Даниэла Стил - The Affair

They went over the photographs together then, and Rose couldn’t help noticing Pascale’s flawless body. She circled the friendlier, more casual shots to include in the piece, eliminated the naked ones with a red “X,” and tried not to focus too much on her belly. Nicolas was sitting close to her in several of the shots. They selected one where she was dressed and you couldn’t see her belly at all. They were the most benign, least suggestive shots of the shoot, all in good taste.

The photos she chose would illustrate the story well, but didn’t have the tabloid feel Rose wanted to avoid. She was thinking of both her daughter’s and the magazine’s best interests. She initialed what she had approved and felt sorry for her daughter to have her husband’s affair so blatantly exposed. Rose hoped she would be rid of him soon. The embarrassment and the pain had gone on long enough, and too many people were going to suffer. It had been mentioned in the interview, though, that Nicolas was still very close to his wife and daughters, and planned to stay that way. So he hadn’t betrayed her entirely. All she could hope now was that Nadia would divorce him in the near future. He might not be an evil man, plotting to destroy her with heartless cruelty and premeditated motives, but at best, he was certainly a fool.

Chapter 8

Joe went with Athena in their SUV to pick up Nadia and the girls at LAX when they arrived. He was a big, burly teddy bear of a man, and loved kids. He was the perfect partner for Athena. They looked just right together. Both were tall, heavyset, warm, jovial people who always had a smile on their lips and laughter in their eyes. He knew some of what had been happening to Nadia, but not all of it. Athena didn’t want to give away all of her sister’s secrets and confidences, but he knew enough to strongly disapprove of the mess Nicolas had gotten himself into. Joe had come into the family after Nadia had met Nicolas and was dating him. She had already been living in France for three years. He had been an usher in their wedding, and had always enjoyed being with them. Although he and Athena weren’t legally married, and didn’t want to be, they acted as though they were, and after so many years, Joe had a respected position in the family as her mate. He was five years younger than Athena, and was thirty-eight, four years younger than Nicolas but wiser about life. He’d never been married and had no children. He would have liked to have children, but Athena had been clear from the beginning that it wasn’t what she wanted, and he accepted that. He had enough nephews and nieces and friends’ children to satisfy him, and they had their dogs.

Nicolas was from an aristocratic family, and an only child. He had gone to the best schools in Paris, studied political science at a prestigious university, and had a master’s degree and the means and encouragement to pursue a career as a writer from a young age. He had never had to worry about how he would support himself.

Joe’s origins had been simpler and rougher, and more real. He was one of four siblings. His father had died when he was young. He had grown up in Michigan, had put himself through college, and worked from the time he was a teenager, at rugged jobs since he was big and strong. He had been a lumberjack, a stevedore, drove a truck while he was in college, and had discovered how much he loved to cook. He had gotten a job as a fireman, and was assigned cooking the meals at the firehouse when he was on duty, so he had a chance to hone his skills. He took several cooking classes, saved his money, quit his job, and went to Europe to work in restaurants in Italy and France, and finally became a master chef. He then moved to L.A. and started his own restaurant. He had met Athena on a cooking show, and they got along famously. They each felt as though they had found their other half. Athena had gone on to have her own successful TV show, while Joe preferred running his restaurant and having direct contact with clients. He also helped her run her vegetarian and vegan restaurants, which were popular lunch places, and much smaller operations than his. He was a smart businessman, a hard worker, and a warm, down-to-earth person. He had a natural instinct to protect people he cared about, so he hated to hear what Nicolas was putting Nadia through. Nicolas sounded like a spoiled boy to him, although he hadn’t thought of him that way before. He wanted to do everything he could to make Nadia and her daughters’ visit to L.A. as much fun as possible.

He had bought tickets to take them to a Dodgers game himself, and was hoping to have time to join them at Universal Studios. He knew Athena was taking them to Disneyland. It wasn’t going to compensate for their currently stressful home life, but he hoped that it would take some of the burden off Nadia, whom he liked a lot, and give them a chance to have some fun after two very tough months. He was aware that the girls didn’t know that their parents’ marriage was at risk. Athena had warned him, but he was sure that they sensed something, which was frightening for them too. He felt sorry for Nadia, and her kids.

He and Athena were both waiting as Nadia and the girls came through customs at LAX. He found a porter for them and folded them all into a big hug. He thought Nadia looked tired and stressed after the long plane ride from Paris, but the girls were happy and excited to be there, and Nadia smiled gratefully at him and her sister.

He took them out to dinner that night, at a restaurant with great burgers for the kids, and very good fare for the adults. They had several vegetarian options for Athena, and Joe ordered a steak.

“So how are my favorite French girls?” Joe asked all three of them. Nadia had lived there for so long that the whole family considered her more French than American now, and she did too.

“We are very good, and very happy to be here,” Sylvie said, pronouncing the words carefully with her French accent.

“And your English has gotten better,” he commended her and she grinned. “What about you?” He turned to Laure as she wrestled with an enormous burger with all the trimmings. She had ketchup all over her face.

“I want to see your dogs,” she enunciated carefully with a grin. She had recently lost her two front teeth.

“They’re excited about seeing you too. Especially Juanita and Chiquita. Your aunt Athena just bought them new ballet tutus.” He gave Athena a wry look and she laughed. “Hugo and Stanley are my guys,” the Lab and the mountain dog. “We go hunting together.” The weather was so warm that they swam in the pool after dinner at Athena’s sprawling ranch-style house in the hills above L.A.

Joe had his own small house he referred to as a “shack” in West Hollywood, but he hadn’t stayed there in years. He called it his “insurance policy” in case Athena ever threw him out. But Athena said they got along better than any of the married people she knew. “Why spoil a good thing?” she always said to her mother, when Rose suggested they get married. She’d finally stopped mentioning it. At forty-three, Athena knew what she wanted, and how she wanted to live. Since children weren’t on her wish list, getting married made no sense to her.

Athena had arranged a whole program for them in L.A. Since she wasn’t back on her show yet and was still on vacation, she had time to spend with them, and thoroughly enjoyed it. She took them to museums, Universal Studios, and Joe came with them as promised. Disneyland was the main event. Nadia and Athena walked all over with Sylvie and Laure, and they saw everything they wanted. Both girls fell asleep, exhausted, after the parade, on their way back to Athena’s house. They had stocked up on Disney pajamas, T-shirts, costumes, magic wands, and Minnie Mouse ears.