The line’s quiet again.
“Melissa?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she says. “I’ll be home soon.”
I hang up the phone and turn to Grace, saying, “I should probably-”
“Yeah,” she agrees. “Go.”
My mind isn’t doing me any favors right now. All I can see when I blink is Melissa’s mouth moving and that little one-sided smile she gets when she knows she’s getting away with something.
I shouldn’t have put Grace in the middle of this. She was right — I did know what Melissa was saying, but I didn’t want to believe it.
Adrenaline is surging through me as I pull into my parking space and get out of the car.
I give Melissa a quick call to see if she’s here yet, but she doesn’t answer.
Not knowing where she is right now, it’s impossible to know how long it’s going to be before she gets home.
When I get upstairs, I let myself in and just sit on the couch in the silence, waiting, hoping that nothing’s actually happened. I’m still holding onto the hope that I didn’t see what I know I saw and that Grace just happened to have the same delusion.
It’s ridiculous, I know, but it’s all I’ve got to hang onto right now.
The key enters the lock after a few more minutes and I get up to greet Melissa at the door, just hoping she’s alone.
“Jace,” she says, startled at the sight of me. “I didn’t-”
“Let’s talk,” I tell her, and walk back to the living room.
Everything’s quiet for a very long time.
I can’t be sure, but I do get the feeling we’re both holding our peace for the same reason: once we talk about it, it becomes real.
Finally, I’m sick of waiting in limbo. “Want to tell me what you were saying on the video?” I ask.
“First off,” she says, “I don’t even know how you saw it. I deleted it off of your phone after I sent it to mine.”
“You didn’t delete the message itself,” I tell her. “Deleting the video from my gallery didn’t unattach it from your message.”
“Right,” she says. “Look, I can explain-”
“And, you didn’t just send it to your phone, did you?” I ask. “If I call the other number you sent it to, who do you think is going to pick up the phone?”
“Why are you being such a baby about this? It’s not even what you think.”
“I’d love to hear what it is, then,” I tell her.
“It’s stupid,” she starts.
“Of that, I am certain,” I answer.
She gives me a dirty look, but her expression softens into the face she pulls when she’s trying to talk me into something.
“It’s only happened the one time,” she says. “It happened yesterday after he gave me the promotion. I don’t know, I felt like I had to.”
“You’re saying that he made you have sex with him?”
“No!” she answers quickly. “I don’t know. Just…”