If Josh found out she had the key he’d kill her. Maybe not literally but, the way he’d been acting lately, she couldn’t quite be sure about that. What she was sure of was that she had to find out what caused his personality change before it was too late. She couldn’t possibly marry him if he continued to act this way.
The change came out of the blue. One day he was his happy-go-lucky sweet self. The next day he was moody, quiet and dismissive of Lily. When he wasn’t being dismissive he was shouting at her about any number of things. The last argument was about her buying name brand dishwashing liquid at Walmart instead of a low end brand at the thrift store where he worked. “God,” she thought at the time, but didn’t dare say out loud, “It’s not as if I bought a diamond bracelet from Tiffany’s.”
Of course they had their fights and disagreements like any couple. Except for a couple of arguments that started because of his irrational jealousy, the fights were nothing relationship-threatening or even worrisome. But this was something different.
Josh’s last rant, which was only a few hours ago, centered on the security system at the thrift store not working and the company’s repair team not able to get to it for a couple of days because they were short-handed and backed up. Lily was able to block out most of the rant, but the lack of a security system did give her an idea. She would wait until Josh was asleep, get his key to the store, sneak into his office and see if there was some clue there as to his erratic behavior. With the alarm not working, and not having to worry about punching in a code to gain access to the store, this should be a piece of cake, she thought.
Lily had already asked a couple of Josh’s co-workers – those she was certain she could trust – whether they had noticed a change in her fiance. They had and, like Lily, could not figure out a reason his personality would change so drastically and so quickly. They did wonder if it could be a medical condition like a brain tumor, but then decided they were being overly dramatic, although Lily did wonder if a lesser condition might have him worried enough to be acting so strangely. She checked his phone, including his appointment calendar, to see if he had any doctors appointments he didn’t tell her about. If he did, he didn’t enter them into his phone. Maybe, she thought, the calendar and schedule he kept in his office would point her in the right direction.
To make sure Josh fell asleep quickly she made turkey tetrazzini for dinner and opened a bottle of wine to go with it. The tryptophan in the turkey combined with the pasta and the wine should have him out like a light in no time, she thought. She had considered sneaking a melatonin tablet into his wine but then decided that might be going overboard.
To make sure he was asleep she logged into Netflix, found the movie “You’ve Got Mail” and started playing it. Josh could be sound asleep and barely within earshot of a television when that movie came on and still wake up to go on a diatribe about how unrealistic it is. And that was even before his personality changed. He wasn’t a fan of rom-coms anyway but “You’ve Got Mail” really stuck in his craw. Among the things about the movie that bothered him were that, before the age of wifi, neither Meg Ryan’s nor Tom Hanks’s laptops had cables connecting them to anything. Besides that, even if wifi was available then, the sound of the computer connecting to the phone line was mentioned in the dialog. Also, Josh said, it was unrealistic to believe that two people would go from meeting and chatting in a chat room to exclusively communicating by email. And only one email a day at that. Even more unrealistic, he said, was that the characters would decide to meet in person before talking on the phone or exchanging pictures. And those were just the major problems, according to Josh.
Luckily, Lily thought every time he went off on that movie, he didn’t have such strong feelings about “When Harry Met Sally …” That would be a deal breaker. Be that as it may, if he didn’t wake up to pontificate about “You’ve Got Mail,” Lily knew she would be safe to confiscate his key and head to the store. Before she left she turned off the movie and turned on a YouTube video of soothing rain sounds.
Once she got to the strip mall where the thrift store was located she pulled into the part of the parking lot that was designated for Taco Bell customers, which was almost directly across from the store. She went into the restaurant, ordered a $5 Chalupa box, then took it back out to her car. She had no intention of eating it then; her air fryer would make everything as good as new tomorrow. She just needed to have some excuse other than the thrift store for being at the mall, especially at a time when most businesses were closed. She figured having to take a walk after eating – or pretending to eat – food from Taco Bell was a plausible excuse should anyone question her being there.
Her hand shook as she fit the key into the lock. Then her whole body started shaking as she slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside. She didn’t know how her legs were holding her up. It wasn’t until she actually stepped into the store that she realized she was nervous about the alarm and security system really being out of order. In the back of her mind she fully expected to hear an alarm and see flashing lights. She still wasn’t 100 percent convinced a silent alarm wasn’t alerting police of a break-in as she tip-toed toward Josh’s office.
Inside the office, Lily pressed the flashlight function on her phone and headed straight for Josh’s desk. She still had no idea what she was looking for but hoped something would jump out at her. Mere seconds later, something did catch her eye. Written on Josh’s desk calendar on a date three weeks earlier was the name Jamie Parker, the area’s foremost private investigator. Lily could not imagine why Josh would have a private investigator’s name on his calendar. She assumed it must have something to do with work because, surely, if it had something to do with her or another aspect of his personal life he would share that with her. Wouldn’t he?
As she stared at the date on the calendar she thought back to when Josh’s erratic behavior became noticeable. It was pretty close to the date on the calendar. She then flipped the calendar to the previous month hoping to find a clue as to why Jamie Parker’s name would be there. And there it was again, two weeks prior to the other date. While that in and of itself was not a clue another name on the calendar popped out at her as if it was written in Dayglo paint and surrounded by flashing neon lights.
Now she had to figure out how to bring up that name to Josh without admitting that she’d broken into the thrift store and his office.
After making sure everything in Josh’s office was in exactly the same spot as it was when she got there, Lily snuck back out of the store, went back to her car, which now smelled like Taco Bell, then drove home. She found Josh in bed, just where she left him. She slept fitfully on the living room couch.
During the night she did decide how she would broach the subject of what she found in his office. First, though, she needed to make a pot of strong coffee.
When Josh made his way to the kitchen, she poured him a cup of coffee, then told him to sit down and she’d scramble some eggs for him. He was always grumpy when he was hungry and the last thing she needed was for him to be any more out of sorts than he had been lately.
Lily put the plate of eggs and toast in front of him then sat down across from him at the table, then waited until he took a couple of bites before speaking.
“I’m having lunch with Mark Stevens,” she said matter-of-factly, then took a sip of her coffee.
Josh didn’t say a word as his face got redder and redder. It reminded Lily of when cartoon characters get angry, minus the steam coming out of his ears. She waited for him to say something. After several minutes of him staring at her through squinty, angry eyes she realized he wasn’t going to talk.
But as she opened her mouth to break the silence, Josh picked up the plate of eggs and toast, threw it against the wall and shouted, “What have I told you about that guy?”
“Very mature,” Lily said. “I know you don’t expect me to clean that up.”
“What I expect is for you to stay away from that guy!”
“You know what I expect, Josh?” Lily asked calmly. “I expect my fiance to trust me, especially after I have told you repeatedly that there is nothing going on between me and Mark who, by the way, I have known three times longer than I have known you.”
“It just so happens that I know you’ve been having lunch with Mark Stevens quite regularly over the past few weeks,” Josh said, “so don’t play all innocent with me.”
“And naturally, you assume the worst although – and I’ll say this one last time – there is nothing going on between me and Mark except …”
“Except!” Josh shouted. “I knew it!”
“Except,” Lilly continued, “I was having his company work on an addition to the house. A man cave. My wedding present to you.”
Josh’s jaw dropped open but he didn’t say a word.
“But during lunch today I’m going to tell him to cancel that. And right now, I’m canceling the wedding. It’s over, Josh.”
“But …”
“No buts. It’s over. You don’t trust me. You act like an erratic child instead of telling me you have a problem. I don’t need that in my life.”
“Lilly, we need to …”
“I repeat: It’s over,” she said. “I’m taking today off to move my things out of the house. I’ll leave your key on the kitchen table.”
