I sat on the floor of the foyer with Audrey cradled in my arms as she cried. My heart went out to her. She had inadvertently walked in on her husband with another woman.
Holy shit, I thought, I had difficulty imagining Ken with another woman. Mild-mannered, conservative Ken? The right-wing, religious zealot who took pointed exception to his daughter marrying a musician because he knew musicians to be of low character and loose morals. THAT Ken? It seemed inconceivable.
Audrey drew up her knees, curling into a fetal position, completely unmindful of her skirt as it rose well beyond the middle of her thighs. She wore pantyhose and, even in the dim light of the foyer, I could see the nylon glinting sleekly from the living room lamp.
I held her silently, bending occasionally to kiss her forehead as I gently stroked the length of her exposed leg from her ankle to her knee and thrilling to the sensation of her sleek hosiery.
Finally, her crying quieted and I felt the tenseness leave her body as she sagged against me. She raised her head and, lowering her knees, opened her purse which was beside her on the floor. She removed a handful of tissues and began to wipe the tears from her cheeks, blotting her eyes and wiping away the dark smudges of her eyeliner from her cheeks.
"I'm so glad you're here, Jessie," she said, her voice shaking with emotion as she leaned forward to kiss my cheek. "I honestly don't know what I would have done if I was alone."
"I'm here for you, Mom. Do you want to talk about it? Can you tell me what happened?"
Audrey nodded and blew her nose delicately into the tissues, balling them up in her hand as she retrieved fresh tissues from her purse, "I think I'd like to get a drink first," she said as she began to stand up.
I hurriedly rose and helped her to her feet, and she took a moment to modestly lower her skirt as we made our way to the kitchen. She took a bottle of Jack Daniels from the liquor cabinet and scooped up two glasses. We sat together at the kitchen table as she carelessly splashed the bourbon into our glasses. She lifted her glass and took a very large swallow, gasping and coughing as the whiskey burned her throat.
"I'll bet that you were pretty surprised to see me back home so soon," she said, looking up into my eyes and smiling half-heartedly.
I smiled, "I think surprised is pretty much the operative word, Mom," I responded softly.
Audrey nodded and sipped her whiskey once more. "Well," she began, with another half-hearted laugh. "I think surprise is going to be the word of the night. Ken looked pretty damn surprised to suddenly see me standing in his hotel room. And the woman with him looked rather surprised as well. Suffice it to say, I was probably even more surprised than they were."
I nodded, "But, surely there must have been some kind of a reasonable explanation. What did Ken say?"
Audrey shook her head and pressed her lips together as her eyes welled with tears once more, "He didn't say anything," she said, her voice filled with emotion. "There was no possible way to explain it away. They were both naked on the bed and Ken was lying between her legs." She paused, to wipe away a renewed welling in her eyes. "It certainly didn't take a rocket scientist to understand that Ken was fucking her. And he was still fucking her as I backed out of the room and closed the door."
I swallowed, it still surprised me to hear Audrey using the word 'fuck', but I certainly had a better understanding of her anger and outrage. It gave me pause to imagine how if Ken had come home early this afternoon, to surprise HER...he might very well have found her coupled with me on the living room floor. I doubted very seriously that Ken would have cared very much for her explanation as to the experimental nature of our actions either.
She took another swallow of bourbon, "There was even a box of condoms on the bedside table," she continued, wiping her nose with the tissues. "I suppose I should at least be grateful that he was taking precautions THAT way."
I swallowed a large gulp of whiskey and shook my head, finding the whole thing difficult to believe.
She blew her nose softly and I replaced her balled tissues with fresh ones. "Thanks," she said softly as she took the tissues from my hand.
"So...what's going to happen now?" I asked softly. "Have you given any thought to that?"
Audrey shrugged and laughed softly, "That's just about all I HAVE been thinking about all the way home," she said. "He is supposed to be home on Monday. At least I assume he'll still return home. I'm not going to make any major decisions until I've at least talked to him, but I sure don't feel very good about our life together right now."
"That's completely understandable," I replied, reaching out to place my hand over hers.
She laughed softly and shook her head, "It's funny, you know," she said. "I mean, I had told him that I thought we needed to work a little more on our sex life, maybe he was just practicing."
I laughed with her, happy to see her normal cheerful composure begin to reassert itself.
"Oh well," she continued with another shrug. "I suppose I can definitely write off this year's birthday celebration."
Damn, I thought, I had completely forgotten all about her birthday. She had been so looking forward to having a fun time with Ken in Las Vegas, combining her birthday with a hoped-for second honeymoon. My mind began to race, trying to form some kind of a plan of action. I couldn't let her spend her birthday with this huge mess weighing so heavily on her mind.
"Now, hang on a second," I said. "Let's not jump to conclusions."
"What?" She asked, looking at me skeptically, "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying," I continued. "That no matter what, your birthday is a special occasion. I know it's not going to be quite the same as you had imagined, but you're not alone, I'm right here with you and, if I do say so myself, I can bake a pretty mean birthday cake."