"If you're not willing to be honest with me, Eliza, if you're just going to sit there and give me these tales about head lice and wheely chairs, you're wasting my time." She paused, then added, "And I do not let people waste my time."
I believed her. She let the silence between us stretch out. Sounds from the street below drifted through the open sash window. The honk of a bus, the revving of a motorbike, a shout of laughter.
Fuck it.
I took my phone out of my pocket and pulled up the photo of Richard and The Other Woman. I hesitated before handing it to Ms. Early. She slipped on a pair of gold-rimmed glasses to examine it.
"I was away with Mara the weekend that picture was taken," I explained. "He claimed he was holed up at home working on his script the whole time."
"Of course he did. Do you know who she is?"
"No."
"You haven't confronted him yet." She said that as a statement of fact.
"How do you know?"
She laughed in genuine amusement. "You're not the type."
This was more than a little offensive. But it was also entirely accurate, so I let it slide.
She was still staring at the picture. Then she handed the phone back to me. "Tell me, has he started staying out late in the evenings?"
"To be fair, he's always worked late."
"Is he very protective of his phone? Does he bring it with him when he goes to the bathroom?"
"Yes, but—"
"Has he started taking more care with his appearance?"
"No," I said, sure of myself on this one. Got you there.
Ms. Early remained unfazed. "Has he started going to the gym? Working out?"
"The only exercise he gets is taking the dog for walks."
"How often does he do this?"
"Most nights. He says it helps him clear his head."
"And how long are these walks?"
"Pretty long. About two hours. Sometimes longer. I mean, I'm usually asleep when he gets home so—"
"What kind of dog is it?"
"I don't know. The white and fluffy kind? Not much bigger than, say, an obese cat?"
"Two hours is too long for a dog that size. He'll get joint problems later in life."
Geez, were we auditioning for Crufts here or trying to save my marriage?
"It might be nothing," I said, trying to get things back on track. "The photo. I might be totally overreacting."
"My dear. It is never nothing."
Oh. That's reassuring.
"But the good news," Ms. Early continued, "is that I have experience with this type of situation. I know the damage it can do. I also know how to help. But first, I must know why."
"Why...what?"
"I can see you're trying to save your marriage. But why?"
"Because."
"Because what?"
"Because you don't just let your marriage fall apart! You don't give up on something that important. You don't just walk away."
"Even if your husband is being unfaithful?"
When I was younger, I'd thought an affair would be a dealbreaker. Now that it was quite possibly happening to me, I realized it wasn't that simple. "We have a child together."
"Lots of people with children split up."
"Yeah, well, not me. I'm not doing that to Mara. She's going to have a stable childhood."
The word stable hung between us. Our household was many things at the moment, but stable was not one of them.
