Upside Down (6 page)

I
took my purse from a nearby chair, blew him a kiss and walked to the door.

“See you in a while, gorgeous.”

“See you, Madam.”

I smiled to myself all the way to my car.
That was my sweet boy – he knew pretty well who was running the show and it wasn’t him.

* * * *

I
was finishing putting together my famous ‘eggplant Parmigiana’, an old recipe I learned from Mrs. Pinkman, my childhood cook, when the doorbell rang. I greeted Mark, still holding my wooden spoon, so I just pecked a quick kiss on his lips before rushing back to the stove.

“Sorry about that, Mark, but I need to put this spoon back where it belongs.
Please, make yourself at home. You know where the wine is. Would you be a dear and pour us some?”

I c
ould hear his chuckles as he closed the front door.

“You are always doing two or three
things at the same time, Carol,” his voice sounded nearer as he walked down the long corridor towards the kitchen. “Cooking, answering the door and I bet you have been checking the Asian stock market, as well.”

He point
ed to my tablet on the kitchen counter beside my mixing bowl.

“Guilty as charged,” I repl
ied as I threw my arms around his neck and snuggled closer to him. “I told you I wanted to cook something for you tonight because you’re always taking care of me. I thought it would be nice to take care of you, for a change,” I scattered light kisses on his nose and cheeks as I explained myself.

“But you take care of me in many other ways, Carol
,” his hands pulled me by my hips until we were intimately joined. It felt like heaven.

“I’m sorry you came in
before I finished cooking and I had to greet you in a hurry like that. Let me try to make up for that.”

My hands traveled down his back to his gorgeous butt
ocks and I squeezed him lightly as I pulled him closer for a hungry kiss. I played with his mouth, sucking at his lower lip before slanting my mouth over his and teasing his tongue with mine. I licked his upper lip then ran my tongue lightly along the roof of his mouth.

Mark shiver
ed, I chuckled, but he muffled my sounds with his hot tongue invading my mouth. He crashed my body against his hard chest as his hands pressed the small of my back before he buried his face in my hair. I felt faint and grabbed his shoulders for support. We locked our mouths and bodies in an endless kiss until we were both breathless. I stopped it, stepped back and took a deep breath to calm down.

“Wow
! That is a proper greeting, boss.”

“I’ll say! Now, go get that wine while I finish our dinner. I’m afraid we won’t eat anything
if I don’t keep my hands to myself.”

Mark
’s laughter echoed through the stairwell as he went down to the cellar. He climbed up the stairs carrying a bottle of red wine. He quickly found two wine glasses in the cupboard above the sink, opened the bottle and poured the rich liquid. When I grabbed my glass and tasted it, I looked him in the eyes and smiled.

“Hmm, you know your wine, mister. This is
one of my favorite Bordeaux - Château Lafite Rothschild. Which vintage is this?”

“2005
,” he answered without checking the label.

“You do know your wine, Mark.
This was a great year. Cheers.”

We
toasted, sipped our wine and sat down to talk. I had put the eggplant in the oven while Mark was in the cellar so now we needed to wait some minutes until we were able to eat it.

“
How is your knee, Mark? Does it still bother you? You seemed in pain when you climbed up the stairs.”

“Well, you know, since the accident
and the surgery it hasn’t been the same. Some days it hurts more than others, though.”

“But the police has
caught the truck driver, right?”

“Yeah, he
was arrested last year. My lawyer said he’s going to stand trial in a month or two. I’ll be very happy to see the bastard behind bars.”

“I’m sure
you will. A drunken driver who killed two pedestrians and almost ran your car over must rot in jail. Is there anything I can do for you about that?”

“
No, Carol. Thanks. I’ve got it.”

He squeeze
d my hand lightly and gave me one of his trademark smiles. The sincere kind, though. I had seen Mark dazzle people with the widest, fakest grins and they would never have guessed how angry or annoyed he really was. The oven timer went off, I put the steaming pot on the table in the dining room and we finally attacked it.

“Hmm, Carol this is divine.
I had forgotten how well you can cook.”

“Oh, I’m more than a pretty face, you know.”

“I do know that,” he replied as his hand traveled slowly up my arm. “You are a gorgeous face, a hot body, a sharp mind and shrewd business instincts - all wrapped up in one glorious woman.”

When he finishe
d his sentence, his hand had closed behind my nape so he pulled me towards him for a kiss. It started as a gentle exchange but I knew it could easily get as hot as an open fire. That was always the case with us. So, I pulled back, smiled at him, returned my attention to my plate and made a joke to cool down the temperature in the room which had escalated to boiling hot.

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere,
young man.”

He chuckle
d at my feigned outraged tone, winked and sat back straight on his chair.

“You
can’t blame me for trying. Maybe you give me a promotion or a position as your personal assistant or something. No, wait. I already have that! Silly me! I take all that back.”

“Too late.
I’m already walking on air with all your compliments.”

We laugh
ed and the friendly exchanges continued throughout our meal. I enjoyed Mark’s company more than I was ready to admit to myself. I was having a great time until the phone rang and an ominous feeling made me answer it without checking the caller ID thinking it might be my mother with more bad news.

“Hello
?”

“Hello, there, beautiful
,” a very familiar voice greeted me causing a huge smile to light up my face and a sigh of relief to escape me before I answered his heartfelt greeting.

“Oh, gosh, sweetie, I missed you so much.
I have so many things to tell you! When did you get back, Dave?”

I ha
dn’t seen Dave since he had moved to India, two years before. After a while, he had moved to London. I got so excited to hear from him that I forgot all about Mark and our dinner.

“I
haven’t gone back, silly, I’m still in London.”

“But it’s
three o’clock in the morning there. How come you’re calling me?”

“Do I need a reason to call you
, now?”

“
No, you don’t, honey. Besides your reasons aren’t usually very good.”

“
If you must know, smarty-pants, I couldn’t sleep and I missed you.”

“Oh, Dave,
I’m so happy to hear your voice right now, anyway,” my voice broke off as I remembered my father’s health problems and everything else I was facing. “I wish you were here with me. There’s so much going on, so much I need to talk about.”

“
Be a good girl and tell me all about it.”

“
I can’t right now.” I sighed then changed back to a lighter tone. “And you know I’m not a good girl.”

“That
is
true. You are a naughty, naughty girl but I love you.”

I laugh
ed at that but the sound was so hoarse I drank some wine to soothe my dry throat. I did it so fast, though, that my head got dizzy and I felt my cheeks burning. I had to fan myself to cool my face down a little.

“You can count on that, hon.
What have you been up to?”

“Not much. Jerry has been working his ass off
at the hospital and I stay home, bored to death,” I heard a deep, exaggerated sigh on the other side of the phone line and smiled. “I should be writing my next best-seller novel but I spend the day stuffing my face with chocolate, instead.”

“Oh, that sounds sexy
,” I chuckled at his usual drama queen tone.

“I never thought married life would be this boring for us. We had so much more fun when we were just dating.
”

“Oh, so that’s why you called
! You miss our crazy nights, huh? I miss them too, honey.”

It
was his turn to laugh. All of a sudden, I remembered Mark and looked up to apologize to him for having been on the phone for so long but I found out he was no longer sitting across from me. He had taken our half-empty plates away, judging from the clattering sounds I could hear coming from the kitchen. I frowned but kept talking to Dave as I stood up and went to the kitchen to check on Mark.

“
Since that’s the case, I assume you are coming back home soon.”

“As soon as Jerry
finishes his work here which means not for another month. Or ten - who knows? This research is taking forever! Then, we’ll both be home bugging you until you beg us to get on the next plane to Katmandu, or somewhere equally far. By the way, can you check on our place again to see if everything is fine there?”

“
Don’t worry your pretty head about it. I’ll have everything shipshape and waiting for you whenever you are ready to come back. I can’t wait for you to be back in New York, though, Dave.”

“Tell me about it
! Oh, look at the time! I gotta go, Carol. I need to start packing. We’ll go to my villa in the Amalfi Coast, as soon as Jerry arrives from the hospital. A weekend getaway. Talk to you soon, babe. Love you!”

“Love you, too
, baby.”

I
shook my head and smiled at Dave’s last remarks as I put the phone down thinking it was so typical of him - complaining about boredom and lack of fun while planning to spend the weekend in one of the most romantic, most beautiful places on Earth. I was still smiling when I looked up at Mark. He was leaning on the kitchen counter, arms crossed on his chest, a dark expression on his usually friendly face. I shrugged and frowned back at him.

“What?”

“What!? How can you even ask, Carol?”

His anger g
ot me by surprise and I took some precious seconds to process that novelty, to adapt to his new disposition. When I didn’t answer and just looked at him with a blank expression on my face, looking for something to say, Mark seemed to get angrier.

“For
Christ’s sake, Carol! How can you be so insensitive? Or are you just cruel?” Mark was almost shouting. I had never seen him lose his temper like that. “You tease me at the office; invite me over saying you had planned a special night for us; then interrupt our dinner to talk to a man who has clearly been your boyfriend. Or who still
is
your boyfriend, for all I know! Then, you don’t expect me to get upset? Really? Do you have such a low opinion of me? Don’t you care about my feelings at all? Am I just a life-size sex toy for you to pass your time and play with until your real man gets home?”

I
wasn’t used to having to explain myself to anyone and I had a temper much more volatile than Mark’s but his altered state forced me to control my instinctive reactions to those unfair and unfounded accusations. If I had lashed back at him the whole situation might have gotten very ugly. Although it wasn’t easy, keeping my head was the best thing I could have done because when I calmed down I was even able to see things from his perspective and began to understand where those accusations were coming from.

“Mark, you’re
so wrong in so many ways I don’t even know where to start. All I know is that you have to calm down, first, baby. There’s no need for this drama. Let’s sit down in the den and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

He scoff
ed but followed me upstairs. He sat on the sofa facing the empty fireplace and I chose to sit down on the thick rug facing him and leaning on his legs so that Mark would have the advantage of looking down on me. It’s a position of dominance and he needed that. His ego had been badly bruised, making him feel insecure. Besides, I’d always called the shots in our relationships – both the professional and the sexual one.

“Look, Mark, I’m sorry if you got th
e wrong impression but I can assure you there is nothing going on between Dave and me.”

He
was still fuming and cut me off before I could go on with my explanation.

“It’s hard to buy that, Carol. You g
ot all worked up talking to the guy to the point you had to fan yourself,” he used his fingers to count and emphasize what I had done wrong, in his opinion. “You giggled like a school girl. You said you wished he were here. You said you had tons of things to talk about but not in front of me. You said you missed your crazy nights together. Damn, you even said you loved him! You told me you had never said that to anybody.”