Beginning in the Salon, the tour concluded in the Opus One Private Library, with a formal seated tasting of two vintages. The server brought over two glasses on a silver tray, and there, sitting between the goblets, was a black velvet ring box. Sam got down on one knee and told me I was the love of his life and the one and only woman he could imagine calling his wife. Sam slipped the ring on my finger and asked me to marry him. I threw my arms around his neck and told him nothing would make me happier.
In celebration of our engagement, the sommelier presented us with a bottle of their 2013 vintage. He explained that 2013’s consistently warm summer and early fall, uninterrupted by heat spikes or rain, made for an early harvest in near perfect temperatures. In fact, the ideal conditions, resulted in some of the finest and most expensive cabs Napa ever produced. The sommelier went on to explain the wine’s value in the market and that its worth would only increase over time. He encouraged us to save the bottle for a very special occasion in the future.
Sam’s eyes practically popped out of his head when he saw me uncorking the expensive wine we’d been saving and pouring the rich red cab into a glass. I took a sip and swooshed the warm liquid around in my mouth like they’d shown us on all the vineyard tours, then sniffed the glass.
“What do you think?” he asked.
I shut my eyes and swallowed hard. “I think it needed more time to mature.”
Sam nodded and poured himself a glass. “You can stay at the apartment tonight. I’ll go to a hotel.”
I opened my eyes and set the goblet back down on the table. “That’s okay. I’ll stay with Merritt tonight.”
“What about tomorrow?” he asked, as if we were really talking in these small absolutes and not our entire relationship.
I narrowed my eyes. “What about tomorrow, Sam?”
“Should I plan to stay at a hotel, or do you think you might be willing to meet me to talk?”
“What will you have to say to me then that will be any different than what you can say to me right now?”
“I thought you might want some time to…” his voice faded off.
“To what? To fully digest the idea that my fiancé has been seeing another woman under my nose for months and months?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
I stood up and backed away from the table. “It wasn’t? What was it like, then? Help me to understand this, Sam, because right now, none of this makes any sense to me.”
“You and I have been together for so long. I’m sure in all this time, you must have wondered what it would be like to be with someone else?”
I’d never considered it. I had found my Prince Charming, so what else could I possibly look for? The fact that I found him in high school always seemed like a positive to me, not a negative. As far as I knew, we were happy, blissfully happy.
“I never meant for it to go on for as long as it has, Jo. I swear, but things haven’t been perfect with us, you know that.”
I took a deep breath and braced myself to ask the one question I didn’t really want an answer to. “Do you love her?”
“I’m not in love with her, no.” He hung his head in his hands. “I have feelings for her, I can’t deny that. But, I was going to end things as soon as we got married. You have to believe me.”
He rose from his chair, took two steps in my direction, and reached for my shoulder. I recoiled from his touch. “I have to believe you? You brought another woman here, to our home, into our bed. God, I can’t even look at you.”
With those words, the tears I’d been holding back all night flooded over. As I cried, the invisible cord around my heart continued to tighten. I covered my mouth with my hands to mash my sobs, but they broke through anyway. Sam came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. I leaned back into him, and within seconds my chest slowed down, so that our breaths were in near perfect rhythm. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.
“I should go. Any later and I’ll worry Merritt.”
“Don’t go,” he whispered. “I’m worried if you walk out that door you’ll never come back.”
I wrenched away and looked him square in the face. “Good.”
Since Naomi and Alec were fast asleep, Merritt met me down at the hotel bar. I spotted her at one of the high-top tables, a long, beige trench coat barely covering up her red flannel plaid pajamas underneath. When our eyes met, she jumped off the stool, rushed over, and pulled me in for a big bear hug.
“Come,” she said, taking me by the hand. “I want to hear everything.”
I sat down across from her, my feet dangling off the tall chair. Merritt’s touched the ground.
Merritt waved over a server and turned to me. “What do you want? And puh-lease don’t start with this skinny girl margarita shit. If half of what you texted me is true, you need a real drink. Something brown and strong, and will numb the pain.”
“Okay, I’ll have an Old-Fashioned.”
“Make that two,” Merritt said, holding up her fingers. The server scribbled down our order and set off for the bar.
Merritt pushed the small glass votive to the side of the table and took my hands into her own. “Start from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”
I took a deep breath and recounted the events of the last several hours, starting with Candytopia and ending with the admission of his affair. Merritt’s eyes got wider and wider as I relayed the sordid details and countless lies. When I finished, she sipped on her Old-Fashioned, shook her head and muttered a series of expletives that would make even the most hardened criminal blush.
“I could kill him with my bare hands,” she said and set down her glass. “And you really had no idea? None?”
“He’s been working nonstop because of some crazy deal.”
“Let me guess, the crazy deal has big tits and a nice ass.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I didn’t see her ass.”
Merritt slapped her forehead. “Oh, Christ, that’s right, the sexts with the full-frontal shots. Who is this chick? Did he tell you?”
“Not much. She’s a struggling actress. He met her at 1 OAK. She works bottle service there at night.”
“Of course she does. She had to know about you, right?”
“According to him, no, she had no idea. He told her the same stories he told me, that work kept him busy and left him little time for a personal life.”
Merritt nodded. “Look, I already told Naomi I’m extending my trip. I’ll stay here as long you want and help you with anything you need. First things first, we have to cancel the wedding venue, send out a note to all the guests, deal with the florist, photographer, and see if we can get any money back from your dress. Then, I’ll help you find a new place to live.”
My head was swimming. I was still trying to accept the idea that Sam, my Sam, had another girlfriend. That we were over. I hadn’t even thought about the wedding and associated fallout.
Merritt reached into her pocket, pulled out a hotel key card, and slid it across the table. “I booked you your own room through the end of next week, so nothing needs to be decided tonight. Please, Jo, just try and get some rest.”
I picked it up and held the card to my chest. “Thank you.”