Part 11 (1/2)

”But it's okay down here?”

”It's fine.”

I looked around. The bas.e.m.e.nt windows were blacked out. I didn't see any other holes or vantage point. They had put up drywall to separate the finished from unfinished, pretty much a nice, cushy TV room reflected by a cold, concrete echo chamber where they did laundry.

I said, ”No one can film you down here.”

That got her attention. Her head flicked up, eyes astonished. ”You know about that? Fran told you?”

I shook my head, then sat beside her. ”No, I had to find out another way. Thanks for telling her I was out on that date, by the way.”

”Please, I'm sorry. This is all really delicate. I didn't mean to.”

”Well, the only reason I know as much as I do is because of that. I caught Alice in my home. She was trying to remove some papers Fran was worried about.”

”You're kidding me? She never said...” Open-mouthed shock.

I let her absorb it before saying, ”Tell me about what happened to you guys.”

She was very tense, like she needed a cigarette. I knew she didn't smoke, though. She was health-conscious. Didn't drink much either. But I would've bet right then that if I'd offered her one or the other, she would've clung to it like a warm blanket.

”Okay,” she said. ”Okay. I thought you knew all about it. That you knew about Fran and the group, but just had no interest in it. It seemed strange. I mean, after all, you seemed man enough. Okay, maybe a bit too sensitive. But a poet! Of course a poet would want in on this.”

”I had no idea.”

”Look, please don't think of me like that, either. It sounded so wrong at first, and then Ashton talked me into it. He said, you know, we've been together ten years, and we know we're right for each other. We know we can be faithful, so why not just have some fun, make friends, and see where it goes?” She huffed.

”What?”

”Let's just say that it seemed certain women got more attention. And certain men were awful. They smelled, or they weren't very good, or they wanted it to be like some p.o.r.n movie. I wish I had known.” She s.h.i.+vered. ”I love s.e.x. Really. And I loved it with my husband. And I had a couple of threesomes and encounters back in college that were okay, but I wasn't truly comfortable with the group. When it was bad, it was bad. You never saw anyone else complaining, so you went with the flow.”

”And you didn't want to watch yourself, or think about anyone watching you.”

She couldn't stop moving her hands, up and down her jeans, to her knee, up her thigh, to her knee, and so on. The little dog hopped into her lap, ears down and back, and she began petting it, faster and faster as we spoke. I was afraid she would set fire to the dog with friction.

I hadn't really ever noticed her until then-jeans a little tight, an orange pullover polo, barefoot. Her hair was held back with a stretchy, but wisps of it had escaped and floated across her brow. She had simple, Mid-American Soccer MILF good looks, but not really a MILF because she'd never had kids. She didn't have the confidence to know just how s.e.xy she was. Before, I had always seen her as plain, but something about this version-the one with the secret-made my throat thicken. Same thing down below. I s.h.i.+fted positions to hide it. The dog growled at me.

She shushed him and said, ”I've never even considered taping it. Why would anyone? I didn't understand. I didn't think Ashton was like that either, but you can only know so much about a person, I guess. He didn't seem the p.o.r.n type.”

Then she laughed, relaxed, even reached over and touched my shoulder.

”I mean, sure, like, photos. A couple of photos maybe. Me coming out of the shower, or with my robe open. For him, see? Not for anyone else. G.o.d, you must think I'm awful. So stupid.”

”No, what are you talking about? You're fine. I think if adults want to do that sort of thing with their friends, it's their business. But Carl took it too far.”

”Yes. Exactly.”

”Did you ever get to see any of these tapes?”

She shooed the dog away and curled her legs up under her. ”Ashton came home, beet red. It was bad. He didn't want to talk to me. He had a DVD in his hand. Nothing written on it, no labels on the case.”

”That was it?”

”He walked over and stuck it into the DVD player without saying anything. Then he left the room. I started after him, but then there I was, completely naked, up on my knees, Professor Hudgins going at me from behind. Worse, it had music. It had been put together, like a greatest hits package, a few seconds of this, some of that. Carl actually edited our p.o.r.n video! It made me sick. Then...” She stopped, looked away.

I said, ”I know what they did. I'm just as much a victim.”

She looked at me. ”No one stuck their p.e.n.i.ses in you.”

”No...but they sure did Frannie, and I had no idea. Not one iota.”

Stephanie shook her head. ”Must have been nice, not knowing.”

”I thought we were having a rough patch, that's all. But now I feel like everyone's been having a laugh over me.”

She reached for my hand and interlaced her fingers in mine. ”No, no, maybe those...a.s.sholes. Maybe Fran. But most of us really feel for you. We're on your side. There's just nothing we can do.”

I grinned for her, thanked her. Another moment of quiet, blinking at each other, holding hands. I hadn't noticed until then that we had moved closer together, enough so that I slipped my arm around her. She didn't move away, didn't protest.

”Tell me what else he had on the DVD.”

”He edited it to make it look as if Ashton had done it, like it was our own private video. So right there Carl was covering his backside. But...I had no idea he had us followed. I mean, so I had arranged to meet with a few people outside the group. Um...I don't know how much of this you want to hear, Mick.”

”All of it.”

”But-”

”All of it. Don't worry about me.”

”Fran. I hooked up with Fran. Here, at the house. And he even had that. Someone looking in a window, I thought at first. But we were upstairs. Ashton checked later and found it.”

”A camera?”

”Hidden in the corner. Someone had drilled a hole, placed it in the attic, and we had no idea. The attic. We barely have a crawls.p.a.ce there, but someone took their precious time installing the d.a.m.ned thing.”

I'd heard her, but I was numb by then. I thought nothing about Fran could shock me anymore. ”With Fran, this was just you and her?”

”Once or twice, to see if we were comfortable with it. We weren't, though. It was very awkward, trying to, you know, go down on one of your closest friends, then trying to laugh it off after. Oh G.o.d, watching it on video...I was crying by then, and Ashton came back to explain. And it wasn't just the standard blackmail, like with the others. Carl had some real problems with Ashton, and warned him off.”

”What do you mean? Warned him off of...someone?”

Stephanie closed her eyes, knitted her eyebrows. ”Why me? I thought you knew a lot more than this. Why am I the one who has to tell you?”

”Stephanie, please.”

She turned to me, eye to eye. ”Fran again. Don't you know? Everyone loved Fran. She and Ashton, things between them, it wasn't about s.e.x anymore, okay? They were talking about leaving us. Well, us and Carl. Leaving the group for each other. I never realized...I thought it was just a little s.e.x. Spice our marriage up.”

Okay, so Frances had one or two tricks left up her sleeve. Leaving me for Carl, well, okay. That seemed shallow, more about power and status than real emotion. But Ashton? That sounded romantic. Something deeply felt, precious. It couldn't compare to the love built up in a long-term marriage, so I thought, but as a way to shake you up, make you reconsider...if only the Provost hadn't been turning this into his own private soap opera.