Eva Mazza - Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch

John could not believe what he was hearing. He hated Jen for being such a baby; he hated Frankie for being such a tease; and he hated himself for his lack of will power to say no.

Frankie saw the terror on his face. “Let’s not panic unnecessarily. Your wife may have been able to salvage the shit she’s caused. She told Lee that she had given strict instructions not to be disturbed and that she had taken a sleeping tablet. She said that perhaps I had booked in to my own lodge.”

John looked at her unconvinced.

“It could work,” she continued. “I’ll tell him that that’s exactly what happened: that she didn’t want to be disturbed, so I decided to go into the city to shop and watch a movie. It is a half truth anyway. I did go shopping earlier this evening when he told me he was on his way to you. I couldn’t go back home because I was supposed to be with Jen.” She pressed up against him and placed her hand on his front. “And I was hell-bent on spending the night with you.” She laughed when she saw the worry on his face. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to phone Lee now to say I’m on my way back from the city and that Jen had wanted to be alone. I just need to take a quick shower.”

John was fascinated by how calm Frankie could be. It must come with years of practise . He looked at Frankie’s untouched meal and decided he’d eat it; she certainly wasn’t going to be staying. Although, one never could tell with Frankie.

Lee answered Frankie’s call immediately. She could hear the television in the background.

“Hi, darling, it’s me. I’m on my way back from Cape Town. I decided to take in a movie.”

“Hold on, I can hardly hear you.” She heard him rummaging for the remote. Then silence.

“You’re sounding upbeat,” Lee said. “Jen’s trying to reach you. I thought you were with her.” His tone was reproachful.

Frankie was defensive. “I know. That’s why I’m calling you. She told reception that she didn’t want to be disturbed. I tried to persuade them to let me see her, but they refused. So, I thought I’d go to the Waterfront and shop and perhaps go back to the spa later. Except, I decided that it was best for her to be alone. I went to see that show everyone’s raving about. The one that won the Oscar.”

“I thought we were going to see that together,” he said.

“I know, I know, but I was there, and our intentions are always good. It was great, and if you want to see it on the big screen, I’ll watch it with you a second time.”

There was a pause before he spoke.

“Listen, Frankie, Jen sounded pretty distraught.”

“Ya, I know,” she said, as she took out her clothes and toiletries from her overnight bag, in preparation for her shower. “I saw her messages as soon as I switched on my phone.”

“Did you manage to speak to her?”

“Ya. I did. She’ll be okay.” Frankie’s voice echoed in their friends’ bathroom. “She just needed a shoulder to cry on. She’s fine for the time being, I guess.”

Lee unpaused the programme he was watching.

“Okay, darling. Drive carefully. I’ll see you in about forty-five minutes.”

Frankie showered and dressed in the clothes she had laid out in Jen and John’s bathroom. She walked into John’s kitchen smelling of her signature perfume, Tom Ford’s Black Orchid. Her scent wafted in before she did.

“You greedy little pig!” she teased when she saw that he had eaten her food. He was sitting on the counter stool and she pressed up against him from behind.

“I could have you over and over again,” she said, cupping him until he was hard. She whispered, “I can feel that you concur. Well, at least John-John does.”

He turned around and pulled her towards him. “Do you think it’s ridiculous to give my dick a name?”

Frankie laughed. “I think it’s quite sexy. You were adamant I address your cock by its name. Why are you asking?”

John shrugged. Reluctantly, Frankie broke free. “I have to go, darling. Wifely duties an’ all.”

John laughed, and then became serious. “We have to stop this, Frankie. It’s getting too dangerous. We have to lie low for a while.”

“You see what you’ve done, John?” she said. “I’m actually pissed off with you. Why did you go and shag another woman? Especially Patty? The last thing we needed was for Jen to find out!”

John was taken aback. “How the fuck does this affect you?”

“Don’t be a fool, John. A paranoid wife becomes a snoop, which now makes our meetings more difficult.”

He kissed her. “I’m sorry. I suppose I never thought this through.”

Frankie loosened her hair from its high bun, letting it spill over her shoulders.

“I mean, seriously, do you think I’m jealous of Patty? I really don’t give a shit except that it affects us. I’m Jen’s best friend; you had to have known that meeting you on the pretext that I was visiting Jen was the only way we could do this? Especially since Lee apparently knows about my previous little dalliance.”

John pulled her towards him. “No, don’t,” she said. “I have to get back. The last thing I want is a divorce, John. This affair is as good as it’s ever going to get for us, and now you’ve compromised everything.”

With that, she pecked him on the cheek and walked out of the kitchen. She closed the front door gently behind her. She didn’t need those bloody ridgebacks to start barking at her and alert the staff of her presence; not that they didn’t know. Staff had the uncanny knack of knowing everything and saying nothing.

Frankie tiptoed into the bedroom in the early hours of Monday morning. She didn’t want to disturb Lee, who was lying asleep in bed, a glass of scotch on the bedside table and his glasses perched on the tip of his nose. He had been watching the crime channel, his nightly fix. She undressed quietly, leaving her clothes in a puddle on the floor and climbed naked into bed. She leaned over to remove his glasses and to extricate the television remote from his grip. As usual, as soon as she switched off the television, he woke up.

“You’re home,” he said sleepily.

“Yip, I am,” she said, straddling him to place his glasses and the remote next to his scotch. “Drinking in bed?”

He smiled. Frankie leaned in to kiss her husband, but he turned his face away from her. She’d be happy to go to sleep; she was dead tired. “I see you’re not in the mood.”

Lee placed both hands on her shoulders. “On the contrary, darling, I’m very much in the mood. I’m a very happy man.”

“Ah,” Frankie purred. “I love a happy man.” Maybe he had scored another million-dollar deal. Who knew? “Care to tell me why you’re so happy?”

“I will, in time. But in the meantime, Frankie,” she felt his hands move down her body and she had to control her impulse to reject him, “do what you do best.”

Frankie knew exactly what her husband meant, and so she remained straddled as she pretended to want him as much as he wanted her. I’m really tired and I’ve just had sex with your best friend. It felt wrong. His eyes were closed, and he had a gratified smirk on his face as his hands squeezed her buttocks while she guided him into her. Frankie thought of being with John, and the almost violent intensity of their sex aroused her. She moved more passionately, more vigorously now, but there still seemed to be no connection between them, so she leaned over to kiss him. As she did, he jerked her head backwards by her hair, away from his face.

“Let’s just stick to basics, okay?”

She wondered if it was his intention to make her feel like a whore, but she daren’t stop. She knew the rules and how to play by them. It felt like forever for her husband to climax and when he did, she climbed off him and picked up her clothes from the floor before padding to the bathroom to shower. He had humiliated her. He’d been almost cruel, and she couldn’t help but feel hurt. She had hoped he would be asleep when she got back into bed, but he had rolled onto his side, head propped up against his hand.