The Secret of You and Me - Melissa Lenhardt Page 0,60
this.”
“God, you’re a terrible liar.”
We were silent.
“Well, then,” Alima said. She turned back to her suitcase. “I had today all planned out. In Montreal. Taking you to brunch at L’Express. We would gorge ourselves; their French toast is amazing. We would walk it off through Mount Royal Park and up to Belvédère Camillien-Houde. It’s beautiful up there. Very romantic.”
She turned and tossed something to me. I caught it awkwardly and looked down at a small square box. Tiffany blue. My stomach lurched. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be sick, or sob with joy.
“Open it.”
It was a platinum band of a dozen emerald-cut diamonds. Beautiful, simple and elegant. Precisely what I would want.
“I’ve left my husband, Nora. For you.”
“You... But, we haven’t talked about this. I thought...”
“You thought I was safe. Unattainable. I was, for a long time. But, somewhere along the way, I fell in love with you.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“That you love me too would be nice.”
“You know I do.”
“Who were you making love to just now, hmm? Me, or Sophie?”
“Alima...”
“You don’t even know, do you?”
“Of course I do.”
Alima sighed and rolled her eyes. She turned around and pulled on a tank top. “I’m not going to play this game with you. You know where I stand. You’re holding proof of it.” She put on her panties and faced me. “Does your high school lover want you back?”
I looked down at the ring, thinking of earlier, kissing Sophie, her hand on my breast, my hand running up her smooth thigh, feeling the lace of her panties, the warmth, the way Sophie opened her legs, inviting more. The fucking phone call that stopped it all. Life, Sophie’s life, would always get in the way.
“Sophie’s not a former lover anymore, is she?” Alima said.
“Yes, no. She is. Still former.”
“Something happened, though.”
I nodded. “It was just a kiss.”
Alima laughed. “Oh, I doubt that very much. She’s been living in the closet for her entire life. That’s a lot of pent-up frustration. She has an itch that needs to be scratched, and you were right there to help.”
“It was more than that.”
“You’re contradicting yourself. Was it just a kiss or was it more?”
I sighed and put the box on the bed next to me. “I don’t know. You’re making this very difficult, Alima.”
“Good.” She sat next to me. “It shouldn’t be easy, Nora. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You know what I’m giving up for you, don’t you?”
Her entire family. They would disown Alima, banish her for leaving her husband for a woman. Her children might come around; they held more modern ideas than the older generation, but it wasn’t a guarantee. Alima had taken an enormous leap of faith on my love, loyalty and dedication to her.
“Yes.”
“A week ago you would have said yes, wouldn’t you?”
“I thought we were happy the way things were.”
“It’s not enough for me anymore. It hasn’t been for a while. I want to wake up next to you every morning. Drink tea and read the paper together. Travel. Spend the weekend in bed.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “When I imagined a life with you it’s just like that.”
“But, Sophie.”
I shrugged. If I hadn’t come home, seen Sophie, kissed her, if Alima and I had gone to Montreal and she had proposed to me on top of Belvédère Camillien-Houde, I would have said yes. Without hesitation. “Yeah, but Sophie,” I whispered.
She spoke softly. “You know you two aren’t the same people you were twenty years ago, don’t you? You’re risking what we have for an ideal.”
“This isn’t exactly fair, Alima.”
She leaned back a little. “How so?”
“There’s been zero hint that you were considering this. We have an open relationship, so of course if an old lover wants...I’m going to be open to it.”
“She isn’t just an old lover, though is she?” She smiled and caressed my face. “You’re absolutely right. We have an open relationship. This ring doesn’t give me the right to tell you what to do. I’d never do that regardless. But, listen to me, and listen well: I want you. All of you. All the time. For us to have any chance of a future, you have to settle things with Sophie. I don’t want you always to wonder what if with Sophie, and I don’t want her ghost in our bed like today. So, go. Have one of your one-night stands—”