Lily was at the sink when Derek came in, slipped his arms around her waist and started nibbling her neck.
“Did you come home for a little matinee d’amour?” she asked.
“If that’s French for a nooner, then yes.”
He took her hands and led her upstairs. Their choreography had been developed over thirteen years of marriage.
Twenty minutes later the phone rang. Arthur’s office was on the caller ID.
“Don’t answer that!” Derek said a little too sharply.
“It’s Dad. Maybe they need you back at the office.”
“I said, don’t answer that!”
It was too late; she’d already picked up.
“Hey Dad. You want to talk to Derek?”
“Has he talked to you, yet?” Arthur’s voice had a dangerous edge to it.
“Talked to me about what?” Lily wrapped herself in the sheet.
“I told him he had an hour to talk to you or I would.”
Lily looked at Derek, her husband, the father of her children, with whom she had just finished being intimate. He could not meet her eyes and fixed his stare almost defiantly at the ceiling.
“Lily, he has been carrying on with Hillary Simon, right here at the office. Of course, I’ve fired her.”
“Wait. Dad. That’s impossible. He’s right here. He’s just been here with me. We just….”
Arthur was silent for a moment. When he spoke again his voice was deadly, “Put him on the phone.”
Numb and confused, she handed the phone to Derek. There was a ringing in her ears and from far away under water she could hear the garbled sound of her father yelling over the phone at her husband. Her husband yelling back. The bang of the receiver snapped her to the surface.
“That bastard just fired me! Do you believe that shit?”
“Is it true?”
“Is what true? That he fired me? Didn’t you hear him?”
“Is it true?” Lily repeated.
“Yeah, I don’t know what we’re going to do now. We have nothing in savings. Nobody will want to take me on after my own father-in-law canned me.”
The scream of a cougar tore from her throat. Derek was silenced. He looked at her and nodded feebly. She sat very quietly on the edge of the bed for a moment.
“The children will be home from school in less than two hours. I want you gone before they get home.”
She was deaf to anything else he said that day. She saw his lips move, saw his hands gesturing, but she simply could not hear him.
She washed and dressed in the laundry room. She sat at the table with a glass of water. She watched the condensation roll down the glass. It was absolutely fascinating. Suitcases and garment bags bumped against the walls and down the stairs. She was vaguely aware of a kiss on the top of her head, thought she heard him telling Jared and Anna to be good for her. And he was gone.
She tried to hold up under the children’s interrogations. But she couldn’t hear them properly. Her ears wouldn’t stop ringing. She gave them some cookies and milk which Jared threw on the floor and which she cleaned up. They were crying. Her babies were crying. Why? Are they sick? She tried to feel Anna’s forehead but Anna just ran to her room and slammed the door. Anna doesn’t slam doors.
Camellia and Arthur walked into the house. Camellia wrapped her daughter in her ballet pink merino shawl, and brewed some herbal tea. Arthur talked to the children, one at a time. He answered their questions and assured them that Mom and Grammy and Grampa and the Aunties would all take care of them.
Lily threw up.