"Hi, I'm looking for Ana, Cash's sister. This is Roxanne Neil."
"Hello, Rox. I am pleased to hear from you. Is everything all right?"
"He's fine right now, but I'm worried about Cash. Has he had a problem with depression?"
Silence until Ana cleared her throat. "We've worried about him in the past, but he has refused counseling."
"I found him leaning over the edge of the deck a little too much this morning, and he said that he had been sitting on the rail. It's a long way down."
"I see." Some rustling.
"I'm really sensitive to this. Some people have cheating antennae, like they can tell when their spouse is cheating to the point where it seems like psychic powers. I have suicide antennae. He's radiating it."
Ana's voice was muffled as she said something in what was probably Dutch to someone else, then she said, "Go on."
"I've kind of baby-proofed his house, but I don't know how much longer I can do this."
"Can you stay until tomorrow? I would consider it a personal favor."
"Oh, yes. Of course. I meant more than a couple more weeks."
"Good. I can't send minders or doctors because he'll send them away or walk away from them. I will have two of his friends there tomorrow, Arthur and Maxence. Do you know them?"
Arthur and Maxence? "He's never mentioned them."
"They're large, strapping young men who should be able to physically forestall any problem and perhaps can bring him around. Don't tell him that they're on their way. He'll raise a fuss, and some things are better done and ask forgiveness later than asking permission before, yes?"
At any other time, Rox would have laughed.
Instead, she said, "Thank you."
One more day until Arthur and Maxence arrived.
BEFORE SUPPER
Cash leaned against the kitchen counter and fiddled with his phone. "You don't have to follow me around."
Rox said, "I wanted a glass of water, too." And to keep an eye on the knives. "Plus, supper will be delivered in a few minutes. I thought I would grab some silverware and glasses before we go back to work."
Cash smiled at her, his grin lighting up his bright green eyes. "You don't have to worry about me. The things that looked quite bleak in the dark and after a few drinks seem more manageable today."
Indeed, he had exercised in his little home gym, worked on the contracts, and made a dozen phone calls to the office and to clients to schedule meetings over the next few weeks. He'd had an opinion about supper for the first time in ages.
Maybe the near-miss last night had been a turning point. Maybe that was the bottom that he had had to hit before he could fight his way back up.
Yeah, sexytimes with Rox had probably been a low point of Cash's life.
He had probably been disgusted with himself for getting all hot and bothered with the chubby girl, insta-regret for porking the porker. She'd never seen a guy actually driven to consider suicide by her thunderthighs, but she'd never gotten down with a guy as hot as Cash before, either. He probably had much higher standards, and last night must have driven home just how far he had fallen.
Rox gripped the water glass more tightly because her palms were sweating.
She bet that he would probably get out of the house in the next few days, maybe pick up a skinny California girl in a bar soon after that, and they could have pretty porno sex instead of the grunting and jiggling that no one wanted to watch.
Maybe Rox shouldn't have narced to Cash's sister quite so fast. He seemed fine now.
Maybe those two guys, Arthur and Maxence, would take him out when they saw the fluffy girl he was shacked up with, an intervention to make sure he didn't get involved with a woman of curves.
She wasn't going to feel sorry for herself, though, and she filled the glass with water from the fridge dispenser.
It was better that the real world intervened now, before Rox got her heart broken or anything.
Outside the window, the sun was drifting down, just touching the Pacific Ocean.
Cash said, "We need to start preparing for your next performance as a lawyer. The meeting with DiCaprio's people is in a few days."
Her hands went through the motions of gathering flatware and wine glasses while she tried to think of anything to say. "You could be disbarred if we got caught."
"No one will think anything of it."
"We could both get in serious trouble."
"It's just one more time. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, right?"
Maybe it would be just one more time.
The front doorbell rang, echoing chimes through the house. The cats crouched on the floor, suspicious of the tolling.
Rox said, "Oh good, there's supper. I'll grab the bags and meet you in the media room."
SUPPER
Rox set the stack of Styrofoam boxes on the coffee table and turned on the television, flipping to find their favorite comedy news program that they watched while they ate supper every night.
The cats swarmed under the table, jockeying for optimal begging positions, another bad habit they had picked up since moving in with Cash. They used to lay at Rox's feet under her table until she had finished eating, and then they all went to the kitchen for a little nibble. Now, they were pathetic little beggers.
Cash followed her in, carrying bottles of wine, and Rox didn't even notice how many bottles he was carrying until he set them on the table with a solid thump. The bottles clanked together.
"Three?" she asked. "I think your fiendish plan just turned into a diabolical plot."
He laughed, his ringing chortle sounding almost like normal. "Not a diabolical plot. Just making sure that I sleep tonight."
The blue light from the television glistened on the wine bottles. "Those will certainly do something."
He smiled at her, cocking his head to the side. "You're going to help me, right?"
"Sure. I'm solid like that."
"Then I'll go get a bottle for you."
"Oh, stop."
They sat on the couch in their accustomed spaces, close enough for conversation, not right next to each other, not touching.
They laughed through the show, just like normal, and the thought insinuated itself into Rox's head that maybe they could just go back to normal. All the sexy stuff and his depression were just aberrations, just a bad night, and now they were back to their usual routine of hanging out and joking around.
See? Everything was fine. Maybe Cash would actually make it to some of those client meetings, and then he would really be back to normal.
Maybe he would take that bandage off his cheek soon.
As their shows finished, Cash said, "Look, about last night-"
"It's okay," Rox said. "Whatever you're going to say, it's okay. It was just a slip."
A smile played around the edges of his mouth. "That's not what you said about the first time that we ‘slipped.'"
"You were obviously upset that we slipped this time, and I don't want to lose you as a friend. You were the only person who was there for me when the beasts and I had nowhere else to go. You can rely on me to hang around when you're hurt. No matter what happens, let's keep this, okay?"
He cocked his head to the side, his gaze a little soft from the wine he had drunk. "But you're married. It could never have been anything more."
Oh, yeah. That. "That, too."
"It was just a rough day, yesterday. Nothing more. We're just friends."
"That sounds about right to me."
He stuck out his hand. "Deal."
His palm was warm in hers, and he kept smiling the whole time they shook on it.
They watched television for a few more minutes, and then they went to their respective bedrooms.
In her own room, Rox paused, still wearing the expensive black silk bra and panty set that she'd bought online. It had been delivered that afternoon.
Yeah, she had been wearing lingerie again, just in case Cash had made some sort of a move.
Buying lingerie when she wasn't even in a relationship was stupid, especially when the guy was so far out of her league.
And it hadn't mattered that she had shaved her legs that afternoon, either.
She didn't even want Cash to make a move, she reminded herself. She wanted to keep her job and work with him, be buddies, and be the one woman that Cash wouldn't fuck and chuck.
That had been her goal all along.
Just because she fantasized about him sometimes, that didn't mean that she really wanted to sleep with him. He was gorgeous and ripped. Every woman around him probably fantasized about him.
But she put her pajamas on over the lingerie because it made her feel like some guy, somewhere, wouldn't mind that she was chubby and wouldn't fall into a massive depression just because a fat chick had made a move on him.