The afternoon after Doug left, I found myself hanging around with Amber and finally had the chance to tell her all that had happened, from spotting someone in Art's garage to what had happened with the car being dropped off. Amber just listened and gave me a little advice.
"Look Cindy. One guy that you were involved with is one thing, but now another and he's a cop!"
"Well you're still involved with Saul, right?"
"Yes and no. I had fun with him, but I think I'm done with him. And the church is done with auctions as well. We have a new pastor and he said he thought they were terrible, so he cancelled them, permanently. Who knows, maybe it's for the best. I'm going to be a mom and Saul was just me, sowing some wild oats. I think I'm done."
"Well heck. I would say I'm with you, but something is up with Art. First there was Anne, and now that she's gone, there......" Amber interrupted me.
"Wait, what do you mean Anne is gone?" Amber asked me.
"Art told me she no longer worked for him, hasn't for almost a month now. Why?"
"I know she left for a little while, but I distinctly heard Art telling Chris, last week, that she came crawling back for her job. The boyfriend turned out to be a jerk and she didn't really like the new boss, so she asked Art for her job back."
"What? She's working with him again?" Amber nodded at my question. "Oh my God. Art never told me."
"What, did you really expect him too? Hey, Cindy, my old mechanic, the one I was messing with earlier, wants to work for me again. Is that okay?"
I looked at Amber and frowned. "Okay, two can play at this game. I'm calling Bryan now, maybe see how he's doing."
"Ooh, Can I listen in?" Amber asked, pushing her head down to hear.
"I thought you were done with any other men," I teased.
"No, I said I was done with Saul, well I will be. I will chat with him on Friday night. Chris said he was going out for drinks with Art, so fine. I can't drink, but I will tell Saul about this," she said, pointing at her belly. Let him know it's mine and Chris'. If it causes problems, I want to get it over with." She stopped talking when I hard Bryan pick up the phone and say hello.
Friday afternoon I was on my way to see Bryan, and Amber on her way to see Saul. We covered for each other saying we were going out to shop for the baby, and I got a sitter. Art didn't mind, and neither did Chris. So, after dropping Amber off at Saul's, he smiled at me and waved, then I drove as quickly as I could, hey I could get out of any ticket now, so why waste the opportunity.
As we pulled up to Saul's house, Amber smiled at me and mentioned something about being good. I looked at her and said the same thing. Then her reply, "I'll be good, very good. You do the same." That made me smile and I hurried on my way. Driving to Bryan's house this time was a little challenging as it wasn't dark and though I had come home during the day with Art, the place looked different. But my GPS got me to his street and I remembered it was the third house. As I pulled into the drive, Bryan came out to see me, guess he was as excited as I was, since he was at my car before I turned off the engine.
I gave him a big hug and kiss as soon as I was out of the car. Then we were inside his house, he gave me a long and passionate kiss, but as I broke it off for a breather, I told Bryan why I was there, that I believed Art was cheating one me and I just wanted some information. I told him I was so tempted to take him to bed, but this time I could not. That if I gave in to my desires, I would be as bad as my husband and Bryan understood. He asked me to sit, grabbed me a cup of coffee and we talked.
I told him all I knew, how I understood that his former employee had left, and something I had heard Art mention that I never told Amber. It wasn't Chris who told my husband about the auction. When I heard Art say this, I figured she had done this as some sort of plan to get me out of the house for a weekend. I don't think Art knew much about what would happen, he was interested mostly in getting the extra money, and of course it would mean he would have time to spend with Anne.
Bryan listened quietly as I talked, casually drinking his own coffee, but when I mentioned the next thing, he almost choked as he swallowed, that of telling about some woman named Aliesah who had red hair and supposedly might be out to get me. When Bryan choked as I said, I put my coffee down and moved to him. "Are you okay?"
He recovered after a minute, then looked up at me. "You don't know who she is? Really?"
I confessed that I didn't. How would I? And his response made me want to throw up.
"She's my ex-wife."
Taking a second to get over my own shock, I looked at him. "Oh man, but why is she out to get me? I've never met her."