The Housewife(53)

“Why are you here?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest like she’s cold, like she wants to cover herself up.

I give her an up-down look. She’s wearing a tight red skirt, a dark-gold silk top with a shoulder strap that falls over her shoulder, no bra, and pink sandals with heels as long as my forearm.

“Why are you here?” I say, taking off my cap and gloves and shoving them in the pocket of my jacket.

She cranes her neck to look out the window. “Where’s Roy?”

“Roy’s not coming.”

“Why not?”

“Am I going crazy here? Are you actually Veronica? ”

She hesitates, then raises her arms and lets them drop. “Okay, fine. I’m Veronica.”

A wave of vertigo hits me. “I don’t understand…”

And then, adding to my humiliation, I feel the corners of my mouth turn down. Because the truth is, I liked Erin. I thought we were going to be friends, notwithstanding the way she handled my revelation earlier. I’d put that down to shock. But now, I realize, she was hanging on to my every word so she could tell Roy later.

I close my eyes, shake my head. “Okay. Let’s back up. How did you happen to meet me that first time in the bathroom? Did you stalk me? Did you follow me?”

She glances down at her fingernails and pulls at bits of skin. “I recognized you when your car broke down. I was just out on my jog. I was curious. I saw you were upset, and yes, I followed you into the bathroom,” she says with a shrug.

“But…how did you know who I was?”

“I’ve seen photos from your wedding. My friend Meredith posted them all over her Insta stories.”

“Really? Well, that’s funny, because I’ve never seen a single photo of you. There are no photos of you in the house, Erin. None. Zero. What does that say, Erin? Can I keep calling you Erin?”

She looks very nervous. “Yes…”

“Why call yourself Erin anyway?”

She gives a one-shoulder shrug. “It was a nickname when I was a child. My sister used to call me that.”

“That’s nice. My sister used to call me Jo. What about that story you told me about your boyfriend dropping you for a pretty young thing, you having a bad day and all that, was any of that true?”

She’s still staring at her hands.

“Oh, Erin.” I shake my head. “That was about you and Roy, wasn’t it. And I am the pretty young thing.”

“How do you think I felt?” she snaps. “We were all set to get engaged and then you came along.”

“It’s the way of the world, Erin. It’s not my fault if men are hardwired to fall for young, virginal creatures who want nothing more than to wash their underwear and bear their children.”

“Except you tricked him by pretending to be pregnant.”

I raise a finger. “Actually, he was going to dump you anyway. He told me.

She looks at me with disgust. A fat tear pools and falls down her cheek. She wipes it roughly with the back of her hand.

“You have no idea what I did for that man. I deserved so much more,” she says, bitterness making her mouth ugly.

“What did you do for that man?” I ask.

She flips her hand and makes a noise, a kind of bitter, disgusted breath.

“Okay, so wait. Let me get this straight. The engagement ring you were wearing that day… Did Roy give it to you? Because he never told me you were engaged.”

She adjusts her pretty bracelet. “I was actually seeing someone when I met you that day,” she says.

“Ah, yes. I remember. David, wasn’t it?” She looks up in surprise. I jerk my chin at her hand. “I note the ring is no longer on your finger. Did you pawn it? ”

She barks a laugh. “Of course not.”

I tilt my head at her. “So you and David parted ways, and now you’re ringing my husband?”

“I’m ‘ringing your husband,’ as you put it, because he is in a very dangerous situation! You’re insane, Jodie, okay? You’re Deborah’s sister and he doesn’t even know? And you think he killed her? Do you know how crazy you sound?”

“You wouldn’t feel that way if you were Deb,” I say, smoothing my hair.

Snippets of conversation float into my mind. The way Erin seemed strangely bitter when asking about Roy, talking about our honeymoon phase. The fact that she knew we’d been married a month, even though I was pretty sure I’d never told her.

“I take it you don’t live on Mulholland Drive?”

“I wanted to meet far away from here. I didn’t want to run into anyone I knew.”

A wave of loneliness crashes through me. “I thought you were my friend.”

She jerks her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. We barely know each other.”

I nod slowly, recognizing the truth of this. I just don’t know what it takes to make a friend, no matter what Deb says. I don’t think I’ll ever figure it out.

“Why isn’t Roy here?” she says.

“He’s not well. He sent me instead.” I put down my car keys and my album on the small table. I’m confused about what to do next. I was all set to meet Veronica and talk some sense into her, woman to woman. But now I’m confronted with Erin instead and it’s thrown me.