Chapter 2

The Uber driver pulled up in front of the bus shelter. He saw his client was a middle-aged White woman. She sat very unlike a lady with her plump legs extended in front of her. She wore red patterned stockings and a red above the knee dress, the type usually worn for a party. Her shoes were red-soled Christian Louboutin 5” heels, the open-toed strappy kind typically referred to as CFMH, ‘Come Fuck Me Heels.’

She dabbed at her red, puffy eyes with a tattered Kleenex. She appeared to be in her late forties. It was hard to say with White women. The gold band on her third finger left hand said she was married. Her arms were bare. Her face was broad and oval shaped. He thought her green eyes, though alluring, were a trifle too far apart, her lips too thick to be considered a beauty by his standards.

He leaned across the console and smiled broadly. “Hi, Miss! You called for an Uber? My name is... !”

The woman jumped to her feet. She walked quickly, almost running to the passenger door. She yanked it up and jumped into the passenger seat.

“Yes! Yes, I called for an Uber.”

Alice’s dress rode up as she scrambled into the passenger seat, exposing the pink thighs above the stockings. She became aware of him staring at her legs and discreetly pulled the hem of her dress down. He smiled as she tugged ineffectually at the hem, giving him sidelong glances.

“You can sit in the back if you like, ma’am!”

“Just go! Go!”

The driver, a young black man with multi-colored dreadlocks, nodded. “Yes, ma’am!” He was casually dressed in khaki pants and a striped polo shirt. The shirt pulled tight across a muscular chest. He watched his passenger kept dab continually at her eyes with the tissue.

“Ah, is everything okay, ma’am?”

“Yes, driver, everything is fine! Just take me home.”

Alice’s iPhone chimed again. Alice decided to answer this time. Kevin was her husband and the father of her children. She had a forlorn hope that there might be an explanation for what she saw in that bathroom. She stabbed a manicured finger at the answer button and brought the phone to her ear.

“Alice! Where the hell are you?” The driver heard the muffled voice on the other end of the phone. The tone was demanding.

“Kevin, how could you? I was never so humiliated in my life!” Alice held the phone to her ear with her other cheek on the glass of the passenger side door.

“Nothing happened! You embarrassed me running out of the party like that!”

“What the hell do you mean nothing happened? You were fucking my best friend Ann Marie in the bathroom! I have never been so humiliated in my life!”

The driver heard the tone of a man’s voice on the other end of the phone. He switched from demanding to pleading with his passenger. His eyes rolled to the ceiling of his old Range Rover. The last thing he wanted to do was get caught in the middle of a domestic conflict.

“Kevin, don’t lie to me! Something DID happen! I SAW your cock in that slut Ann Marie. How long have you two been fucking?”

His passenger paused for a moment listening to someone who was obviously her husband.

“Kevin, you’re lying! And that’s not true1 I’ve always been faithful to you! Always! You were my first, and there has never been another! Never!”

The woman stabbed at the button, disconnecting the call. She put the phone back in her purse. She bowed her head and began quietly crying. Her greying reddish hair fell forward, partially obscuring her face. Her substantial chest heaved as she wailed. For a moment, the embarrassed driver tried to ignore her wailing. Finally, he could take it no more.

“Look, ma’am! I overheard your conversation with your husband. It was hard not to the way you were yelling at each.”

“I’m sorry you had to hear us wash our dirty laundry. But he disappointed me so much!”

“I’m way out of line here, but it sounds like this has happened before?”

Alice dabbed at her eyes. She turned to get a good look at her driver. Although she saw Black people as part of her everyday life, she had never held a lengthy conversation with one. He was young. She guessed in his early 20’s. Fully thirty years her junior. His accent and multicolored dreadlocks suggested a Caribbean origin, possibly Jamaica.

He wore multi-pocketed cargo shorts, striped polo shirt, and flip flops. He was not a big guy, not like her 6’ 1” 220-pound husband. He appeared to be shorter than her own 5’ 7”. He probably matched her 190 pounds.

“Look, I called for a ride, not a fucking marriage counselor. You do your job, and I’ll deal with my personal life.”

“Yes, ma’am! I didn’t mean to get personal.”

They rode in silence for a moment. Alice was upset with herself for being so short with the driver. He meant well. Just as she was about to apologize, her iPhone chimed for a Facetime call. It was Kevin. She accepted the call.

“Alice, where are you? You shouldn’t be wandering around this city alone. I’ll come to get you.”

Alice was never sure what caused her to do what she did next. Perhaps it was the frustration at her husband’s betrayal. She tried so hard to please him, to be the woman he wanted.

She suspected Ann Marie was merely the latest in a long line of women in her salesman husband’s conquests. For thirty years she looked the other way. That was easier than confronting him.

She had a lovely home. Her kids went to the best schools. She admitted to herself that she suspected he was cheating for some time. Still! She raised their two children, cooked, cleaned, and ignored his infidelities. Her faithfulness to him seemed to only encourage his philandering. When the car stopped at a traffic light, she made an impulsive decision.

She held her cell phone, so her husband could see her and the driver. Then she grasped the driver’s face in her free hand, turned his face to her, and kissed him full on the mouth. She was breathless when she broke the kiss. Her heart beat like a trip hammer in her chest.

“Have you lost your fucking mind, Alice? Who is that Black man? What the hell are you doing in a car with him?”

Shocked, the driver inadvertently let the car lurch forward. He quickly recovered and turned to his passenger. He was not sure what was going on with her and her husband, but he wanted no part of it! He made a decent living driving Uber. He did not want to jeopardize it. Before he could speak, he was stunned to hear what she said to her husband.

“Kevin! I’m going to let him use me any way he wants. I’m going to show you how it feels to be cheated on.”

“Alice, you had too much to drink. Have whoever it is pull over and let you out. I’ll come and get you.” Her husband’s voice broke. He yelled into his phone. “And you, you nigger bastard, don’t you DARE touch my wife again!”

Stunned by the racist vitriol Kevin spewed, Alice ended the call. “I’m sorry for kissing you like that. And for what my husband called you. I ... I’m just not sure who I am anymore. My marriage is my life, and it’s falling apart!” She set the phone on the center console, bowed her head, and cried.