sometimes people got bored and played around, especially after long years of marriage. Twenty months into their marriage, an affair would be disastrous, but she’d been pregnant for eighteen of those twenty months and he was a twenty-five-year-old boy with a mountain of money and racy women were bound to chase him.
“I hope there’s nothing going on,” Eleanor said, and Alex nodded. He didn’t want to interfere and say anything to him if they were wrong. And Ruby hadn’t expressed any concern to them, just benign comments that he was working late, and slept at the office from time to time. Neither of Ruby’s grandparents wanted to frighten her or put ideas in her head, if their worries were unfounded. It didn’t seem fair to upset her so close to when their second baby was about to be born. The new baby was all she could think about now, and Kendall. And the time she spent with Zack was more limited every day as she slowed down. Zack felt as though she was either in the nursery folding baby clothes or on their bed, resting. And she wasn’t in the mood to go out anymore. She felt like a whale.
Eleanor invited them over to dinner, and they seemed fine. Zack was very attentive to her, and Eleanor and Alex decided that their fears were a product of their own imaginations. He was a computer genius after all, so maybe he really was working late.
The baby was overdue this time. Ruby was two weeks past her due date. The baby nurse had arrived, and was taking care of Kendall before the new baby came, so Ruby had more free time while she waited for labor to start. She was restless, excited, and bored, with free time on her hands.
She decided to surprise Zack at the office, and have lunch with him. So she got in her red Rolls, put the top down, and drove to Palo Alto. She was wearing a white tent dress and sandals. She looked huge, but very pretty and very pregnant, when she walked into his office complex, and walked down the hall without having the receptionist announce her. She didn’t knock on his office door, which was closed. She opened it, and hopped in, looking like a giant marshmallow, or a white cupcake, and saw a young blonde in a tight skirt sitting on the corner of his desk. They were laughing, and Ruby could see that he had a hand on her thigh, as she sat high on his desk turned slightly toward her. She was a very pretty girl, and they both looked shocked when they saw Ruby standing in the middle of the room. The girl didn’t move and Zack stood up, as Ruby stared at them both, too paralyzed to move. She wanted an explanation, but couldn’t say the words. It was so totally unlike him. He had never been a womanizer before.
“I’m sorry…I thought…I came down to have lunch with you.” Her eyes filled with tears and she started to back out. The girl got off the corner of his desk, but took her time about it, and looked as though Ruby was the interloper and at fault for showing up, not guilty that she had had Ruby’s husband’s hand on her thigh, and shouldn’t have. The girl didn’t look guilty, she looked annoyed.
“Bethany, this is my wife, Ruby,” Zack said awkwardly, and the girl nodded at Ruby and left. She was bold about it. Ruby followed her immediately and Zack rushed after her.
“Ruby, it’s not what it looks like…she’s an intern…nothing’s happening. Let’s have lunch.” She didn’t answer him as he ran after her, and she turned with a look of devastation in her eyes.
“You’re a son of a bitch. I trusted you. I’m about to have your baby, and you’re screwing interns.”
“No, I’m not. I don’t know why I did it. I had my hand on her leg…that’s all it was…she just hopped up on my desk before I could stop her.”
“I don’t believe you. You haven’t been coming home at night. Is this what it’s going to be like being married to you now?” she said as she left and he followed her out to the parking lot. She hated him at that moment and she hated the fact that she loved him, and he could hurt her as badly as he just had. She knew she wouldn’t ever trust him again.
“Ruby, I swear, nothing happened.