Ten seconds after I rang her doorbell, Carolyn opened the front door and leaned her body fully against the jamb. As I tried to contain a wry smile about how she looked, only one thought emerged: I knew it; I knew she had lied.
"Welcome back," she said. She turned around and walked slowly towards her kitchen, knowing that her shape in the sun dress would get my attention. "Come on in. Can I get you something to drink?"
Carolyn was the owner of the condo that my ex-wife and I had lived in during our 3--year marriage. The divorce had been finalized only last week, and my ex would continue to live in the condo until the lease was up at the end of next month. When we separated several months ago I moved out, and I had agreed to continue to pay half the lease. I had paid my half in advance but had miscalculated the number of months remaining, missing the last month. So I had stopped by Carolyn's house earlier that morning to deliver the last check.
"A coke is fine, thanks, or diet coke if you have it," I replied. When I had stopped by earlier, Carolyn had worn loose-fitting jeans and a sweatshirt. Now, she wore something quite a bit clingier. Although she was an older woman, she had a very pretty face and was in great shape -- from just her body, you might guess she was in her late 20s and not in her late 40s. The dress went to her knees, showing very shapely calves accentuated by the nice 2-inch heels she was wearing.
"Well you're no fun. I meant a drink drink. Join me? Wine?"
In the years since I had met her I had the opinion that Carolyn gave little thought to me or people like me. She was never outright rude, but I always had the feeling that she felt that she was above most people, and kind of a bitch. She was a successful business owner, having inherited it from her late -- and elderly -- husband a few years earlier. She drove expensive cars and was always dressed to the nines; she knew she was attractive and dressed to let everyone see. It seemed to me that people like me -- young, just starting out -- were just nothing much for her to concern herself about. Like lords and their peasants.
I pondered having a drink. It was after 7pm on a Saturday night; why not? Let's see where this all goes. "I am not much of a wine drinker, it always gives me a headache," I replied. "How about a beer?"
This morning I had thought she was more brusque than usual. She took the check, made some very brief small talk -- asking casually if the divorce was final -- and then pretty much stopped talking. I took the hint: I was dismissed, and so I left. Again -- polite more or less, but indifferent. Maybe on top of her usual approach to lesser people she was simply annoyed at having to find new tenants for the condo. In any event, with the lease coming to an end, I figured I would have no reason to see her again.
Carolyn came back from the kitchen with a large glass of red wine in one hand and a Corona in the other; she steered me to an oversized couch in her living room and invited me to sit down. Handing me the beer, she sat at the other end of the couch.
She pulled her legs up under her on the couch and raised her glass briefly. "I'm a little bit ahead of you already, but cheers. I'm glad you decided to come back."
That was a curious thing for her to say. A couple hours after I left her house the first time, she had called me at my new apartment. When my ex and I first told Carolyn about our divorce and that I was moving out, she had insisted on getting a new phone number for me -- "since your name is still on the lease," she said. I thought it a little odd at the time, but this was back in the age before cell phones so the apartment was pretty much the only place she could reach me. I gave her the number for the new place and then forgot about it until I heard her voice on the other end of the line.
"You must have been in a rush to get away from me this morning," she told me over the phone. "You forgot to sign the check."
"Really?" To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I don't do things like that; I write dozens of checks every month and have never done that. What is she up to? Is she coming on to me?? That's ridiculous -- something like that happening to me was even less likely than my forgetting to sign a check. So did I really forget to sign it?? But I remember her looking right at the check when I handed it to her! Maybe she just looked at the amount....
"I have to be out of town tomorrow, and Monday is the first of the month already. Maybe you could come back here later today and sign the check for me? I would really like to have everything taken care of quickly so there are no problems for your ex."
Dismissing the thought that I really didn't care anymore if my ex had any problems with the lease, I suggested that I could come back right away. But she told me that she had some business to attend to; perhaps I could come back around 7pm or so?
"Well, since I somehow forgot to sign the check for you, I kind of figured I didn't really have a choice but to come back. And thanks for the beer," I said, raising the bottle at her briefly before taking a deep swig.
We talked for a while about nothing. I complimented her on her house, which really was very nice -- an open and spacious single floor plan, lots of big windows, and very nicely decorated; money sure could buy some pretty nice things. She talked about what she still wanted to do with the house, and about some other stuff -- her beach house in Florida, her sister and her nephew, her company. I had to admit that she was surprisingly easier to talk to than I would have expected, given what I assumed was her attitude towards lesser beings like me. Not having an empty beer bottle in my hands for more than a minute probably helped, too; she was nothing if not a good hostess.
With the adventures of her school-age nephew fully discussed, Carolyn twisted her body towards me on the couch, which pulled her dress quite a bit higher above her knee. A good amount of the wine was already gone from her third glass. She changed the subject: "I think it's good of you to have kept paying half the rent for your ex these last few months. Though I do have to say, I was really surprised when you told me you were splitting up. You guys seemed like a nice couple."
"Yes, well," I replied, as she hopped off the couch and went back to the kitchen, her dress swishing against my legs as she passed. She was wearing a very subtle but nice perfume, too. "Everyone knows things can be a lot different in private than they appear in public. I probably should have listened to all those people who told me that 23 was a ridiculously early age to get married."
Carolyn handed me another beer over my shoulder, brushing her hand across the top of my back before sitting back on the couch, her wine glass refilled. She was sitting a little closer this time.
I decided to test where this was really going a little bit. "So... where's that check?" I said, shaking my head. "I really can't believe I was so distracted that I forgot to sign the stupid thing this morning."
She curled up again on the couch, tucking her legs under herself, facing me. There was just a hint of cleavage as she bunched herself up. A few seconds passed before she said, "Oh, it's over there on the desk somewhere. What's the rush?" She absent-mindedly ran her finger from her ankle to her thigh, knowing I was watching the whole way. Mimicking the way I asked my last question, she asked, "So... why did you get married so young?"
Now that was a good question. My ex and I had met when I was a freshman in college; she was two years older. She was my first girlfriend, and while she had dated a little bit before me I was the first guy she considered a real boyfriend -- I was the first guy she brought home to meet her parents. I could tell myself that we got married because we loved each other and because after several years together, after she waited for me to graduate, it seemed that getting married was simply the right and next thing for us to do to start our "real" life together. And while all of that was true, I always knew the rest of the answer -- really, the main answer -- which was always unspoken. After a long pause I surprised myself by telling Carolyn.
"Sex."