The Glory ( Freen❣️Becky)

9 🔞

"Oh said. my God. I'm in love with you guys," Tee

Freen settled back on the sofa, balancing her coffee cup on her thigh. "It was a special day," Freen admitted.

"And did she reciprocate?" Nam asked.

Freen smiled. "We spent three uninterrupted hours in bed that day. I'm amazed either of us could walk the next day."

"How in the world did you keep your affair from her mother? And your mother, for that matter?" Tee asked.

"I guess they were simply blind to it. I'm sure when we looked at each other it was written all over our faces."

"What about Nop?" Nam asked. "I'm assuming she eventually slept with him.'

Freen felt the familiar stab of jealousy, even after all of these years. She nodded, almost afraid to speak. She cleared her throat first, swallowing down her jealousy.

"She had sex with him, yes. Not often," she said. "Enough."

"How do you know not often?"

"Because she told me."
"And you believed her?" Nam asked

."Becky never lied to me about anything. Like I said earlier, I knew what my role was."

"You were in love with each other," Tee said.

"How could she let Nop touch her?"

"I know it's hard for you to understand," she said. "And now that I'm older-wiser-I realize how dangerous it was for us. Emotionally dangerous, I mean. Becky was someone I couldn't resist ever. And as I knew my role, she knew hers. And her role was playing the part that Chaerin Armstrong  had made for her. That included dating-and sleeping with- Nop. But Becky had the same problem I did," she said.

"Which was?"

"She couldn't resist me either."

"So you were what? Seniors in high school then?"

"Yes. That was in the fall. We didn't have another chance to be alone like that until the holidays. She was busy with Nop and her friends, with parties, with events at the country club. Her mother switched her from tennis lessons to golf so a lot of Saturdays when we used to find time to be together were spent on the golf course." She shrugged. "I had a couple of good friends from school that I hung out with. It helped keep my mind occupied, if nothing else."

"It must have been terribly lonely for you," Nam said.

Freen glanced at her. "I could have surrounded myself with a hundred people and it wouldn't have mattered."

"Oh, sweetie, how did you cope?"

"I'm not sure," she said to Tee. "Our senior year, it just crawled by, yet it passed so quickly. College was looming and I knew our separation was near. She was headed off to her fancy Ivy League school and I was destined to start my career at the community college. It was all we could afford."

"But you said you went to "

"Yeah. The university." She smiled at the memory. "Because of my tutoring Becky, Mr. Armstrong  set up an account for me. He didn't tell my mother. He certainly never told his wife. He took care of everything. Got me admitted, got me a scholarship, everything. When he signed over the account to my mother, it was the first time I'd seen her cry since my father died."

"Oh, wow. That's awesome."

"I never told Becky. He asked me not to, and even though there were no other secrets between us, I did keep that from her. I think she would have been proud of him for doing that, but I honored his wish."