Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Chapter 40

Mary Beth was waiting when Tricia pulled up to the restaurant. They exchanged hugs, Mary Beth was big on hugging everybody. Tricia thought maybe it went with the slight southern accent she still had even after all these years of living in Ohio instead of Alabama. Matty put up with being hugged somewhat impatiently. He was obviously antsy to get inside.

“I get a milkshake cuz I was good for gramma and grampa!” Matty told Mary Beth as he pulled Tricia by the hand toward the door.

“Good for you Matty!” Mary Beth said with a smile. “But you are going to eat all your lunch first right?”

Matty nodded vigorously.

As they stood in line ordering Tricia said, “I can’t believe you suggested McDonalds. We could have gone to a real restaurant.”

“I was being sneaky,” Mary Beth said with a smile. “I want to hear about your trip and I knew that this is the only way I’ll get time even close to alone with you for a few days at least. Here Matty gets a meal he will eat happily and can go play on the playground while we talk. If we go to a real restaurant he’d pick through his food and be bouncing off the walls with boredom in fifteen minutes.”

Tricia had to smile, knowing she was right. “Well I guess you learned something raising three kids.” Mary Beth was roughly the same age as Tricia, a few years older at forty five. She had started young though having kids and was probably soon going to be a grandmother even.

“You bet your ass I did,” Mary Beth chuckled.

It was their turn in line and they ordered and took their food to a table overlooking the playground. Matty turned his attention right to eating. He knew better than to even ask about going to play until he’d finished eating.

Mary Beth, watching him, said, “You know I never got any of mine not to whine to go play instead of eating like I wanted them to.”

“I think I wore him down,” Tricia giggled. “He’s only six but he’s smart. He also knows his mom is stubborn. Besides you had three kids and they all ganged up on you.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

“Did you ever leave yours alone with somebody when they were Matty’s age?” Tricia asked.

Mary Beth looked at Tricia with a smile. “Would you STOP worrying already? Your parents adore Matty. Even your dad seems to. Does it look like he suffered?”

Tricia shook her head sheepishly.

“Ok so get off the guilt train girl,” Mary Beth said. “Be glad you have only one, at least right now. It gets real hard to find anybody who can or will take three if you want some kind of a getaway. You have been lucky to have your parents close and willing to take Matty so you and Matt could get away for a weekend every now and then.”

“I know,” Tricia said. “But isn’t it natural for a mother to worry?”

“Natural maybe, sensible no. Your parents raised you just fine and they are still healthy and easily up to taking great care of Matty.”

“Ok,” Tricia said holding her hands up. “You’re right.”

By now Matty had wolfed down his food and had worked his way through part of his milkshake. “Mom. Can I go play now? I want to save this. I’ll be real hot later and it will be good then.”

Tricia’s first instinct was to tell him to finish everything but then she shrugged telling herself he’d eaten all the real food, such as it was. “It’ll be melted whenyou’re done playing.”

“It’ll still be cold won’t it? Please?”

“Ok Matty. Play nice.”

Matty was off like a shot and Tricia and Mary Beth watched him stuff his shoes in one of the little cubbies then climb into the playground.

“Now,” Mary Beth said between bites of the salad she was eating. “Tell me all about it. I want all the dirt.”

“There is no dirt,” Tricia said, knowing that was not entirely true. “I went to play poker and I played poker. I was nervous as hell at first. It was really intimidating how big it was and how busy. I got amazingly comfortable there though by the end and I was actually sort of sorry to come home in a way. Is that terrible?”

“Why should it be? From what I’ve heard you did great! I can’t believe you won $14,000!”

“Well not all of that I got to keep and the IRS will get their share. I cashed in another event and some satellites and did good in cash games so I’ve definitely got enough to do it again.”

Mary Beth was shaking her head. “That’s great but do you mean you went all that way, spent two weeks away from your family and did no partying? There has to be some dirt!”

“And you’d have been partying every night? Maybe finding all the wild orgies in town?”

“I’m talking about you not me.” Mary Beth laughed. “I am old. Hell I’ll probably be a grandmother before long the way Brian and Dawn are talking. My days to howl are over I think.”

“Well I’m not that much younger,” Tricia said. “I did party some but not like you think.”

“Well tell me and I’ll decide.”

“Well I met this guy named Kevin James,” Tricia said, trying to decide how to tell Mary Beth about him without mentioning Jaime. She didn’t think she wanted to go there, even with Mary Beth. It was something she’d been thinking about for a long time and for the time being she had decided nobody would know she’d seen Jaime again, even Mary Beth who knew all about him.

“That sounds encouraging!” Mary Beth said. “Is he cute?”

Tricia shook her head and laughed. “Well actually he is. He’s also a decade younger than I am. His interest in me was purely professional. He is one of the pro’s I met. He’s a very good player and a good teacher. I guess, for whatever reason, he sort of took me under his wing. He’s done it for several players. He has sponsorship deals with some of them.”

“Took you under his wing huh?”

“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Tricia grinned. “After one of his guys did real good in a tournament I’d been in he took me and two of his guys out to dinner for sort of a celebration. It was not a party though exactly. It was also sort of an analysis session. It was a real eye opener to see how professionals think about the game.”

“God you really did go just for the poker didn’t you?” Mary Beth said shaking her head. “That is so sick.”

Tricia laughed at her friend. “Well there were a couple of real parties if that will make you feel better. Kevin threw one after I placed second in the Ladies Event. I found out I’m too old for that. I drank way too much and paid the price for it the next day.”

“And did you wake up in your own bed the next day?” Mary Beth asked, a teasing look on her face.

“Not only did I wake up in my own bed but I woke up alone. Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Awww Tricia you know I’m kidding,” Mary Beth said. “A girl can dream though.”

“And you’d cheat on Dutch if you went to a party without him and had the chance?”

Mary Beth shrugged. “Well I never have. You’re living proof that it could happen to anybody. I’d have never in a million years figured you’d have done it eight years ago.”

Tricia had heard that a lot. She supposed it was a compliment although it sometimes came across sounding like people were saying she was so boring it was amazing she’d ever stepped out of line.

“Well I did. And if I did then yeah you could. Hell maybe if you’d been at one of the parties there you would have. There were some good looking guys there. Good looking women there if you wanted to experiment.”

Mary Beth nearly choked. “Tricia!”

“Well you never know,” Tricia said innocently. “You’re the one with who reads all those magazines. I remember that one article you showed me a couple years ago with that survey about whether you’d ever kissed another woman. Maybe you decided to try it.”

“You’d be the first to know,” Mary Beth said, sensually in a deep southern accent.

Tricia sputtered at that and then Mary Beth was unable to keep from grinning.

“Ok,” she said, “Now we’re even.”

“I should know better than to try to tease you. It always bites me in the ass.”

“Yes it does,” Mary Beth said smugly.

“On the same subject though the woman who beat me in the Ladies Event, Carmen Cruz, is the one who Matt always drools over if she’s playing when I’m watching poker on TV. I swear he only watches with me when she’d playing. Of course she is good looking and she does dress real sexy. Too bad for him but they told me later that she is a lesbian.”

“Really?” Mary Beth said. “If it was a guy who told you that he probably just got turned down when he asked her out and that is how he justifies it.”

Tricia chuckled. “Well maybe but I heard it from at least one woman too.”

“And did she have direct knowledge of that?” Mary Beth asked.

“I wondered that at the time,” Tricia mused, thinking of Carolyn and the way she’d talked to Carmen and about Carmen after she was alone with Tricia. “I don’t know but I’d rate it as possible. The woman was a lawyer who ended up chucking her former life and taking up poker. I guess her husband ended up getting arrested among other things, I don’t know the details but it sounded like a mess. I take it she kind of went a little wild for a while.”

“Well good for her,” Mary Beth said with a sigh. “There are times I’d like to chuck it all. I’ve been married to Dutch for over half my life. My kids are all grown now. Dutch seems to be spending more and more time being a dickhead. This empty nest thing is kinda sucking.”

Tricia looked up sharply at the bitter tone in Mary Beth’s voice. “I thought you were enjoying trying to get your decorating business going. Are you still thinking about opening a real office or the shop you were talking about?”

Mary Beth shrugged. “Hell I don’t know. Dutch keeps saying I don’t need to work so why should I? I swear it’s like he thinks people will see that I went back to work after all these years as a stay at home mom and think it’s because he’s not doing good.”

“I’ve talked to other women whose husbands were like that,” Tricia admitted. “I couldeven see Matt having that attitude. Sometimes I think he wanted to have kids so I could be a stay at home mom and he could be the sole provider.”

“I swear sometimes I think all men are one step up from cave men.” Mary Beth sighed. “Matt is a lot better than Dutch. Hell if I’d gone somewhere for two weeks he never would have thought to do something nice for me like Matt did. I’d have gotten back and the house would have been a pig sty.”

“He can be sweet sometimes,” Tricia admitted. “I thought the whole time I was gone that he was fooling around or something. Then I get back and he’s build my sun porch. Boy was I wrong.”

Tricia then looked at Mary Beth and smiled. “I bet somebody helped him clean the house though. It had to be either you or mom and I don’t think he’d have asked my mom.”

“Why couldn’t he have done it himself?” Mary Beth asked. The look on her face totally gave away to Tricia that it had been her though.

“He could have had it fairly neat but not clean like that. Hell parts of it were cleaner than I manage to keep it,” Tricia said. “Just fess up. I’m not jealous. Hell you can clean my house anytime you want.”

Mary Beth laughed. “Screw you! Ok so I cleaned some. He was worried about it and he did try to clean it. Hell he did tons better than Dutch could have. He’s still a guy though and guys can’t clean anything really clean. You know that.”

Tricia laughed. “I know. And thank you very much. I was not looking forward to getting home after two weeks and having to clean up a mess. I owe you one.”

“You don’t owe me anything. What are friends for?”

Tricia and Mary Beth exchanged smiles.

Tricia was still worried about the wayMary Beth had been talking earlier about her life. “Are you and Dutch having that much trouble? Is there anything more you want to talk about? Maybe it will help to talk about it?”

Mary Beth waved her concern aside. “Oh Hell. I was just making noise. We’ve been married this long, we’ll be married forever. It’s not like he hasn’t always loved fishing more than me. Half the time he drags Matt with him for crying out loud. Next time he does we should have a woman’s weekend if you can get your parents to watch Matty.”

“That’s a great idea,” Tricia said. “We’ll do that.”

“Now tell me more about your trip. I want details. There has to be good stuff you haven’t told me.” Mary Beth said.

Tricia spent the next half hour giving a condensed and highly edited version of her trip. She mentioned Rick but not anything other than their first dinner together in his room during the tournament, the innocent one. She came close to mentioning Jaime a couple of times but managed not to and not to, apparently, make Mary Beth suspicious.

They were interrupted by a beeping coming from Mary Beth’s purse. She dug into it and pulled out her Blackberry.

“Well shoot,” Mary Beth said. “I can’t believe we have been here this long. I hate to do it but I have to go. I’ve got an appointment across town in half an hour.”

“That’s ok,” Tricia said. “You should come over sometime we can go in the hot tub.”

“I will take you up on that,” Mary Beth told her. “It looks great. I bet you and Matt had fun last night didn’t you?”

Tricia blushed which was all the answer Mary Beth appeared to need. She gave Tricia a quick kiss on the cheek as they said their goodbyes and headed to her car while Tricia went to try to convince Matty it was time to go.

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