Maxine by SUE FINEMAN

know. When did you meet him?”
    “Last October, at a party.”
    He grabbed a can of soup and a can opener. “Did someone introduce you?”
    “No, he just... He seemed to seek me out. I remember being kind of surprised that he chose me.” There were so many beautiful women there that evening.
    Nick gazed at her face, his brows knit in confusion. “Why? Don’t other guys choose you?”
    “No. I’m not comfortable at parties. I’ve never been good with small talk, I hate petty gossip, and forget flirting. I don’t know how.”
    He opened the can and dumped the contents into a pan. “Then why go?”
    “This was a birthday party for a college friend. She insisted and I didn’t want to let her down.”
    “Did she invite this guy?”
    “I don’t think so.” There were a lot of people wandering in and out of the club that evening. Security was almost non-existent. Cara’s friend was a gregarious young woman with hundreds of friends. Nobody would have noticed a few extra people. Cara intended to make an appearance, wish her friend a happy birthday, and then leave. And then she met Lance.
    Cara watched Nick put the pan on the woodstove. “Lance has the most incredible blue eyes, hypnotic almost. He’s so charming he could have any woman he wanted. Other women at the party came on to him, but he stayed with me. I remember feeling embarrassed by all the attention.” She stared at her bare wedding ring finger. She’d taken her rings off and put them in the drawer beside the bed. Now they were buried in the collapsed cabin. “For the first time in my life, I felt pretty, worthy, desirable.”
    Nick squeezed her hand. “Cara, you are pretty, worthy, and desirable.”
    It was such a nice thing for him to say, she kissed him on the cheek. When she pulled back, he smiled and pointed to his lips. “You missed.”
    Nick was a great guy. “Your wife must have been crazy to leave you.”
    His smile faded. “She didn’t leave me, I threw her out, and we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you and your husband.”
    The mere mention of his wife made him bristle. She wondered what happened to make him hate her so much, but she couldn’t ask. “ My husband. God, how I hate that he’s my husband.”
    “Yeah, I know, but you didn’t always hate him or you wouldn’t have married the guy.”
    No, she didn’t always hate him. Until she heard him on the phone with his ‘honey,’ she thought she loved him. Now she knew he’d done a massive snow job on her, and she was so gullible she believed everything he said. He’d made her believe she could have a happy life with a loving husband and children, but everything was a lie, right from the start. She was too starry-eyed to see the real man.
    “In the beginning he was very sweet and understanding.”
    “Like me?”
    Not quite , she wanted to say. Nick was an uncut diamond. Lance was nothing but a polished imitation.
    He stirred the soup. “So you married the guy.”
    “Two months after we met, a week before Christmas. We eloped and I was in heaven.” She looked down. “I thought he loved me. I thought... It happened so fast I had no time for second thoughts.”
    “That’s what he wanted, Cara. He didn’t want you to have time to think about what you were doing. Did you have someone check him out?”
    “You mean like a security check?” Cara shook her head.
    “Do you have someone check out the people you hire?”
    “Of course. The house is filled with priceless art, paintings, and...” She lifted her hands and dropped them in her lap. “I don’t even have a prenuptial agreement.”
    “If you divorce him, he’ll still win, won’t he?”
    “He married me under false pretenses, Nick. I shouldn’t have to give him anything.”
    “You’ll have a fight on your hands.”
    “I know.” If only she knew how to fight. Running was more her style, but she couldn’t run forever. At some point she’d have to stop running and face