“Has,” she informed me, looking squarely in my eye. “He’s still cheating.”
I shivered. What the hell? He’s been cheating for a year, and she’s okay with this? I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. Why was she so detached and unbothered by this behavior?
“Why are you so okay with this?” I asked, coming undone at the seams. My head was going into overload about this all.
“Because I’m having one too.” Her face blushed with a surreal form of serenity. She seemed so blissful, you would have thought she was talking about a delightful spa experience.
Now it was time to finish my drink. I gulped down the rest of the colada, surprised at how smoothly it went down. All this scandalous new information required me to have all the tolerance possible. These revelations were just a-tumbling out of her mouth one after the other, and each and every one was a hard swallow. (All puns intended.)
Slamming the glass on the coaster, I maintained my grip as I leaned forward. “Talk.”
After swearing my ass to secrecy (like I had anyone to tell), Kelli filled me in. Apparently, sometime last year, they started having lots of fights. Initially, the arguments weren’t that serious, just enough to annoy her and keep her from being interested in spending time with him.
Things intensified when Karter was sent to stay with his grandparents for the summer. Kelli was reconsidering going back to school, doing something to fill her time since she was a stay at home wife.
Kristopher refused, telling her that he didn’t want his wife to work. At the same time, Kristopher said he’d work more, making Kelli laugh, because military personnel had fixed salaries; all that overtime wouldn’t affect their pay. He argued she was right, but that if he did what he was supposed to, he could potentially PCS and they could move to another base that wasn’t as hot, so she didn’t have to feel stuck in the house so much.
“All of these arguments were confusing to me. None of them made sense, and his rationale for not letting me work, and keeping me in the house here, just never added up. I’ve always been sensitive and prone to sunburn, so these extra things he referenced? Nonsensical, you know?” She looked to me, eyebrow raised in question, waiting for my agreement. Dipping a chip into the hummus, she finished her intermission before continuing.
“So skip to the cheating. How did you find out?” I had already begun impatient.
“I was doing laundry and there was lipstick on his boxers. On the crotch. It wasn’t mine. Lipstick stains are impossible to get out of standard issue briefs, so I would never do such a thing.” She laughed. “Would you believe he had those tighty-whities balled up like I would never see the evidence?”
“Did you ever confront him?”
“I tried, but you know he had an excuse. He tried to say that I probably did that to wipe my makeup off when I ran out of wipes. As if!” She waved off the nonsense as she relived the moment. “Eventually, all it led to was more fighting, and even though more evidence showed up, I didn’t need to keep questioning it or confronting him. He would never fess up to his behavior. And whoever she was, she was tightly hidden from my radar.”
“Was?” I repeated. “You said he’s still cheating?”
“He is,” she affirmed. “But not with her. This time it’s another girl. She leaves a smaller lip print on his briefs. And she wears MAC Twig. I know the color, because I wear the same one. It’s my favorite.” She paused. “Oh – and she tries to be messy. She likes to come up to us on base and strike casual conversations with him. Her name is Bella DiMaggio, and she’s a contractor. You should see the way he stiffens when she walks up to us. The overly friendly greeting she gives him, coupled with the bitchy sweetness she gives me? Oh, that lets me know she’s the one.”
“Bella, Bella? As in Nick’s wife, Bella?” I knew her. She wasn’t in our circle but associated with it. “Isn’t she married?” I said, incredulous of this mounting and twisted soap opera the base was becoming.
“She is, but word is Nick’s been stepping out on her for a while. I guess she needed to get him back, and Kristopher was the perfect revenge. She always seemed to have eyes that lingered longer than I would have liked when it came to him.” Her eyes narrowed. “Bitch.”
“Trashy bitch,” I emphasized. “But wait. Who are you sleeping with?”
Sly amusement spread over her classically beautiful features. “Too much information.”
“Aww, c’mon.” Whenever she used that statement, it was her way of shutting down the door. “That’s not fair, Kelli. You’ve been dropping bombs on me all day, and now you don’t want to tell me about this?”