Secrets

Part Three: LIVING THINGS -- Unanswered Questions

[March 5, 2013... continued]

A barista finally came by and took Anna and Talinda's coffee mugs away, jarring Anna from her troubled thoughts. With a sense of resolve, and a plan, she stood up and collected her purse and sunglasses. It wouldn't take much execute the plan she'd just made for Mike's return, but she did need to start now.

After making a two quick phone calls and begging some favors, she turned her car toward the salon she'd frequented for the past ten years. Mike was going to come home to the woman he'd fallen in love with fifteen years ago. She had probably sat at the coffee shop for a half hour after Talinda left, neatly organizing her best friend's thoughts with her own.

It had been hard to admit her jealousy, and harder to hear that Talinda didn't share that feeling. On the contrary, she felt affirmed that she was accepting of Mike and Chester's relationship, whatever it actually was at this point. If Talinda was right, if there really wasn't anything untoward happening between their husbands, then Anna was paranoid at best. If Talinda was wrong... Anna didn't want to think about how much harder it would be to pull Mike back to her. She figured a change in her attitude might make a difference, and that was going to start here at the salon.

Three hours later when she left, she sported shorter hair with a pink streak, fingernails and toenails in French tips, and all important locations were waxed to perfect smoothness. There was another stop at Mike's favorite lingerie boutique, then a last stop at the market for the missing ingredients for his favorite dinner. By the time she arrived home, there were just a few hours left to prepare. The children had to be shuttled over to her parents before she could even start dinner. She had to get her beef stroganoff going before she could shower and change.

Her heart was skipping with anxiety and excitement as she smoothed Mike's favorite lotion over her legs and looked at herself in the mirror. Appearances weren't something she spent a lot of time worrying about, but now she looked over her naked body critically in the mirror, wondering what Mike saw when he looked at her. Did he see the stretch marks and the extra weight she carried after three kids? Did he see the way her breasts were no longer as perky as they were at twenty? Did he even really see her at all anymore, or were they so comfortable with each other now that it didn't really matter?

She'd been just as guilty at taking him for granted, she supposed. At holding him, touching him, loving him out of habit. Tonight that was going to change, she thought, as she shimmied into the pale pink satin and lace teddy she'd purchased that afternoon. Mike had always loved her in pink, and she adjusted the straps so they wouldn't fall before she slipped on the deep rose colored robe Mike had given her at Christmas. It was also satin, short enough to tease, and part of a set, but it worked just fine to conceal the new lingerie she wanted to hide until after dinner.

For a moment she wavered between putting on makeup and going without before she decided to go all the way and do her eyes up the same as she used to for Mike's club shows. By the time she was finished, the delicious scent of dinner was wafting though the house, and Mike would be home at any minute. With a last look in the mirror, she went downstairs to set the table, light the candles, and wait.

**********

Like so many plane rides in all the years behind them, Mike woke up before landing with Chester's head resting on his shoulder, their hands linked together between them. The weirdest thing about flying home from Australia was how they actually went backwards in time, despite the fifteen hour flight. They'd left Sydney at 9:30 pm on the fifth, and were set to arrive in Los Angeles a little after 6:00 pm on the fifth. It was the kind of math that gave Chester a headache, he'd complained to Mike before they departed hours ago.

They had somehow managed to stay awake for most of the flight, knowing that the jet lag would be a bitch if they slept the whole way into LA, alternating between watching movies, playing games, and simply talking to each other. Mike didn't remember who fell asleep first, but it didn't matter. They had spent their last night together as comfortably as they could, both of them secretly wishing for the comforts of a hotel room instead of the large first class seats that kept them more separated than they wanted.