Free In From the Cold by Meg Adams

comfort.
    I scooched closer and pulled playfully on her shoe. She blinked at my hand.
    “Are you doing okay so far? With the questions?”
    She rubbed her ear nervously. “I think so.”
    “Then name two not-so-good things.” I slid her felt clog off and massaged her foot. I needed to touch her. “Does that feel okay?”
    She closed her eyes and smiled. “Hmmm, yeah. That feels great.”
    I lifted her feet into my lap and started massaging them one at a time. Part of me felt pathetic, so desperate to touch her that I was resorting to toes now, but another part felt really good, comfortable and intimate. She relaxed another notch. My instincts told me I was on the right track.
    “Still good?” I asked.
    She wiggled her toes. “Great.”
    “Okay. Now two not-so-good.”
    She balled her hands into fists and clutched her pillow again. Her voice was so low I could barely hear her.
    “He cheated with my best friend and later tried to rape me.”
    The need to pound the bastard into the ground gripped me, but I willed myself to stay calm and not spook her. I kept stroking her feet, angry, yet saddened too, and honestly, not terribly surprised. I knew from the other night something traumatic had happened, way beyond a simple breakup. I also knew she would love, when she loved, completely, passionately, and with all her trust. The fires of such a betrayal would annihilate her.
    She hid her face in her pillow for several minutes, and I gave her time, caressing her feet. I wanted her to feel my comfort, that she wasn’t alone. Finally, she seemed a little calmer.
    “Feel better?” I asked gently, still massaging her feet.
    She assessed herself again, then nodded, and a tentative smile warmed her face. “Actually, I feel a lot better. I’ve never talked about this before.”
    “I’m sure it’s hard to.”
    “It…the whole thing…devastated me. The last two years have been really hard, so hard I gave up teaching and moved in with my sister.”
    “And you’ve been there ever since?”
    “Until this job came up. She’s been great, her whole family has, but I thought it might be time.” She sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Now I’m not so sure.”
    I thought carefully before I spoke again, afraid to say the wrong thing. “May I share something with you? My two not-so-good?” I focused on my fingers still kneading her toes.
    “Of course.”
    “Wanda cheated on me with my best friend, Miles.”
    She stiffened.
    “And she tried to destroy my company.” I clutched her foot. It hurt. After all this time, it still hurt like a son of a bitch. “We’d been married for six years. I had suspected the cheating, but I never thought she’d betray my work.”
    “What did she do?”
    “She stole some important marketing bids from me and sold the information to my competition. She laughed when she told me, as if I were a fool for not suspecting her all along.”
    I looked at Claire, at her pillow and her red-rimmed eyes, then back at the fire, reliving the pain.
    Yeah, I knew what betrayal felt like.
    “And Miles?”
    “I’ve never really blamed him. I knew what he was. I’m sure she offered and he took. End of story.” I didn’t need to tell her Miles didn’t have a conscience, never had. I’d watched him sucker punch others our entire lives, but never thought he’d do it to me.
    It was the sucker punch to end all sucker punches, a one-two knockout. But I still had Suzie in my corner.
    “And you had Suzie, so you couldn’t just walk away.” Claire reached out and touched my cheek.
    “Nope. Couldn’t. Still can’t. And I feel gut-kicked every time I have to see Wanda or Miles.”
    Claire withdrew her feet from my lap, then slid over and hugged me. “You’re not a fool,” she whispered.
    I put my arms around her and we held each other, sharing our pain, our devastation at the hands of others for a little while. For the first time in years, the hole in my chest didn’t throb with pain. It felt like a