on.
Marcia was so eager to read the message that she dropped the phone and chipped the cover.
“Damn it! I’ll have to get that replaced tomorrow,” she said to herself.
Vesna was inviting Marcia to her place on Wednesday for what she quaintly called tea. This would consist of a pot of what Vesna proudly called the world’s best chamomile tea (made from plants grown in Croatia) and “fritule”, which were apparently Croatia’s national dessert. Vesna said they were like donuts, nut filled with rum and raisins – much tastier than the American version. She didn’t mention a specific time (just the afternoon), so she obviously wanted to give Marcia as much leeway as possible, and as much time as possible to find someone to look after the boys.
Marcia decided she wouldn’t respond until the next day.
“Make that this evening, at least; otherwise it might appear that I’m being rude, and I really hate that in other people, and it would be hypocritical of me to criticise others for something when I do the same thing myself.”
With this and other thoughts she got herself quite wound up, so much so that she decided to join the boys in the pool, even though she hadn’t planned to. They enjoyed knocking a beach-ball around with their mother, and she enjoyed doing something that took her mind off her infatuation. For that’s what she suddenly decided it was.
“Who knows, by this evening I may be able to laugh at myself for getting so steamed up about something so silly, something so – yes, frothy,” she thought, looking at the bubbles pouring into the pool from one of the jets built into the side.
“If I can find someone to look after the boys, then, sure, I can go and break bread and fellowship with a stranger in our midst. If I can’t, then, no worries, we can do it another time, or I can invite her over on a Sunday to have lunch with us. She can even bring her partner with her, if she has one.”
Rationalising it in this way, Marcia felt a whole lot better and by the time dinner was served at seven o’clock she had almost completely forgotten about the funny girl with the crooked mouth. She decided she’d wait until they all got home before she answered her message, and even then it would have to be a “Maybe”, given all the circumstances.
After Marcia had run the boys to school and got her chores done on Monday morning, she called Carina to see if she could pick Aidan and Mark up on Wednesday and maybe give them tea, as she had made an appointment for that afternoon and didn’t want to cancel. Carina said she would have loved to see the boys and have them over to play with her children, but unfortunately she was taking them to the dentist after school that day.
Marcia sat down with an elderflower tea and wondered who else might be able to have them for – what, how long does tea take? she thought – maybe a couple of hours, perhaps three, to be on the safe side. She tried a couple of other parents but they too were busy, and was about to tell Vesna she wouldn’t be able to make it this week when she thought of Alyssa. Who better than her to look after the kids? But then she remembered that she had only been home from college for reading week and would now be back at Northwestern.
She had got as far as starting to text Vesna to say she wouldn’t be able to make it when she thought of the new couple at church (David and Connie), who were childless but keen to start a family according to Carina. She had Connie’s number from a women’s prayer group list and thought she’d give her a call. Connie sounded delighted to hear from Marcia and told her she would be thrilled to have the boys over. When she heard which school they attended, she said it was only five minutes drive from her place and of course she could pick them up. Even before Marcia could ask her, she had also offered to give them tea, asking her if there was anything they didn’t like. It was agreed that Marcia would collect them at half past six, so that they would all be home when Connor returned.
Marcia thanked the Lord for his provision and proceeded to tackle a particularly dirty job in the kitchen, the cleaning of the extractor fan. So elated was she that she actually whistled while she worked, like Snow White with the seven dwarfs.
With the boys taken care of, Marcia was able to firm up a time with Vesna. They settled on 3 o’ clock, which would give Vesna time to get things ready after she got back from the spa, where she worked as a masseuse on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It would also give Marcia time to prepare something for Connor and her to have for dinner that evening.
Marcia waited until the Tuesday evening to tell Connor about the arrangements she’d made for the following day. He was delighted that she was going to have a massage (that alibi had been provided unwittingly by Vesna), as he knew how much she liked them. When he heard the boys would be staying with Connie and David, his joy was doubled, as David was someone he was getting to know through church. The boys, it had to be said, had been rather less enthusiastic about spending three whole hours with people they hardly knew – and adults! – but they came round to the idea when their mom promised them a trip to their favourite ice cream parlor the following week.
Wednesday morning seemed to drag interminably for Marcia. She made meatballs for dinner, and popped down to the local supermarket to get some vegetables and fresh fruit, but still it was only a quarter of eleven. Noticing that the wind was getting up, she staked some of the bushes in the back yard, even though they didn’t really require it, and then used the electric leaf collector to tidy up both the front and back yards.
Having built up a bit of a sweat, she then had a shower before making herself an avocado, cherry tomato and pine nut salad. By the time she’d finished the washing up, it was getting on for one o’clock. She’d never known the time to drag by so slowly. Unusually for her, she then picked up a book she’d started a few months before and started to read it. This did the trick, as she became immersed in the story of a rich girl who falls for an impoverished young man in early twentieth century Ireland, all set against the background of the fight for independence.
Suddenly, it was nearly a quarter past two and Marcia had to think seriously about what to wear. The sweatshirt and sweatpants she had changed into after her shower were rather informal, she thought, for an invitation to tea, even with someone like Vesna. She went upstairs and contemplated different combinations, before settling on her light blue sleeveless pleated mid-length dress with a scoop neckline, which buttoned up the front. It was one of Connor’s favourites.
Chapter 10
By the time she arrived at Vespa’s apartment, it was a couple of minutes before three. She rang the bell for her apartment and was buzzed in. By the time she got to the top of the stairs (her place was on the third floor), Vesna was waiting for her at the door. She was wearing a black crop top with a black mini skirt and matching cutout leather sandals. The combination was enough to send Marcia’s heart cartwheeling into the sitting room some way ahead of the rest of her body.
Once they were inside with the door shut, Vesna kissed her guest on both cheeks. As she did so, she noticed that Marcia had her eyes closed. She could tell that the woman was primed. All it would take was the slightest spark to ignite her. But she had plans for the afternoon and three hours to play with. She was determined not to rush, but to extract the maximum pleasure from their encounter.
Vesna told Marcia to take a seat while she got the chamomile tea and the fritule. She chose to sit on neither of the easy chairs but on the couch, which was big enough for three people. While Vesna was in the kitchen, Marcia looked around for signs of another person’s presence in the apartment. She knew this type of apartment block and was pretty sure there was only one bedroom, so the question was whether she shared it with someone else or not. There were only a couple of photographs in the room, and they seemed to be of Vesna’s family back in Croatia – one in the summer at a lake, the other in the snow, presumably in their yard.
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