Taking Chances by Cosette Hale Read Free Book Online Page B

I did not understand.
    “Wait, nothing at all? No sneaking into each other’s rooms?” Harvey asked, sounding more mad than relieved. I was in shock.
    “I planted a camera in the hallway which had a view of both doors to their rooms. Not once did they go into each other’s rooms. I saw no evidence of anything physical, not even so much as a hug as they left the airport to go home, her in her car and him in a cab.”
    “We live on the same block. Why wouldn’t they go home together?” I asked, trying to make sense of everything.
    Harvey scratched his chin and said, “Natalie was going to the office from the airport.”
    “If you need anything else from me you have my number,” Gus said, leaving us with the photographs.
    I looked up at Harvey and shook my head, “What about the money clip? Greg’s blowjob comment? The late nights? Natalie’s face when I told her that Greg and I were going to try to have a baby?”
    “I was the most convinced they were having an affair, but we have to accept that they were all strange coincidences. Shit.” He paused. “You and Greg are going to try now?”
    “I suppose,” I said, more like a question than a statement.
    “Natalie and I tried for a year and we couldn’t,” he said, looking down at his coffee.
    “Wait, what?” I asked, wondering if we had just made up our own little drama in which our spouses were fucking each other. Had we? It was like a Shakespearean drama. “If you guys were having trouble conceiving, then that would make sense out of the look she gave me when I said Greg and I were going to give it a shot. It also makes sense she’d want to stop having sex for awhile if it had become something of a chore, or if it was disappointing when it didn’t end up getting her pregnant,” I said, my voice getting a little louder.
    “Maybe, but she didn’t tell me anything about you and Greg trying and her thoughts on that. Or about her own thoughts on sex with me,” he said as if defending himself.
    “Well, did you ask her?”
    “Did I ask her if you and Greg were trying? No I haven’t learned to read other people’s minds yet, sorry,” he said defensively.
    “I mean, did you ask how she felt every time a month went by, and you guys still weren’t pregnant? You never once thought she might want to take a break from that disappointment?” I accused him. I blamed him of all of this— of making me question my husband, my best friend of over 15 years, of making me waste $800 on a stupid private investigator named Gus.
    “Yea sure, trying. But not having sex with her husband. What does one thing have to do with the other?”
    I groaned and stood up. “Men are idiots,” I proclaimed, and then mentally excused my wonderful husband from that statement. Not that he hasn’t done idiotic things in the past, but at that moment he was a saint in my eyes. I just wanted to go home, forget the past week, and worship him.
    I left the restaurant, jumped in my car, blasted the radio, and sped to the house eager to see Greg. Unfortunately, he wasn’t home. I saw he had texted me to say he was going to the office for a couple of hours to finish up the last of the paperwork before our trip the next day.
    While I had made my decision last night of what to do if Greg was cheating on me, I had packed my suitcase for the Virgin Islands. No matter which way I decided, I was going on that trip. I was safe to say now that if Gus had told me they were having an affair, I would have left Greg forever. St. Thomas was just going to be my first stop on the way out. But now that I had learned it was not as we feared, I felt uber guilty about all the snooping around. Not only that— I hired a private investigator! How pathetic! How could I not trust my husband?
    Greg’s suitcase was packed in less than 15 minutes, and I stood it next to mine by the front door. We would throw all the last-minute things into a small separate carry-on bag. I was absolutely in need of this vacation.