The Arrangement 1

Chapter 1

April hurried to the oven and checked on her roast. It had to be perfect. She’d carefully selected the best tenderloin she could find at the A&P, just the right amount of marbling, not too much fat. Walter would be upset if he’d seen what she paid for it but he’d be upset if she served him a dry cut too. She prayed he was in a good mood.

She went into the dining room and opened the doors of the Juliet balcony overlooking the driveway. The oven was making the kitchen too warm and she wanted to let in some of the cool, evening air. It made the drapes flow like waves. She’d always loved that. It was one of the things that had made her fall in love with the house. She’d spent weeks pleading with Walter to buy it. He’d wanted a place in Great Falls or Potomac, somewhere he could meet prospective clients and powerful politicians and move up in the world, but she’d argued that this was a better fit for their family. The neighborhood was modest but they had more space for the children. They wouldn’t have been able to get anything nearly as suitable in those other neighborhoods and the mortgage payments would have crippled them. In the end it was the den that sold him. He practically lived down there.

She took out the roast and set it to stand on the counter. Then she went and touched up her makeup and straightened her hair. Walter used to insist she change for dinner but since the children were born he had dispensed with that formality. Still, she always felt the need to freshen up before dinner for him. She reapplied her lipstick and tried to decide whether or not to wear her mother’s earrings. They were the only thing she still owned from her family but she worried that Walter didn’t like them. He’d said before that they weren’t his style.

She hadn’t made up her mind when she heard his car coming up the driveway. She got up and went to the children’s room. The two girls were playing nicely with some dolls on the floor and she told them daddy was home.

They got up and followed her down the stairs, the three of them in a neat row on the steps when Walter came in the front door.

–Good evening, family, he said.

–Good evening, the girls said.

April smiled and took his coat. 

–Have I got some news for you tonight, he said as he kissed her cheek.

–I can’t wait to hear it, honey.

–It’s big, he said and she could see he was genuinely excited.

–Well take the girls to the table and you can tell me over dinner.

Walter bent down and hugged his two daughters and they giggled. He led them off to the dining room and April went to the closet with his hat and coat. She resisted an impulse to smell his coat collar. She’d smelled perfume on so many of his shirts by now that it was hardly a discovery, but still she tried to train herself not to suspect him, not to think at all about what he did when she was not around. It was difficult but she had great willpower.