The Client's Proposal

Advice Comes Knocking

She sat across from me now, waiting patiently until we were alone. I beat her to the punch though. "Whenever you're ready...let's discuss how really fun Alex is." I grabbed the glass and took a nice drink of the chilled wine.

From over the rim, I watched her eyes widen a bit. That was me...I had every medal imaginable for best sarcastic bitch. Elana cleared her throat. "I think we got off on the wrong foot yesterday." You think, is what I wanted to ask her but I held my tongue. "What I said was wrong...and completely inappropriate. Alex called me and he was pretty upset." If she only fucking knew. Her jealously and the shit between them had gotten me screwed into the goddamn mattress.

"The truth is, I fucked our marriage up a long time ago and I hate myself for breaking up my family. It was the worst mistake of my life. Neither of you should have to be unhappy because of my own shitty choices."  I just waited when she took a little break to drink some of her wine. "The girls like you-honestly they haven't stopped talking about you since yesterday...anyway, just put the gorgeous fucking ring back on and marry him. He's worth it."

For a long couple of seconds I just stared at her, my stoicism crumbling a little, as I toyed with the stem of my glass. "Does he know you're here?" I finally asked.

Elana rolled her eyes. "Yea, right." Dumb question, we both knew he would probably pop his top if he knew. We sat there in silence for a while until both of our glasses were empty and Rita came with a refill. "I don't expect us to be best friends, Beverly, but I'd like to start over and be cordial, at least for the girls." She finally said as she got up and grabbed her handbag.

Damn. If she had only said that yesterday...

I watched Elana pick up the glass and down the contents in three large gulps. Once her second serving was finished she walked to the exit and stopped to look back at me. "Really, put the ring back on..." Then she was leaving and I listened for the door to close before I threw my second glass back much like she had done.

-

It was hardly how I had expected my mind to be changed. I figured hell would have to freeze over...Wrong. All it had taken was two glasses of morning wine and baby-mamma telling me that putting the ring back on would be worth it. From her mouth to God's ears apparently...all that.

Soon after Elana had left I went back into the closet and put all of my clothes back into the drawers. Then I had wondered around the condo, flipping through channels on the TV in the living room, sat out on the balcony for awhile. By one in the afternoon I was over it so I ordered an Uber and took it to the shopping district. It was pretty much a bunch of window shopping. I didn't purchase anything I didn't need. But my period tracker predicted it was coming fast so I did stop at a drug store for tampons and Midol.

Then I found a little burger joint and indulged in that guilty pleasure. Grease, fat, high cholesterol, please. It was well into the afternoon, early evening, when I made it back to the condo. "Dinner should be done in a few hours. Can I get you anything, Miss Gray?" Is what Rita had asked. I requested a glass of water and took it to the bedroom with me. I drank it halfway down, got out of my boots and jeans and sweater before I went to the bed stood there.

The ring was still there and I just stared at it for a minute before I read Alex's note again. "Damn it." This time when I tossed the note down it slid across the surface of the table and fell over the edge, forever lost to his bedroom.

Before I climbed into the bed for a little nap, I grabbed the ring and slid it onto my finger. It was a relief. I'd felt naked without the damn thing. I was in and out of sleep, which made for a shitty nap. I was glad when my cellphone brought me out of it. It was a call coming in. I rubbed my grainy eyes and grabbed for it. Jamie.