Fake Summer Wife

Claudia: I appreciate it, but you don’t have to drive me home every single night. Really, the bus is fine.

Me: Well, I’m available tonight, so I’m going to. I’m a terrible husband. Smothering you already.

Claudia: Just the worst. LOL. I really appreciate it, honey.

I knew she was just teasing when she called me honey, but I couldn’t help but feel a warm pang in the center of my chest every time she did.

I felt so good to be with her. Claudia was so easygoing that it was natural to imagine being married to her, and with her for the rest of my life.

On the drive home I thought about my favorite restaurants in the city, and how I was going to start taking her to them all one by one.

There was still so much to learn about her. Did she like going out to restaurants several times a week? Or was once enough? She seemed to be very comfortable in the kitchen, so maybe she would like to cook together every Sunday?

Since we both had busy schedules, I was already thinking about creating rituals with her, carving out time together that we could always look forward to. In some ways I knew that I was counting my chickens before they were hatched, but everything about our relationship seemed to be on fast forward.

The smile on my face completely dissolved when I pulled into my driveway and had to park on the left since someone else’s car was on the right.

Jessica.

What an instantaneous way to ruin my evening.

I got out of the car and went around to her open driver side window. She was wearing bright blue eyeshadow that almost matched her car.

“Hey there, Vaughan,” she purred as she clicked her long purple fingernails against the steering wheel.

I had noticed that her nails matched her dress on Saturday night. How often did women get manicures, anyway?

“Why are you here, Jessica?”

She stuck out her bottom lip in a dramatic pout. “Can’t a girl just pop by to check on a super close friend?”

“No. Especially when I’ve asked you repeatedly to please leave me alone.”

“Well, we used to be very close,” she said with a wink.

“It was so long ago I can barely remember it,” I said coldly. “I’ll ask you again, why are you here?”

She rolled her eyes dramatically. “I was just wondering whether you thought your underhanded little scheme was really going to go unnoticed?”

Of all of the people to potentially find out that Claudia and I weren’t really married, Jessica would be the absolute worst case scenario. Forcing my face to remain perfectly neutral, I said, “What on earth are you talking about?”

She grinned widely, looking like the cat who just ate the canary. “I can’t believe that you didn’t mention the truth about your new wife,” she said slowly. “But don’t worry. I understand using relationships to try to get ahead.”

“You certainly do,” I said flatly. “The entire city knows that you’re an opportunistic gold digger. You might as well have it tattooed across your forehead.”

I knew that was mean but I couldn’t stop myself. She had gotten under my skin for so long that I didn’t have the energy to be polite any longer.

“Yes, but you already have money,” she said smoothly. “So now you’re after power and connections, apparently.”

“I was at the hospital opening because we built the wing,” I said as if explaining it to a three year old. “Of course I was going to socialize with people there. What are you trying to say?”

“Just that your new wife seems to have been selected very carefully,” Jessica said.

My blood turned to ice. My heart began to beat in that slow, off-kilter rhythm they used in movies when the killer could be around any corner.

“So you don’t like Claudia,” I said with what I hoped was a casual shrug. “You don’t like most women. Why don’t you go home and think about why that might be?”

“Oh no, you don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head as she ran a hand through the carefully-arranged waves in her hair. “I actually admire her. Once her father is the Mayor, and she has her hooks into a construction company, she can build her own little empire.”