The Affair - Danielle Steel Page 0,31

everything to hear Nadia’s victories and woes. “Are things any better?” It didn’t seem like it from what she’d seen in the press. Normally, the American tabloids didn’t care much about foreign stars, but the movie had been such a massive box office hit in the U.S., and the romance between Nicolas and Pascale so titillating, that even the American public was eating it up. Athena was never sure how much of what she read was true. “Is it calming down? How are you, baby?”

“I’m okay. Hanging in. Trying to keep it together. The girls don’t know yet, and I’m trying to keep it that way as long as I can. Nicolas comes home for dinner a couple of times a week, and has been spending a night or two here, so they don’t figure out he’s gone. I tell them he left for work early when he’s not there when they get up.”

“That can’t be easy for you,” Athena said gently.

“It’s not.”

“Are you filing for divorce?”

“Not yet. We’ll probably get there eventually. I just don’t want to move too quickly and regret it later.” It was a sensible position, which was how Nadia did things, in order, with care and caution, and attention to detail. She wasn’t given to fast, flighty decisions, which Athena was at times, but somehow her impulses always turned out well. Nadia preferred to move more slowly.

“I’m sure you’ve heard Olivia’s opinions on the subject,” Athena said.

“Yeah, the electric chair or the gas chamber. Or a public hanging,” Nadia said, and her sister laughed.

“I kind of agreed with her when I heard about it. But that’s not real life. People do some really fucked-up things sometimes, even if they love each other. It’s really about what the two of you want, and how you feel about it. Personally, I’d probably chop Joe’s fingers off, or other parts of him. But who knows? You don’t know what you’d do until you’re in that position. You’re smart to take your time to think about it. Mom always said that good decisions are never made in haste. I kind of think she’s right. That’s probably why Joe and I have never married after thirteen years together. That looks way too scary to me.”

Since Athena had always been sure that she didn’t want children, she felt no pressure to marry, and still didn’t. At forty-three, she was perfectly content as she was, and so was he. She said she liked other people’s children, but didn’t want her own, and insisted that her dogs suited her much better. She had six, and it was chaotic in her home. Stanley, the largest, was an enormous white mountain dog of some kind that looked like a crossbreed with a horse, stood as tall as a man, and weighed two hundred pounds. In addition, she had a black Lab, an English bulldog, some kind of dog that looked more like a teddy bear—which she said was some kind of golden doodle, part poodle and part golden retriever, and tried to sit on everyone’s lap—and two tiny teacup Chihuahuas, who slept in the arms of the mountain dog and liked to ride around on the doodle’s back. Her partner, Joe, successful restaurateur and master chef, put up with all of it and thought that everything Athena did was charming. She was as blond and fair as Olivia, and as their mother had been before her hair turned white. She had a large frame and generous, womanly body.

“I think you’re brave to have ever gotten married,” Athena said with a sigh. “Braver than I am. Joe and I think it would ruin everything. I feel that not making it legal keeps things fresh. We never commingle money, and the only thing we’d have to fight about if we split up is custody of the dogs.” Nadia knew that Joe still had his small house in West Hollywood, where he had lived before he met Athena, but never used it. He used it for storage now. Athena owned the house they lived in, in the Hollywood Hills, with a huge yard for the dogs, and an enormous swimming pool. She called it their Beverly Hillbillies shack. It was full of vintage furniture from the fifties, which was casual, and great looking, and cost a fortune. Her favorite piece was a pink velvet Barbie doll couch that even Nadia thought was amusing and perfect for Athena, Venetia swore she was going to steal it one