Stuart watched her jaw tighten momentarily as he told her. She blinked several times with her lips parting in surprise. His own words resounded as a foreign language in his own ears even as he said them.
Cancer. Six months to live. Chemo was out of the question.
He saw a flicker of measurable sympathy in her eyes as each word sunk in and she took a huge gulp of her appletini. Her hand delicately touched his own for perhaps a second or two.Then, the bullet from Julia’s lips.
“Are your affairs in order?” She wanted to know.
Are your affairs in order. Classic Julia.
“I mean,” she explained as if the words needed further explanation. “Is your will even ready? You wouldn’t want to see me out on the streets starving would you?”
He stared at her. ‘No honey,’ Stuart thought. I wouldn’t want to see you starving. My God anyway, that’s all life is about is YOU Isn’t it?’He tried to hide his disgust with her but probably did a piss poor job of it. He wanted to hurt her now. Twelve years together and all she could possibly think of was money. He decided it would be rather poor judgment to tell her now that she’d be lucky if she hadn’t spent every ounce of equity in their home, and if she sold every single piece of useless crap inside that home, it still wouldn’t make a dent in the mountain of money they owed to other people. He’d wanted to tell her that they were two months behind on the seven thousand dollar a month mortgage and that all her impromptu shopping sprees had created a debt close to the national budget crisis.
He’d casually mention that while making Gucci, Prada, and Vanderbilt rich, she’d screwed them over for the future so much that she would be lucky if she could rent a box to live in on the street.
He wanted to tell her. He even chuckled inwardly at the idea. Of course she had to know, he’d already cancelled any life insurance long ago to pay for her Audi, her spa trips and her breast augmentation. Should he tell her now or wait until they got home? Either way, she’d make a scene. Julia’s daddy would be brought into it immediately, with the kind of ‘kick below the belt’ mentality Julia always entertained.
Stuart picked at the grilled salmon on his plate, while his wife pressed him for the rest of the dinner on the affairs of the house. He remained mentally aloof, pretending to be distracted, and when he didn’t answer her she sulked, and excused herself to the women’s rest room.
Not once did she ever say she loved him, she was sorry about the disease; sorry about his awful predicament, or even that she wished he could burn in hell for that matter.
Stuart looked at the check sitting on the table in its leather binder. 86$ it read. He handed the waitress a hefty tip but left the check unpaid, pretending to be embarrassed, “My wife has all the money in her purse” he lied. The waitress nodded.
He left the restaurant on foot without Julia. Outside the air was crisp and cool and he hailed a cab for himself quickly. His life was over, coming to a slow end, and yet Stuart felt giddy with new found happiness.
His next stop was to withdraw as much money from Julia’s life as possible.
Things cool people say.....