Conversation

As soon as they walked in the door Helen threw herself at Mike, kissing him then holding on to him. “Hey,” he said soothingly as he stroked her hair. “Are you okay?”

Her face was buried in his chest. She shook her head and said, “I’m not hurt but I’m not okay.”

“Did something bad happen with Darren?” Maisy asked, her voice filled with genuine concern.”

Helen let go of Mike and grabbed a hold of Maisy, pulling the shorter woman's head into her chest and nuzzling her nose into her bright red hair. “No, not really.” She let Maisy go but took her hand and Mike’s. “I really need to talk to both of you.”

They hung up their coats and went to sit at the table. Maisy and Mike looked at Helen with concern as she seemed to muster up the strength to speak. “Maisy,” she said finally, locking eyes with her. “Have you fallen in love with Mike?”

Maisy looked startled for a moment then she averted her gaze and said in a flat tone “Yes.”

Helen grimaced with the stab of emotional pain. She took a breath and turned to Mike. “Do you love Maisy?” she asked him.

He didn’t look away. “I do,” he said in a calm, soft voice.

Helen grimaced again as she fought with the tears that were burning her eyes. “And what about me?” she asked, her voice breaking and her face creasing with her emotion.

“I still love you,” he said, his own face showing pain at seeing his wife in such distress. “You’d have to be cruel to make me not love you anymore.”

“I have been cruel,” she shouted through her cracked voice. “I’ve been selfish and negligent and mean.”

“No, no,” Mike cooed. “You have done nothing that I haven't pushed you towards. I didn’t mean to fall in love with Maisy and I don’t think she thought she would have fallen in love with me but I didn’t stop loving you.”

“If you had to choose between us?”

“I, I don’t know anymore.”

“Huh, that’s changed,” said Maisy. Her voice was calm.

“What do you mean?” asked Helen, her face a mess with tears.

“He would have chosen you every time, even only a few days ago.”

Helen looked horrified. Had she really ruined her marriage in such a short space of time?

Maisy put her hand on Mike’s and said “Do you think you could give us some space? I think we need to talk this out between us girls.”

Mike looked at Helen “Are you okay with that?” Helen nodded and he left the kitchen saying, “I’ll be in the study.”

“No looking at the cameras, this is private,” Maisy shouted after him.

The two women sat together in silence for a moment, neither of them looking at each other. Suddenly Maisy banged her fist on the table. “Damn it. Why couldn’t you have fallen in love with Darren and run off with him,” she said, her own voice now beginning to crack with emotion.

A thought struck Helen. “Did you tell him to make me fall in love with him?”

Maisy frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”

“He was trying to make me fall in love with him through sex.”

Maisy laughed mirthlessly “That wasn’t my doing. Shit, I knew he was infatuated with you. I saw how he looked at you.”

“So you didn’t plan anything with him?”

“With him, nothing. I did hope that his incredible sex skills might just be the thing to snatch your affections away from Mike.”

“Why did you think that?”

“Come on. You are a sex addict. I thought I was bad but you take it to a whole new level. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that a guy like Darren might be just the ticket for you.”

“I couldn’t love Darren. He’s so dull.”

Maisy chuckled, “That’s painfully true.”

“Mike and I have so much history together. I love being with him, spending time with him, I even love having sex with him.”

“Me too,” said Maisy as she began to cry. “Why couldn’t you have just run off with him and left Mike for me?”

“Because I don’t love him. Why do you want me to so badly? Why not just steal Mike from me?”

“Because I didn't want you to be unhappy,” Maisy wailed. “I love you too. Not like I love Mike but I’ve never had a friend like you and I didn’t want to take him and leave you sad. I wanted you to have someone too.” Maisy started to bawl.

“I love you too,” cried Helen. “If you ran off with him I’d lose you both or I take him back and drive you away I lose you but I don’t want to lose either of you.” She moved around the table to sit next to Maisy and the two women clung to each other and bawled their eyes out.

After a few minutes, they pulled back and looked at the mess the other one was. They laughed through the remaining sobs as they ran their thumbs over each other’s faces and tucked hair back into place. “What do we do?” Maisy asked.

“What do you want? You know, in an ideal setup.” Helen asked.

“I want to marry him. I want to stay with him and be his wife and maybe one day we could have babies.”

“And what about me?”

“I don’t know. I guess in an ideal world you would have someone else you love just as much as Mike and we are neighbours and we hang out all the time and maybe do sexy stuff quite a lot and sometimes let our husbands watch.”

Helen smiled. “It’s a lovely thought but I’m not just going to give Mike to you.”

“It’s a pity bigamy is a crime,” joked Maisy.

“Yeah,” agreed Helen. The two women sat in silence holding hands, neither looking at the other.

Helen got up, breaking the stillness of the moment. She cradled Maisy's face and planted a soft and loving kiss on her lips. “I’m going out. I need a walk and some space to think.”

“You aren’t going to do anything stupid are you?” said Maisy, looking worried.

Helen laughed. “No, just think. Tell Mike I’ve gone out. You can go to him if you want. If you need him to comfort you. I have my phone on me if you are worried, okay?”

Maisy nodded and watched as she put on her coat, hat and gloves. Helen looked back and smiled as she stepped out into the wintery evening.