I wasn’t sure if I wanted her to be gone or not. I suppose I could’ve continued to yell at her, but what would that accomplish? It was a useless conversation.
She was a bitch. No matter how she acted with her hat in her hand at my doorstep. She was a user, and I was being used.
I sat on the bed and realized she changed the sheets while I was in the shower. It was something Jane always did as well. It was annoying at first when she’d jump out of bed and grab dry sheets immediately after making love. I got why she did it, for no wet spot, but I felt it was a little OCD.
I could feel the change flow over me. My mind calmed and my shoulders slumped in relaxation, a simple touch like changing the sheets for me changed my mind set and pushed away the anger.
I smiled as I moved my hand along the expensive sheets Jane loved so much. Then I heard, “Viv?”
I looked up at my doorway and saw Ginny dressed in one of my t-shirts.
“Viv, I’m sorry I ruined everything.”
I motioned for her to sit next to me.
“Maybe, I overreacted,” I answered.
“I’m sorry for how I treated you before.”
I made to ask her to stop apologizing, but she cut me off.
“No, I need to say it, and you need to hear it. If I’m going to be able to live under the same roof with you, we need to be able to talk about it. It was inexcusable, but it happened, and I’ll have to find ways to show you I’ve changed.”
“Ginny,” I said and took her hand, “I don’t know how you can ever show me you’ve truly changed. I can’t see how I’ll ever not think it’s a trick.”
“All I ask is that you’re open to me,” she whispered. “Just give me a chance.”
She stood and walked over to my window. Her eyes stared into the night and she continued, “You have no idea what I’m going through. You have no idea what it’s like to have the world by the balls and want for nothing. I had money and power because of my husband. I had friends in the highest levels of the social echelons in Chicago and Washington. I was going to be the First Lady if my dumb ass husband wouldn’t have gotten greedy.”
A tear fell from her cheek, but I didn’t feel sorry for her.
“Viv, I had it all, and it made me the biggest bitch in the world. Did you know before he died my father told me I disappointed him?”
I shook my head. She didn’t see me. She still stared out into the darkness.
“Yeah,” she continued. “He told me to leave Brian and run away. He said Brian changed me into a horrible person, and all I did was laugh in his face. I threw my money and power back at him and he shrugged it off. He didn’t care about that crap. He didn’t respect money or power. He certainly didn’t respect Brian.”
“That’s because Brian was a Democrat,” I countered trying to lighten the mood.
“Ha! You have no idea what hell I went through for marrying a Democrat. I’ve never been political, but daddy was a hard-core conservative.”
I nodded, remembering some of the conversations I had with her dad over the years before he died. He was a good man but set in his ways and stubborn as hell. We shared a dislike for politicians in general.