UNINVITED

Chapter 5

For the rest of the day, Clara explored our new house more than me. She moved around the place, following me as I stored the perishable foods in the fridge, stuffed the processed foods into the cabinet, and lined up my books on the shelf at the fireplace where I intended to do my reading.

     Now as I stepped out of the bathroom after soaking myself for a while, she strutted across the window sill. I had no idea how she got up there. She seemed to be enjoying the view. Just when I thought she was afraid of heights. She wasn’t after all.

     “Hey.” I clapped my hand, but she ignored me.

     She stopped strutting and scratched her claws against the pane.

     “Clara, come over here.”

     No luck. She didn’t even seem to notice my presence. I didn’t want her streaking the pane or worse falling from the seat. I picked up the dress I splayed on the bed and donned it. I had filled the wardrobe with my clothes and jewelry. My shoes, heels, and boots were lined up on the rack.

     I pulled back my hair into a ponytail. My eyes hadn’t left Clara. What’s keeping her there? Two strides and I stood by her. Scooping her into my arms, I stroked her fur. As I turned away, I noticed the light on the front porch of Mr. and Mrs. Something.

     They lay in the swing bed. Mrs. Something had her head on his chest, and Mr. Something traced his finger across her cheekbone. If they were out at this time of the evening, then the weather hadn’t changed for the worse. Seeing them cuddled up like that, I suddenly wished I were the woman and Tom was the man. We were up there spending some quality time and enjoying the quietness. But I wasn’t her and he wasn’t Tom.

     Reality could sometimes be brutal you’d want to believe a lie rather than know the truth. Tom wasn’t like that when I met him. If people could morph into a completely different person overnight, Tom did. Funny enough, when I first met him I thought he was cute. I always ended up with the wrong man, but this time I went too far.

     My sexual life had been mundane. Girl meets boy and finds him attractive. He asks her out. They date. It doesn’t go anywhere and they end it. No tears, no contemplation, nothing, and maybe that was the problem. Jumping from one relationship to the other without so much as learning what went wrong in the previous.

     But with Tom, it was different. I thought I had a future with him. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted a mummy’s boy. Till now, I never understood their bond. It was as though he were protecting her from God knew what. Our house in SoHo was his idea. He wanted to be close to his Mom. To be close to a fifty-something-year-old woman who had a husband who could aptly take care of her. And Stella didn’t even look that defenseless. She could strangle you with her looks.

     It was a boring day at the boutique. I had been doing a follow-up of a delivery to one of my international clients to no avail. Sales were down and my assistant Shelby was ill. But when Tom stepped into my boutique with her mother, my gloomy face suddenly lit up. I greeted them with the warmest smile I could summon. I didn’t personally attend to customers. That was Shelby’s job. I took care of other secondary tasks like follow-ups, ordering new clothes, and occasionally updating our website.

     I asked if I could help and Tom told me they wanted a dress for a silver wedding. I expected Stella to talk to me since it was her dress, but Tom did all the talking, and I concluded he was the bodyguard. It was a wild guess then, but that was the only reason why a stately older woman garishly dressed wouldn’t say a word when she looked like a fashionista.

     I led them to a section of the boutique that displayed evening dresses. When I selected a black gown with matching stilettos to her, she glanced back and said, “Son, what do you think? Will this one do?”