I pulled my car out of the garage. There was one other thing that was bugging me about all this. There was no way Donna would drive out of this dead-end road and then return to drive past my house to Priya’s house if she was trying to hide her trysts from me. I drove out like I was normally leaving the community. Several other dirt roads branched off from the primary dirt road. I turned left at the first one. Most of the houses along this road were just camps and had been vacant since Labor Day. I wasn’t expecting to see any cars parked in any of these driveways but as I rounded a corner, there was Donna’s car parked alongside Sylvia’s car. From there, it was a short walk through the woods to Priya’s house.
I drove out to the paved roads in a fog. I stopped at the Inn Restaurant and didn’t even remember the drive. Time had stopped. I sat down in the waiting area of the restaurant, afraid of what I’d find there. My mind was blank. One of Donna friends saw me sitting there and was about to ask if I had a reservation but then she recognized me and said, “Jack. Are you alright? You look terrible.” I asked to speak to Donna and got the answer that I expected and feared.
“Donna gave her notice two weeks ago, Jack. You didn’t know?” I stood and headed for the front door without answering her question. She loudly spoke, “Jack. Are you okay?” I couldn’t think of any other way to disprove what I already knew was true, other than to not find her at Priya’s house so I drove there. I parked in my garage and walked down the road to Priya’s front door. I rang the doorbell and then thought that I shouldn’t have, but I was dying and I just wanted to be put out of my misery.
Minutes passed before the inner door slowly pulled open. Priya was standing there in a robe. She was trying to appear nonchalant but her face was flushed with sexual heat. I’d seen that many times before. I said, “Is Donna here?” Priya bowed her head and looked at her fingers. She didn’t answer before I continued, “Donna and Sylvia are here aren’t they?” She looked back up at me with tears in her eyes and just nodded. I nodded too and staggered back from her screen door.
Priya said, “I’m sorry Jack. I’m really sorry.” I just nodded as I turned to leave. Priya yelled, “Jack? Come join us.” I didn’t provide any response and I returned to my house as devastated as I had been when Anna died and just like it took me three years to discovered then, my reaction now was to get away. I wrote my phone number on a sticky-note and went next door and gave it to Jacob with directions not to provide it to anyone, ever.
Jacob looked at the note and said, “Jack, this is your cell phone number. Everyone has it.” I just shook my head. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I told him I’d get a burner phone and be in touch but I had to get away. He teared up and nodded and we man-hugged.
I was half way through packing a suitcase when Donna came crashing into the house yelling, “Jack. Jack?” She swept through the kitchen and stopped there for a moment before continuing into the living room. She found me in the bedroom closet pulling clothes off hangers. She stopped when she saw what I was doing and then she eased into the room. Her clothes were all askew. She had obviously dressed quickly. She was holding the papers from the kitchen counter but she wasn’t looking at them. She was breathing heavily from either the run home or the sex she had been engaged in when I rang Priya’s doorbell. It was probably both.