I was in so much trouble.
“Hey, Jason,” she said as she climbed in the back with me. “Nice ride. Trying to make a good impression on me?”
“Always,” I laughed. “But actually, I figured we’d probably have a few drinks tonight and I would rather not try to hail a cab in downtown Dallas after the concert.”
“Ah, smart man,” she said, smiling at me. That smile took my breath away once again.
I smiled back.
“So, what did you tell Jaxon, anyway?” I asked. “Since we’re being stealth and all, I wanna make sure we have our stories straight.”
“Actually, I didn’t tell him much. He’s still at that self-absorbed age where he doesn’t really notice what’s going on in my life. As long as I’m still making his dinner and giving him lots of love, he doesn’t really pay attention to what happens around me.”
“Well, that makes it easy.”
“Sorry,” she said, patting my leg. “I know how much you were looking forward to being stealth.”
I really wanted to hold her hand and keep it on my leg. But it took three weeks to get a date. That’s three weeks longer than I’ve ever waited before. I didn’t want to mess it up.
“He keeps asking me when he’s going swimming at your house again,” she added. “So be prepared. You’ll probably be getting a phone call from him soon.”
“He can call me any time,” I said. “We had so much fun that day. He wore me out.”
“He’ll do that to ya.”
“You know,” I started reaching my arm around the back of the seat. Yeah, it was an eighth grade move but I didn’t care. “You could always come with us next time.”
She looked at me like she knew what I was up to. “Jason, that’s not exactly keeping things separate.”
“I know, I know,” I conceded. “You can’t blame me for trying. I think you’d have fun. Plus, it would be nice to have a female buffer from Danielle.” I made a face when I said her name.
“Have you seen her since then?” she asked nonchalantly. I was glad the topic didn’t piss her off this time.
“I ran into her once in the lobby. She was with her husband, who is apparently in town for a couple weeks. I wanted to hug the man for being there to keep her off the rest of us.”
Addison giggled. “Is she really that bad?”
I looked at her with wide eyes. “Worse. She picks out the rich guys to target. That’s the only way I can describe it. Doesn’t matter if they’re married or single.”
“Seriously? Ugh. I hate women like that,” Addison remarked with a grimace.
“I know. Me too,” I answered. “One of the married guys in our building ended up having an affair with her. It was awful. Not only did she seduce him into the affair, or so he claims, but whenever she would run into him in the lobby she would approach him and make remarks about it. Even when he was with his wife.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I know. So obviously his wife found out and she was pissed. Really pissed. They fought all the time. And not just in their apartment . . . on the balcony, in the hallway, in the community rooms. It didn’t help that Danielle just kept poking the bear,” I said, poking my finger in front of me in imitation. “Every time she saw them. It got so bad, they were finally kicked out of the complex.”
“Ohmygod, that poor wife,” Addison said, fully engaged in the story.
“I know. I didn’t feel bad for Jim - that’s the husband - at first, because, well, he made his bed. But after watching Danielle just continually try to make his life a living hell, even when he was trying to rectify what he had done,” I shook my head, “it just showed me that she wasn’t out for companionship or just a little fun. She was truly out to just play with someone’s life. And when she set her sights on him, the poor bastard didn’t stand a chance.”
“Women like that really piss me off,” Addison said, her eyes narrowed as she stared straight ahead. “You know I called the woman Austin was having an affair with?”
“You did?” I asked. For a second I felt bad I had brought up Danielle’s prowess around the complex, but I quickly realized Addison wasn’t all that fazed by the topic. I’m not sure if I was relieved or pissed that she dealt with her douchebag of a dead husband for so long that talking about marital affairs with me didn’t bother her.
“Yep. I called her, introduced myself and let her know I was aware she was sleeping with my husband. You know what that bitch said to me?” she asked, looking me in the eyes. I shook my head. “She had the nerve to say, ‘Well if you kept him happier at home, he wouldn’t be coming to me.’”