Private Relations Read Online Free Page A

tell you right now I am starving.”
    “Burger and fries it is, then. With a Coca-Cola and some ice cream for dessert.”
    I smiled on the inside. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one who’d held onto our memories together.
    “I guess we both remember more than we’d like to admit,” I said. “Too bad I don’t even know where to begin now.”
    “What do you mean?”
    I arched my eyebrows. “Seriously?”
    “You mean Eric and me? Clearly, it’s complicated. Yes, he’s gay. But believe it or not but I didn’t know that when we got married.”
    I wasn’t sure whether I could believe her, but I decided to keep listening. She sang his praises: handsome, charming, a Wharton graduate with a dual degree in international finance and economics. He even spoke Mandarin Chinese, which came in handy when he had to go to Shanghai for business. Wonderful as he was, after a few years of marriage, she started noticing things.
    “Sometimes, it would be the way he looked at other men,” she said. “The way his eyes would linger a little too long on them. I shrugged it off, told myself that maybe he was just feeling competitive.”
    “Competitive?” I asked.
    “He’s insane, Jesse. I’ve never seen someone so insecure. Seeing you again just reminded me how different the two of you are. The way you sauntered into the hotel bar, walked right over to our table? The way you maintained your cool even when you recognized me and knew something was up?”
    “For the record, I was terrified.” The waitress returned with our food, then quickly disappeared. I nibbled on a french fry, my appetite suddenly waning.
    “It didn’t show,” Vanessa offered.
    “Thanks.”
    I picked up my burger and was about to take a bite, when I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and ask Vanessa why she bothered staying with Eric at all. How could she? I wasn’t a homophobe -- clearly -- but why the hell would she stay with a man who couldn’t possibly love her the way a husband should?
    “I need him,” she said. “You don’t understand…”
    “What is it, Vanessa? The money? You don’t need it; you have your own.”
    “No, I don’t.”
    “Yes, you do. Hell, I’ve been to your parents’ house, remember?”
    She looked at me, incredulous. “You can’t be serious, can you? My father’s in jail. He’d been bilking his clients for years, and the Feds finally caught on. After the civil suits came rolling in, we lost everything.”

 
    Chapter 5

 
 
 
    We’d left the diner and walked to Battery Park.
    Located at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, Battery Park was a twenty-five acre slice of green in an otherwise concrete jungle. One could sit on a bench along the esplanade and watch the water taxis cruise along the Hudson River or the sailboats pull into the harbor. Sunlight glinted off the skyscrapers of the up-and-coming Jersey City, and children’s laughter filtered through the air.
    If I ever got married and had kids, they would be raised right here.
    “This is nice,” Vanessa said. “Beautiful, actually.”
    “Sometimes I forget that I’m even in New York. And it’s a hell of a lot closer than Central Park.”
    A brother-sister duo, no older than four or five, ran past us in their winter coats. Their squeals and cries dripped with joy, a subtle reminder that children were capable of being adorable under certain conditions. A smile spread across my face, at which point I felt Vanessa staring at me intently. I all but waited for her to make a joke about my biological clock ticking away, but she didn’t utter a word.
    The memory of our own impending parenthood hung in the air between us, until I finally brought it to the forefront.
    “We weren’t ready, Vanessa. I understand that. And I understand why you had the abortion. Even if it hurt that you didn’t tell me you were pregnant.”
    She slid closer beside me, and before I knew it I’d wrapped my arm around her shoulders. It was mid-December in Manhattan, the