Page 75 of The Secret
“Where were you?”
“The usual place.”
A strange silence descends when Dan’s brother says this, and I’m about to move forward when his brother clears his throat.
“Is this the woman you told me about from Congo? What’s she doing now?”
“An aid project.”
“Wasn’t she doing that when you first met her?”
A note of hostility threads through his voice, and I press my hand to my chest, grimacing as my focus on the wooden floorboards under my feet blurs.
“Yeah, she used to volunteer in the DRC then go home to earn enough money to come back out to help more.”
“She still do that?”
Dishes clink as someone runs the water.
“She’s getting paid on a permanent project now.” Dan’s reply is clipped.
“She’s a charity worker then?”
I’m shocked to hear the thick disgust in his brother’s tone, and the hairs on the back of my neck lift up. He has a problem with aid work?
“What’s your point?”
“Well, she’s not well paid or independent.”
“She earns her own money, Jed. When she’s in the US she teaches at NYU. She’s an independent woman.”
Jed makes an odd harrumphing noise to this.
“She didn’t know who I was when I met her, Jed. I was using the surname we always used. Jesus, what’s with the questioning?”
“I’m just worried, Dan, after what happened with Linda.”
My heart beats hard in my chest.Linda?Who’s Linda? An ex of Dan’s?
“She’s not Linda.”
“She better not be.”
“Don’t you think I’d be a smarter judge of character than that?”
“I wasn’t.”
I’m confused now—was Linda with Dan or Jed?
Then silence, and the clink of plates and cups again.
“Sorry.” Dan’s voice again.
“It’s okay, I love being reminded what a fuck up I am where women are concerned.”
“You’re not that, Jed. You know it. You got conned once. Stop extrapolating one bad event to every relationship you have.”
The tight bands around my chest ease. The mysterious Linda appears to belong to Jed and not Dan.
