Chapter 5

The next morning, I woke, still thinking about Melody. I was aware that I was disgustingly smitten with her. I chuckled and got out of bed, shaving and showering before breakfast. I had the dishwasher filled and running when I heard the doorbell.

I opened it and there she was. I swept Melody up in a hug and got my first look at her help. Theresa was there with her and so was a girl that I didn’t recognize. I gave Theresa a hug too, and she introduced her friend, Courtney.

“Hi,” she said and came forward to give me a small hug since that seemed to be the greeting of choice for the day.

“Theresa said you need some help with rearranging your house. I’m your girl! I helped her do the same after her divorce.”

I grinned and led them inside. I showed them around and let them decide how to arrange each room, while minimizing Beth’s influence. They decided without my input that the living room would be our focus today. They discussed whether to change the furniture or just move things around. In the end, they decided that the sectional was modular enough that they could shift things around and make the room feel completely different.

I was put to work moving furniture where they directed, while shelves were emptied so they could be moved too. Melody helped me remove a lot of the crap from the bookshelves that belonged to Beth. We boxed it up and I carted it to the garage to store until I could talk to her about whether she wanted it or not. If not, I’d have a garage sale with the stuff that she’d left behind. By rights, I didn’t owe her any such consideration, but I didn’t see any reason to be a dick about it, especially now.

It turned out that Courtney was a lot of fun to hang around with. She was about the same age as Theresa, which I guessed to be somewhere in her mid-twenties, making her a little older than Melody and a little younger than me. She kept us laughing and was familiar enough with Theresa’s situation, that she didn’t walk on egg-shells about the topic. She was amazed that Melody and I were the innocent spouses in the same affair.

“That’s fucked-up!” she commented. “If you’d found out back then, you could have hooked up on the side to get your own back.”

“Oh, I think we’re doing okay,” Melody told her with a laugh. “I get to tell Stan all about meeting Rand, and Rand gets to tell Beth exactly who he’s spending time with on the weekends.”

I shrugged. “I don’t talk to Beth much anymore,” I said. “I think I’m okay with that. I may just ship all the crap we clean out down to her, since I don’t want it.”

Melody looked at me knowingly, but it was Courtney who jumped on my declaration.

“So, you don’t want a chance to tell the ex that she’s been replaced by a newer model?” She asked with a grin.

“Maybe a little, but really, we split up because Beth had become so indifferent to me, that it didn’t bother her to take a lover. I guess I’m starting to understand how she felt.”

That got everyone’s attention, Melody’s included. She looked shaken by what I’d said.

“What do you mean?” she asked quietly.

“As soon as I laid eyes on you, thoughts of Beth sort of faded into the background,” I said, getting another box ready for more of Beth’s decorations. “When we kissed, it had been so long since I felt wanted, that I knew the difference right away. That was the moment I got a sense of how long my marriage had actually been dead. Beth hasn’t had any passion for me in years. It was kind of pathetic, actually. Kissing you is like getting hit with a thunderbolt. Compared to you, the best that Beth had for me in years was the equivalent of static build-up.”

She grinned. “As soon as my dirt-bag husband has the decency to stop breathing, we’re gonna do more than kiss!” she promised, blushing furiously.

I stood up and she flung herself into my arms. I held her and, like before, the world shrank until there was only us.

“That’s so sweet, I may get diabetes,” Courtney announced with a laugh. “Should we leave you two alone, or get a bucket of water to throw on you?”

We laughed, and Melody moved to step away, but I held her for another moment, leaning in to kiss her tenderly. It wasn’t a deep, passionate kiss, but it conveyed all the promise, just the same. We split up and spent the rest of the morning making the living room a different place altogether without changing the furniture. After that, I took the girls out to lunch and we talked about tackling the kitchen next.

“Is there really all that much that we can do with the kitchen?” I asked, thinking that the room would mostly have the same layout.

The three of them exchanged a look and then smiled at me.

“Do you trust us?” Melody asked sweetly.

“Absolutely,” I told her without hesitation.

“Then let us handle it, and you spend some of your Saturday doing what you normally do,” she said with a grin.

“I can’t make you do all the work!” I protested. “You’ve all been a huge help, but I don’t want to take advantage of you. You’ve got lives, too.”

Melody chuckled. “I’m a bored trophy wife that spends most days wandering around the house looking for something to occupy my time. This is a refreshing change.”

“I already signed up for a couple of weekends of this,” Theresa told me, lightly. “Belinda said you’ve been stressing over how much your ex’s ghost is still kicking around the house. I’m in.”

“Decorating is kind of my thing,” Courtney admitted. “It’s kind of like a puzzle - how you can take a room and try to make it as comfortable to be in as possible. I like that. It’s a challenge. We’re going to do the kitchen this afternoon, and then see where else you need some attention.”

I nodded, bowing to the inevitable.

“Thanks,” I said gratefully. “I appreciate it. I think the kitchen is less of a worry than the rest of the house though. That was sort of my domain, so I don’t feel her hands around my throat so much there.”

“What should we tackle next then?” Melody asked.

I gave them all a rueful look.

“The Master Bedroom. I’ve been sort of living in the guestroom since I found out about the affair,” I admitted. “I haven’t really felt comfortable being back in that room.”

“That’s going to require more than just shuffling the furniture around,” Melody decided. “We’ll handle it, but we’ll have to do it next week. We’ll need to shop, and I need a key to your place,” she said.

“Okay,” I said.

I felt like I could trust her with my life. I was counting on her to take care of this for me. Part of me was also hoping that she’d arrange things so that she’d like being here more.

“Look, Melody,” I said softly. “When it comes to the Master Bedroom, I want you to make decisions. I want you to pick out what ... I mean ... I want you to love that room.”

She smirked. “You’d like me to want to spend a lot of time there?” she asked, knowingly.

I nodded, and then spoke with concern.

“I’m not trying to put any pressure on you,” I assured her. “I just want it to be a place that’s perfect for you, so that when we do take that step, you feel like that’s your place, as much as mine ... and I want to feel your presence in that room when I’m there alone.”

She took my hand and did something that surprised me. She kissed it. It might not seem like a grand gesture, but be honest: how many times has a girl kissed your hand the way gentlemen-of-old kissed ladies’ hands? She held my fingers and pressed her lips to my knuckles.

“You’re precious!” she told me affectionately. “Leave it in my hands. We’ll go back to your place after lunch and you can get me the key. I’ll pick up the stuff through the week and we’ll get it all set up next Saturday.”

That sounded good to me, so I paid the check, and the four of us returned to the house. The girls sent me to my study and spent time in the bedroom, talking about the plans and deciding how the room would look when they were done with it. They came down a little while later and joined me in the study. Courtney and Theresa took the two chairs across from my desk and Melody came around to curl up in my lap, snaking her arms around my neck.

“I think we have a plan,” she said with a grin. “You have to promise not to freak out though.”

“Should I freak out?” I asked.

“Nope!” she said brightly. “It may involve some contractors though. I’ll let you know if you need to make any changes. For now, just promise to stay out of the Master Bedroom. Not even a peek, agreed?”

I nodded, wondering what she had in mind.

“Um ... okay.”

“Perfect. I’m gonna spend a little of Stan’s money on you, and all you need to know is that it’ll be fantastic when it’s done. Stan has a guy that he uses. I have his number. We’ll have everything looking like a million bucks by next Saturday. You don’t have to lift a finger, or even write a check.”

I nodded. “You’re the boss,” I told her with a smile.

I was a little worried, but she was so excited by this project, that I’d play along just to share her enthusiasm.

“Shit, that was easy!” Theresa laughed. “I figured he’d dig his heels in.”