Даниэла Стил - Neighbors

“Nothing,” Peter responded to his question, as his voice sank to a lower register, which Arthur heard too. “It’s an impossible situation. It’s complicated for her too. I have nothing to offer her, and she has an ideal situation with Joel.”

“Is she in love with him?” Arthur got right to the heart of the matter.

Peter hesitated. “She says she isn’t. We’re in love with each other, but it’s not going to get us anywhere. I can’t, in good conscience, encourage her to leave him. He can do everything for her that I can’t and never will. I’ll probably never make what he does.”

“He doesn’t love her,” Arthur said with certainty.

“How do you know that?” Peter was intrigued. Arthur had an uncanny instinct for people that transcended vision.

“I can hear it. He has fun with her. She’s probably interchangeable to him, and one day she’ll be disposable, maybe sooner than she thinks. He’s the kind of man who believes that women are toys to play with. She’s not in love with him, I can hear that too. She was probably foolish to get tangled up with him, and impressed and dazzled. That doesn’t last long. What the two of you have are possibilities, hopes, dreams. It deserves to be explored if you can figure out a decent way to do it. I’m not looking to get myself shot by an angry, jealous lover, but if you need to spend time with her, and want her to stay here from time to time, do it. I trust you to handle it, and still keep your ears open for me. You can have her here whenever you want to.” Peter’s face lit up like a child’s on Christmas, and Arthur didn’t need to see it to know it. “I hope she’s a smart girl and handles it sensibly. We don’t need a lot of drama around here.” But what he wanted to do was give them an opportunity. And he didn’t want to lose Peter. It was the wisest thing for him to do, so Peter didn’t bolt and run in his enamored state, just so he could spend the night with her. She had to deal with her situation with Joel soon. “I hope she cleans it up in a reasonable time. It’s not smart to let situations like this linger. They have the potential to get nasty and then it’s like lighting a match to dynamite.”

“I don’t think she’ll do that. I have faith in her.”

“Good. I trust your judgment, unless she proves otherwise. And remember, the Ferrari is not what matters here. You’re a good man, Peter, and an honorable one. She’d be lucky to have you.”

“Thank you,” Peter said, both touched and jubilant. He couldn’t wait to tell Ava that Arthur was willing to let her spend the night with him, if they could figure out her end of it.

—

Ava only had a short distance to go from Arthur’s house to Joel’s, and her mind was full of Peter as she walked. She had no idea what to do about Joel, and had been tormenting herself about it for weeks. At least at Meredith’s, they saw each other constantly, but now that they had moved back into their respective houses, her heart was down the block with Peter at Arthur’s, and her body belonged to Joel. She could tell he had just come in, and was putting some papers on his desk. The house was a shambles, with the repairs just starting and dust everywhere.

“Where were you?” he asked as he looked up at her, when she walked into the room. He was in a good mood. He’d had a few drinks at the meeting. On the whole, he was an even-tempered, good-natured person, who liked to have a good time, which was why he was opposed to marriage now. He hated drama and dissension and heartache in his life. He’d had enough of that to last a lifetime with his ex-wife. He had given her a fortune when they divorced. He was glad they’d never had children. He had decided children weren’t for him. He had no desire to leave another generation behind for posterity. He lived in the moment, and wanted no part of the headaches his friends had with teenagers, or crying babies at night.

“I dropped something off to Meredith,” Ava lied to him, and hated herself the moment the words were out of her mouth. She had never done that before. She had always been truthful in their relationship, and her confusion over Peter was slowly turning her into someone different, a person she’d never been before, to protect what she felt for Peter and hide it from Joel. “How did your meeting go?” She was always interested in his business, and impressed by how creative he was in his field. He was a genius in the Internet world.

“It went great.” He smiled at her. “We’re buying three new Internet companies and absorbing them to wipe out the competition. Everyone’s happy with the deal. We’re going to London and Berlin next week by the way, and New York on the way back.” He always told her, he didn’t ask her. She had no voice in the matter, and followed him everywhere, and he let her shop to her heart’s content. She didn’t take undue advantage of it. It was one of the perks of being with him. She knew that one of these days she’d have to give that up. Hearing about their trip made her heart race, and all she wanted was to find an excuse not to go. It would give her time to be with Peter, and maybe figure things out.

“I don’t think that’s smart, with the construction going on here. I think one of us needs to be here, to keep an eye on them, or they’ll never finish,” she said.

“That’s nice of you, but you don’t have to sacrifice yourself to sit here with the workmen. The contractor can do it.”

“I think I’d rather be here,” she said, and he smiled and walked over to kiss her, and then they walked upstairs to their bedroom, and that was getting harder too. She felt like a liar and a fraud all the time now. Peter was in her heart and mind, and Joel didn’t deserve her lies to him. She knew she couldn’t go on this way for long.

“Are you okay?” he questioned her. She seemed quiet lately, or distracted. He wondered if they were approaching the witching hour when things turned serious, and girls forgot his warnings in the beginning, when he told them he would never marry them. It usually happened when they were around Ava’s age, twenty-nine or thirty. He hoped it wasn’t happening to them yet. He enjoyed her more than most of her predecessors, but not enough to want a future with her. And if she pressed him, he knew he’d run.

“I’m just tired,” she said vaguely, “and the dust gives me a headache. Everything is such a mess.”

“They’ll be finished soon. Maybe we should go to Paris for a weekend, before New York.” He was considerate of her, and thoughtful, to a point. In the end, it was all about him, which was why she was there, to entertain him sexually and otherwise. But he held up his end of the deal and gave her a golden life.

“Let’s see how the repairs are going by then,” she said, clinging desperately to the only excuse she could think of for not going with him. He didn’t answer, went to take a shower, and came to bed. She was in tears while he was in the bathroom, and forced a smile when he got back, as he walked naked across the bedroom. He had a fabulous body, tall and powerful, and in good shape. He worked hard at it with his trainer. He spent enough time at the gym to keep it that way. Peter was more human and what she loved about him had nothing to do with how fit he was, or his muscles, although he was good-looking too. But he was real. Her relationship with Joel had been satisfying for two years, but seemed superficial to her now, and artificial, and with her recent lies, fraudulent. She was the fraud. Joel had always been honest and straightforward with her about what he would never offer her. He believed in truth in advertising, and never promised what he didn’t intend to deliver. What it boiled down to was that Peter had heart. Joel didn’t.

He was quiet for a minute when he got into bed, and then asked her a question she didn’t understand at first.