Page 40 of Thicker Than Water
Maeve’s eyes sweep across her bags on the floor. Her brow pushes down, in sync with the pull of her mouth. Then she chews her lip, teeth digging so deep I’m sure they’ll draw blood.
She’s silent for long enough that Sienna takes a step forward, sucking in a breath to prompt her again. But Maeve returns her gaze to me, the blush on her face now bleached to a clammy gray.
“I’m so sorry,” she says. “It didn’t start— We didn’t— I just invited him over to show him the designs for my new store. I’d received the mock-ups from the designer the day before, and I figured he deserved to see them, after everything he did for me to get to this point.”
Even as pain lashes me, I cock my head at that. What had Jason done for her?
“And after he looked them over,” Maeve continues, “we moved to the couch and—”
She stops, wincing, and it takes me a second to realize why: it happened on the couch, where I’m sitting now. Right away, the cushion burns beneath me. I want to leap away, but I’m pinned into place by my imagination. I see them, only inches from me—Maeve straddling Jason, Jason dragging his lips along her neck, Maeve gripping his shoulders, hips rocking and rocking. As my mind forces me to watch, tears simmer in my eyes.
“I had a couple drinks,” Maeve rushes ahead. “And then—I don’t know. Something came over me, and I just—kissed him. I don’t know what I expected. I didn’t think we’d— But he surprised meby actually kissing me back. And then one thing led to another and we—we slept together.”
“Wait,what?” Sienna says. She laughs for a second. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m so sorry,” Maeve says again, the words a rush of desperation. “Like I said, we didn’t intend to hurt anyone. It wasn’t planned. We never so much as flirted before that. But I think I…” She looks into her lap, where her hands are clasped together, and for a moment, I don’t even recognize her. The vulnerable hunch of her shoulders is a posture I’ve never seen her wear.
“I think I’d had feelings for him for a while,” she finishes, “ever since—”
“I don’t give a fuck about your feelings,” Sienna fires. “Jason wouldn’t— He would never—”
But Maeve cuts in, as if committed to shattering my heart.
“We knew it was a mistake as soon as it was done. He made me promise I wouldn’t say anything, that we’d act like it never happened.” Maeve swallows, knotting and unknotting her fingers. “Which was fine with me because I was so ashamed. Iamso ashamed. I’m not the type of woman who—” She shakes her head, cowardly, unwilling to name the thing she’s done to me. “I told him we couldn’t be around each other anymore, that we should keep our distance at work, too. And he agreed that was for the best. But then he sent me that email the next day. To check on me.” She scoffs then, something bitter in the sound. “As if I’m so fucking fragile.”
She focuses on me again. “He doesn’t love me, Julia. He loves you. And Aiden. And your life together. He’ll hate me when he finds out I told you. He’ll deny it, I’m sure—the last thing he wants is to lose you—but I can’t pretend I haven’t been conflicted this week, every time I’ve seen you, spoken to you. He’s hidden something so huge from you.”
Maeve blurs in front of me, like I’m viewing her through rain-smeared glass. Tears swamp my vision, then spill in silence down my cheeks.
The man she’s describing—the man who’d let one thing lead to another, who’d allow thatone thingto happen in the first place—is a man I don’t know at all. Even after Jason lost our money, I never considered I’d end up here, listening to the story of his adultery. Maeve might as well be talking about a fictional character, relaying scenes from a movie where the husband was always a stranger, and the wife was always a fool.
“I can’t—” Sienna says. “Are you fucking serious? I can’t believe he’d—”
She doesn’t finish her sentence. Her eyes stick to the wall across from her, and I see the shock waves of Maeve’s confession rippling through her. I lean forward, my hand wanting to latch onto hers. We’ve both lost something. Twin chasms have opened inside us, and our connection, our fierce and faithful love, is the only thing that can keep us close to whole.
I stretch toward Sienna, but she doesn’t notice. She drops into an empty chair, then puts her elbows on her knees, her head in her hands.
“I’m sorry,” Maeve says to me again. She isn’t crying, but her voice is thick, as if the tears are in her throat instead of her eyes. “I don’t even know why I— I just started to see him differently, after December. I’ve been so grateful to him for lending me that money, and—”
“What?” The word launches out of me, startling Maeve. “What money?”
Her forehead creases, as if she isn’t sure the question is serious. “The money to help me open my store,” she says. “The only reason I was finally able to secure a space.”
Sienna picks her head up from her hands, looking from me toMaeve, then back to me again. I feel her studying my face, radiating questions, but I can’t meet her gaze, can’t turn away from Maeve. My blood roars in my ears.
“How much money?” I ask.
Maeve bites her lip, gnawing at the plump, pink flesh.
My throat threatens to close, but I push out the question one more time. “How much?”
“Ten thousand dollars.”
The room shrinks—walls tilting, ceiling sinking. Breath tumbles out of me, and my heart wavers on the verge of collapse.
This is where the money went. It wasn’t a bad investment. It wasn’t linked to Gavin Reed or tied to the shoeboxes of cash. It was something Jason gave to Maeve—a startling sum, stolen from our special account.
“Jason gave youten grand?” Sienna spits out.
