So I've essentially confessed twice to my husband that I've been messing around on him. And he hasn't really acknowledged it either time.
Maybe it doesn't interest him.
Two days after Juan just showed up at my house, he then asked me to come to his house. I wasn't sure if he wanted to clear the air, or to find the place where we were only a couple of weeks ago.
We'd been texting back and forth. His first text to me, after he left my house, was: YOUR MARRIAGE IS OVER.
I had texted back: JUST THE GOOD PARTS.
For my part, I didn't want to discuss it with Juan. It wasn't really any of his business. I was thinking that a rational break at this point was probably the logical step. Break things off with Juan, and then decide how to break things off with my husband, to stop playing at being a married couple and just agree to live more separate lives, to raise our son cooperatively but just quit this pointless charade.
I'd been done for awhile. I'd been contemplating this separation the last few weeks before he ended up in rehab, but I didn't want to bail on him in his hour of need. I'm not sure he noticed I was there for him, but he would have noticed if I wasn't.
And I didn't take a great deal of pains to prepare myself to see Juan. I reminded myself that the last time I had been to his house, I had really dressed up – for nothing. I did only what I would do to go to the store or maybe a doctor's appointment: showered, hair straightened, and clean casual clothes. I was even a half hour late.
He opened his front door, looked relieved, brought me inside. He had made us lunch, and sat me down at his patio table, pouring me a juice concoction.
I wasn't very hungry, but I could eat. But I purposely refused to give in, to relax and be in the moment with him, to be as happy and enthusiastic as I normally was within these walls. I hadn't planned on coming back here, ever. I certainly wasn't going to make this easier on him. I put up some barriers, and withdrew behind them.
Finally, he reached for my hand, caressing it on the table. I hated that his touch always caused a physical reaction with me. I wished it away, this power he had. I wanted to feel nothing. He took my hand and led me away from the table, into his house and toward his bedroom.
"I don't think so," I said. "I don't really want to go back into that room."
He turned so he was walking backwards, holding both my hands as he backed into his bedroom.
"Are you not hearing me?" I grumbled. "I'm not comfortable in this room any more."
He had prepared his bedroom, and it was sweet and sad and irritating, all at the same time. He'd switched out the bedding and other fabrics. There were candles burning and rose petals on the bed. He pulled me toward the bed, picked me up and put me on it.
"Are you not used to hearing the word no?" I griped, sitting up and making my way off the bed.
"Please," he begged. "Just stay here with me. We don't have to do anything."
"I just told you I wasn't comfortable in this room."
"Please," he said again, taking an enormous rosebud from a vase and stroking my face with it.
I rolled my eyes, but I got back on the bed.
"Relax, please," he told me. "You're making me more anxious."
I grabbed a pillow, and dropped my body onto the bed, near the foot, shoving the pillow up under my head while I turned to look at him. He crawled over so he was closer to me, could touch me. I didn't reciprocate.
"You should know two things," he said to me, stroking the rose over my cheek, along my neck, and down between my breasts. "I have used a condom with everyone but you. And I told you I loved you, and you have yet to respond."
I closed my eyes, feeling a wave of pain.
"This is the real world, now," I told him. "Not the fantasy we've been living in. You've seen my life, all the defects and flaws, by the light of day. There's no more pretending."
"I wasn't pretending."
I opened my eyes. His were so soft, pleading.
"I don't know what you want from me," I swore. "I'm a real person you've only known for six weeks. If that. You realize that out there in the real world, I have monthly periods with awful cramps. Every day I take a shit, yell at my kid, and spend an hour doing laundry. My real life is the opposite of fabulous, and I have very little to look forward to. And today I should be down at the EDD, checking on the status of my unemployment."
He shook his head.
"I'm not sleeping with you today," I announced.
"No pressure. I just want to talk with you. To understand, mija."
"Understand what?" I demanded. "We had a few insanely great weeks together. But passion doesn't last. Believe me."
"Not true," he said.
"There are literally thousands of women in L.A., all of them gorgeous and younger and with a lot less baggage. Why don't you go find one of them? I don't think it's that hard for you." I thought again of the two lovely young women at the party, and I rolled over onto my back, looking away as I informed him: "You just want what you cannot have."
"Maybe I made a mistake – at that party," Juan said. "Maybe I was not so satisfied, after all. Maybe I did not realize what I would lose."
I took a deep breath.
"Probably happened for a reason," I surmised. "So I would let go. Get on with my life. Except now I have to explain to Oscar that I misled him and I was who he thought I was. I hate lying to people, but I'm too old for him anyway."