Trust by Nancy Grossman-Samuel

              Angie woke, and out of habit, turned toward what had been her husband’s side of the bed. It had been almost a month and she still slept only on her side as if she’d be encroaching if she slept in the middle or on his side.

 I need a new bed, she thought to herself. Maybe I need a new house. This place is haunted.

“And I need a new sister,” she said out loud to no one. She got out of bed and stretched her neck to the left, right, and back. It was tight and it hurt. The phone rang, and she stared at it. She wouldn’t answer it. She couldn’t answer it, and then she decided that she was tired of brooding about her sister’s stupid, thoughtless actions at dinner five days before. She could not hide from the world forever, but by the time she picked up the phone, whoever it had been was gone. She gasped. “I can take the phone out of MY bedroom,” she said, realizing for the first time that this was really her house now and she could do what she wanted. She never liked having a phone in the bedroom, but Richard insisted because he would sometimes get work calls late or early and he didn’t want to have to run to the other side of the house.

“Ha!” she said almost laughing. “Work calls.” Her husband of 35 years had just left her for his assistant – a girl 20 years her junior. How could she have ever liked and trusted Beth? She wasn’t even as old as the number of years they’d been married. Angie had thought of her in a daughterly way, which now seemed smarmy and incestuous.

When Angie learned of the betrayal, she decided not to fight for him. There was no way a 50 year old woman could compete with a smart, sexy, 30 year old who was willing to do whatever she could to get what she wanted, and this girl had wanted Richard. She had fallen in love with him the moment she started at the firm. She saw it now. What had she been looking at before?

It was nearly a month before her sister was able to talk her into getting out of the house. She had told her friends that she was going away for a few weeks to visit cousins out of town, but that lie had cost her her freedom. She couldn’t go to the gym, or run, or even go to the grocery store. So JoAnne had said that she would call her friends, tell them she was coming back, and put together a little dinner at their favorite restaurant with a number of her closest friends. But, while Angie was in the bathroom with her friend Stephanie, JoAnne decided to tell everyone “the news.”

Angie, who was finally feeling better, came back from the bathroom laughing and feeling a bit like her old self, however, as arrived back at the table, everyone went suspiciously silent. Angie knew instantly what had happened and looked daggers at Stephanie believing that she had had something to do with this.

Next she stared at JoAnne who smiled and gave her a –this is for your own good– look. She was such a fucking blabbermouth. She should have known that this dinner was a rouse; an intervention to begin a healing process that JoAnne had decided to spearhead.

Looking again at Stephanie who had shock written all over her face – Marla was whispering in her ear – she knew that she’d had nothing to do with it.

          “I didn’t…”

          “I know, I know. It was all my baby sister’s doing. Right?”

          “He was never right for you anyway,” said Meggie, “and I have someone I’d like to introduce you to.”

          “You’ve gotta be kidding. He left three weeks ago. This was supposed to be a fun, distracting evening, not the beginning of therapy, or the love connection.”

          “A date would do you good,” said Alceen.

          “I don’t want a date, and I have no appetite for desert. You guys can eat the pastries and drink the wine. I’m going home. Oh, and someone’s going to have to drive that home!” she said pointedly toward JoAnne.

          Angie shook her head. Fists and teeth clenched, left the room.

          The table began buzzing. “Shouldn’t we go after her?”

          “No, that’ll make it worse,” said JoAnne. “She’ll get over it. You guys needed to know, but she wouldn’t have told you, so I thought it was important to come clean.”

          “Doesn’t look like Angie agrees,” said Stephanie watching Angie walk to the front of the restaurant.

          “Uh oh,” said Margie. “She’ll be back.”

          “Oh no she won’t!” said Stephanie.

          “Well she’s not going very far without these,” said Margie holding up her purse and jacket.

          “Hide them under the table!” demanded JoAnne.

          “No,” said Margie.

          “Please. This’ll be okay. But you have to hide them, now.”

          Grunting, Margie lifted them up and dropped the items dramatically on the ground..

          Walking out into the cold November air, Angie realized that she didn’t have her jacket or her purse. She couldn’t go back. She was not ready to talk about this or to any of them, so she took a deep breath, put on her nicest everything is fine smile, and walked over to the host’s stand where Joseph had just gotten off the phone. “Joseph, hi. I was wondering if you could do me a favor.”

          “Sure Mrs. Wexton, what do you need?”

          “Actually," she said with a sigh, "I’m not really feeling that well, and silly me, I seem to have left my purse and jacket at my sister’s table. Would you please be a dear and go get them for me?”

          “I could call you a cab.”

          “No, no I can drive. I just don’t want to go back in and listen to all that noise and laughing. You know how we can get.”

          Joseph smiled, nodded, and walked to the back of the restaurant.

          The group watched as Joseph approach. “Uh, excuse me. Mrs. Wexton asked me to get her purse and jacket.”

          “Tell her to come and get it herself!” said JoAnne.

          “Mrs. Ames she doesn't feel well, and she asked me to do it. Please can I have them?”

          The girls all looked to JoAnne. “Just let him have them, said Stephanie. When she’s ready to talk, she’ll talk.” Joseph looked curiously around as Margie ducked under the table to retrieve the items.

          “Here,” said Margie. “Tell her we all hope she feels better.”

          Joseph nodded and walked back to the front.

          “Thank you,” said Angie. “Thank you very much.” She smiled, patted his arm, and walked out.