Big Cherry Holler - Adriana Trigiani [57]
“What am I going to do?” I turn to Iva Lou. I almost want to grab that cigarette out of her mouth and smoke it myself.
“You can’t let on to Jack that you know anything.”
“Why? If I stop it …” And then I stop talking. Stop what? Their first kiss? Their first time together? Their falling in love? His packing up and leaving me? Their outdoor wedding at the lake in Big Cherry Holler with my Etta as the flower girl?
“Here’s what you need to do. Are you listening to me?”
“Okay. Okay. I’m listening.”
“She is counting on the fact that you are gonna blow this. She already knows, ’cause she’s hooked your husband, that he ain’t happy. So all she has to do is be sweet as pie. Uncomplicated. And that’ll keep him coming back for more. If you go crazy and start following him and making him miserable and accusing him of things, it’ll give her an advantage. You’ll look like the hag wife, and she can be the sweet young thang.” Iva Lou looks at me. “Bless your heart.”
“How did this happen?”
“This happened ’cause there’s a man involved. And they’s vulnerable on account of the fact that they surrender their will to their ego. Don’t forget that: their Will to their Ego. ’Cause their ego is what keeps them male. You got it?”
“I don’t want this trash in my life! This sordid stuff. I don’t want it!”
“Ave, there’s that point in an affair where nothing’s happened yet—nothing physical, that is. The man and the woman have established contact. They’re friends. They work together. They probably talk about things. Personal things. She probably confides in him; maybe even, once in a while, pulls a little something where she has a problem at home and doesn’t have a husband or any man around and something needs fixin’ like a pipe or a wire and he says he’ll stop by her house to fix it, and next thing you know, he’s in the web.”
“What web?”
“Her web. The little scene she puts together with her and him in it. Picture this. He fixes whatever she needs fixed. She has to thank him, so she makes a strong cup of coffee and a good sandwich for him. He sits down. And they get to chattin’ about this and that, and next thing he knows, he doesn’t know where the time went. So he gets up and says, I gotta get home to my wife, my kid, whatever. And she looks sad, but she understands. That’s the important part. She understands.”
“Understands what?”
“What his life is like. What he deals with. What he needs. What his problems are. She is His Friend. Get it?”
“Men don’t talk to other men about their relationships, so they need a woman to talk to?” I ask. Iva Lou nods. Now I’m getting it. Jack Mac talks to Karen Bell about me. Etta. Work. Just like I talk to Iva Lou. (If this weren’t my life, I’d be thrilled at the notion of this breakthrough in male-female relationships.)
“Now you see what I’m sayin’.” Iva Lou leans back.
“Oh, I see it.” Iva Lou doesn’t know how clearly I see it.
“Jack Mac don’t want to be in the web, but he’s trapped, and he got there by being nice. Men don’t understand how something innocent becomes routine, and then routine can become a relationship. You got no idea how many men I’ve known who told me that they’re surprised when they find themselves having an affair. They didn’t see it coming or plan it. But somehow, just by being nice, they got themselves yupped into bed. The Other Woman makes these innocent requests of their time, and they say, ‘Yup, I’ll help you out,’ and pretty soon she says, ‘Kiss me,’ and he says, ‘Yup,’ and the kiss leads to the next yup.”
“I don’t want him to yup himself away from me.”
“He won’t. If you use your head. Ave Maria, that’s where you’ve got to be smarter than her. He doesn’t want this. He knows it’s wrong. But you can’t accuse him of something you’re not sure he’s done yet, or for sure that will drive him right to her because he’s gonna need someone to talk to about that too.” Iva Lou takes a deep breath. “I would rather be you in this situation