“How’s your marriage?”
“My marriage?” She laughed. “What do you mean?”
The waitress interrupted to take my drink order. I splurged on a midday glass of wine as well.
“I mean, are you still hopelessly in love? Do you find time to be alone? Have private conversations … have sex?”
Lila blinked at the flickering candle in the middle of the table. “Hopelessly in love,” she echoed my words. “Sure.”
“Wow, what a confident answer.”
“Are you? Can you honestly say after two kids, jobs, and family issues that you’re still in the honeymoon phase of your relationship?” Lila canted her head, eyes narrowed in question.
“Yes. We’re still madly in love. We still can’t get enough of each other. Sure, making love gets a little monotonous when we’re trying to get a quiet quickie in between kids waking up and coming into our room. But when we do get ten minutes alone and know the kids won’t be interrupting, we still relentlessly screw like it’s a sport and we’re the best at it.”
Lila’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows climbed up her forehead. “I see. Well, lucky you for having the best of both worlds.”
“You don’t?”
She sipped more wine and then licked her lips. “No. I’m living the opposite life. It’s rare … basically nonexistent to make love with Graham. He’s very scheduled. He has certain needs. And my job is to meet those needs when it fits into his schedule. We don’t slowly make love at 11:00 p.m. I get fucked from behind while bent over his desk between appointments. I literally get summoned for this.
“It’s on his schedule as ‘executive time.’ And unbeknownst to me how she magically knows this, but my assistant is privy to what goes on during executive time because she waits outside with a cloth and spare pair of panties for me in her handbag. How embarrassing is that?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I guess I’d be happy that it was me … his wife … on his calendar for executive time instead of someone else.”
Lila ignored my comment; apparently, she found no humor in it. Really, I found no humor in it either. My hands twitched with the need to strangle Graham. What the hell was wrong with him? Loving Lila more didn’t involve screwing her like a job.
“Do you two ever discuss starting a family?”
Something ghosted across her face. A flicker that made my spine tingle.
“No.” She gave me a nervous smile.
It gripped my heart. Something wasn’t right.
“I mean …” She accompanied a nervous laugh with that awful smile. “He knows I don’t want to start a family while he’s still governor. And honestly, I’m not sure we’d be the best parents.”
“Lila …”
“Don’t.” She shook her head. “Don’t feel bad for me. We made this decision together. I wanted him to be governor as much as he did. I knew there would be sacrifices. I’ve made them, and I will continue to make them because it makes Graham happy. And isn’t that my job? To make him happy?”
“Um … no. We’ve had this conversation before. Why do you still think that?”
“Graham said it before we got married. He said we were going to live such an extraordinary life together. He said things would be easy for me; that all I had to do was keep him happy. Then he said I was already an expert at it. So basically, all I had to do was keep doing what I had been doing—what I loved doing.”
“I sense things didn’t go as planned.”
“I just don’t see him much. We don’t even share the same bedroom.”
“Wait … what?”
Lila shrugged. “He gets better sleep by himself. His parents haven’t slept in the same room for years. It’s really not that uncommon.”
“So … you have what? A booty-call in his office. That’s it?”
“Did you really want to spend time with me just to discuss my sex life?”
I rubbed my forehead. “No. I didn’t. I … I don’t know. Tell me something good that’s going on in your life. I need to know my friend is happy. I need to know I didn’t encourage you to marry the wrong man. You wanted kids. You always talked about having kids. So I just need to know that you’re not giving up your job and your dreams of having a family. If Graham loves you, and I honestly believe he does, then he will want to share your dreams not squash them.”
Lila traced the rim of her wine glass with her French manicured nail. “Had I not fallen in love with Graham, I wouldn’t have married him. My marriage and my happiness are not on you. It’s between Graham and me.”
“That’s fair.”
She could take all the credit for her relationship with Graham. I didn’t argue. I also knew I would always feel like the common bond between them in spite of her willingness to let me off the hook.