Free What is Love? by Tessa Saks Page B

wasn’t there, we were in for a rocky time,” Jonathan had
said with a laugh. “Ellen packed everything for the perfect getaway—then, to
have to wear the same outfit or worse, buy clothes that didn’t fit her
properly—she needs special alterations, you see—and to not have her creams and
jars of God knows what.”
    Sam smiled,
relishing in the images of his wife panicked, all over nothing.
    “If that wasn’t bad
enough, we arrive at the resort and Ellen is arguing with the check-in guy.
Seems they messed up and because of our delay waiting for Ellen’s nonexistent
luggage, they gave our room away.”
    “No!”
    “It would have been
fine, it’s a fantastic hotel with many other good rooms, except Ellen wanted
everything to be just right, planned it all so perfectly , and this was
going to ruin everything, so she demanded they move the other couple out of our
villa.
    “They would do
that?”
    “As luck would have
it, the other couple turned out to be Mr. and Mrs. Z.”
    “Who?”
    “Laurence and
Mildred Zeigler—the most important couple in New York, at least according to
Ellen and all her shallow friends. So Mrs. Zeigler stood beside her at the
desk, right at the very moment Ellen was having her fit, insisting that they
move the other couple to another villa. Then Mrs. Z spoke and it became
apparent just who this other couple was. Poor Ellen almost fainted.”
    “So you didn’t get
the room?”
    “Rooms. The damn
thing is seven thousand square feet and sleeps fourteen. Why we needed that
much space, I’ll never understand. No, we ended up in a much smaller two-story
penthouse, only four bedrooms instead of seven, one servant instead of four. We
spent the next nine days trying to be near the Zeiglers. At least, she tried. I
was busy having fun while she was running around, all uptight, worrying what to
wear, where to be and what to say to impress that ridiculous lady.”
    “She left you
alone—on your romantic getaway?”
    “Yes, much of the
time. Frankly, it was a relief. The time spent around her is always irritating.
She’s never happy, no matter what we are doing. The ever-ready critic is always
turned on. ‘This food is well below five star. The bed is too firm; the water
is too cold; the beach is too windy; the mosquitoes are horrendous; the service
is too slow’—shall I go on?”
    Sam couldn’t hold
back her laughter. “Oh my God. So what did you do the whole time? She sounds
like a total bag.”
    “No, not like that.
She means well. She just wants everything to be perfect, the way she has
imagined it. But it never is. Life never is. It never could be. I swear, life
is a constant source of disappointment. Even her children are big
disappointments.”
    Sam had had enough
of hearing about the bitch. She had hung up, savoring the hilarious moments of
his wife’s pathetic attempt to seduce her husband. Some kind of trip. Nothing
she would’ve done. No, she would’ve had him eating out of her hand and begging
for more.
    Sam arrived at the
door to the restaurant and snapped back to reality. Their trip had sounded like
the disaster she had hoped for, even better in fact. Perhaps he’s closer to
leaving her now. Sam smiled. She thought about all the things that she could do
to make him feel better.
    As she opened the
door, she felt a growing eagerness. Her future was about to improve. Now if
only Jonathan would prove it to her by committing, she could relax and start
planning their future—a money-filled, status-filled, worry-free future.
    ***
    Ellen sat in the
waiting room of her expensive marriage counselor, waiting for Jonathan to
arrive. Their plan was to meet for lunch first and then go to their first
counseling session, but instead, he called to say he couldn’t make the lunch
and would meet her here, at Dr. Morris’s office. Typical, she thought,
as she flipped through the magazine on her lap with speed and indifference, he’s
always on time for work and everything else he does,