Free Dream Lover by Suzanne Jenkins Page B

you’re scaring me!” Melissa yelled.
    “Well, I’m sorry; I don’t know any other way to do it. I would rather not come into the city. Do you think you could come here to me?”
    “I don’t drive,” Melissa said.
    “You live in the Bronx, correct?” Pam asked.
    “How’d you know that?” Melissa countered.
    “I recognized the exchange. But I have your address from funeral flowers. Did you get my thank-you card?” There was silence. “You can take the train to Long Island.”
    “I do remember. The card, I mean. I guess I could take the train.”
    Pam told her what train to take and she agreed to come.
    “I have a class in the morning,” Melissa said, and Pam’s heart sank. He’d been sleeping with students?
    “What year are you in?” Pam asked.
    “I teach at the community college up here,” Melissa answered and Pam tried not to sigh audibly with relief. They hung up. Although she felt ill, sick to her stomach, her bowels rumbling Pam knew she was doing the right thing. She’d tell Melissa and then she’d let the Department of Health know; they could question her about with whom she had been sleeping. It wasn’t Pam’s business.
    Pam started thinking about the cell phone and the contacts. She made herself a cup of tea. She sat at the counter in her perfect kitchen and started to scroll through the names, hundreds of them, all female. There were six Melissas. She put the phone down and looked up at the ceiling, laughing. Where the hell was I? And then she thought, He had Monday through Friday, every day, year after year after year, and evidently, while she was at home primping, he was with as many other women as he could pack in. How many did he have a day, and were they all sexual relationships? She decided she was going to call every one of those women. She’d call Maggie Daniel and tell her. She’d give her the contact information after she was done with it. But as Jack’s wife, she wanted to do the calling. It was her responsibility.

    Melissa’s brownstone in the Bronx was not what her friends expected when they went to see it for the first time. Thinking they would find a rundown, hippie hangout that smelled of incense and mold, reality was a shocker. Jack had bought her a large, restored Victorian. The interior was light-filled and modern, with subtle paint colors and spare but comfortable furniture. The bathrooms were huge marble-and-porcelain originals that craftsmen had taken the time to bring back to their former beauty. Across the back of the house was the large kitchen, a dream kitchen for a future cook. Although she knew she wouldn’t use it much, it raised the resale potential of the house.
    She had two housemates and their financial contribution made it possible for her to refrain from dipping into the money that Jack had given to her. For now.
    The next morning, she taught her class and when she was done for the day, left for Grand Central for a two-hour train ride. The car wasn’t crowded because it was the middle of the day. When she got to the station in Babylon, she called Pam as she had been asked to do. But Pam was waiting for her, sitting in the parking lot. Pam recognized Melissa right away. Against her will, she envisioned Jack and the tattooed woman naked together. A sneer of scorn went through the muscles in Pam’s face. Shocked, she pulled the rearview mirror down and rearranged her expression to the usual one of concern. She got out of the car and went to Melissa. Melissa saw her walking toward her and didn’t know what to expect. Pam put out her hand to shake Melissa’s, smiling. She hid well her surprise at the girl’s appearance. All of those tattoos had been covered up somehow at the funeral. Back to her usual welcoming self, Pam led Melissa to the car. She unlocked the doors and they got in.
    “Thank you for coming,” Pam said. “Do you want to go to the house? Or do you want to talk in the car?”
    “I’d like to see the house. I feel like I know it