That evening, I told Irvin she wasn’t helpless.
“She’s manufacturing reasons to get you alone,” I said. “Nobody moves the same shelf back and forth because she desperately needs help.”
I had spent six years building it
He frowned. “You think she’s flirting with me?”
“I know she is.”
He promised he’d stop going over for every little request. I believed him because Irvin had never given me a reason not to.
Then Vanessa made sure there was no room left for doubt.
“You think she’s flirting with me?”
A few days later, she came over while Irvin was at work. We were sitting at my kitchen table when she took a sip of
coffee and smiled at me.
“I’m going to take your husband.”
For a second, I honestly thought she was joking. I laughed once. She didn’t.
“You should start preparing for divorce,” she continued. “Men get bored after that many years.”
I stared at her. “You came into my house to tell me that?”
“You should start preparing for divorce,”
“I’m being honest with you. Woman to woman.”
There was something almost casual about the way she said it, as though she were warning me about rain.
I stood and carried her untouched coffee to the sink.
“Then woman to woman,” I said, “you should go home.”
***
I told Irvin everything that night.
“I’m being honest with you. Woman to woman.”
His face changed the moment I repeated her words. “She actually said that?”
“Every word.”
“Then I’m done helping her.”
He meant it. When she called about a noise in
