“Maybe I’m just imagining it.” Eileen felt foolish at the idea of trying to seduce her own husband. He’d think she was an idiot.
“You probably aren’t,” Jane said seriously. “When women suspect that their husbands are cheating on them, they usually are. We come with a built-in radar system for that. Some women just turn it off. I keep mine on and finely tuned. And it can’t hurt to dress up for him once in a while to let him know you care enough to try. It might bring out the Casanova in him too. Why not? Putting the romance back in your marriage at forty isn’t a dumb idea. It’s like putting a good solid lock on your front door. If you want to keep him, I’d suggest you put some effort into it.”
Eileen smiled off and on all day, thinking of Jane’s advice, and wondering if she was right. She called Paul at the office on Thursday afternoon, and suggested they have a date night on Friday.
“You called to tell me that? Are you feeling okay?” Paul said, sounding startled and amused.
“Of course. I just thought it would be nice to go out.”
“I think this is the first time you’ve called me in ten years that wasn’t to tell me that one of the kids had broken his arm, or was about to get kicked out of school, and we have an appointment with the headmaster at eight A.M. tomorrow. Sure, why not? Where do you want to go?” He named the usual places, and she suggested a fancier one, where they hadn’t been in at least five years, and then only because someone else had invited them. They never ate at elegant restaurants anymore. “I’ll make the reservation,” he said, still sounding amused. “Did you crash the car or run over a pedestrian and you want to break the news to me gently?”
“No, I just thought it might be fun to go somewhere nice for a change.” He was making her feel stupid, but she stuck to her suggestion anyway.
“I’ll take care of it. Do I have to wear a tie?”
“Not if you don’t want to,” she said easily.
“Good. I don’t. I do enough of that at work.” He wore a suit and tie every day. “See you tonight. I’ll try to get home at a decent hour. I don’t have a client dinner tonight for a change. The one I had scheduled canceled.” But he came home at ten anyway, and she had fallen asleep in bed with the TV on and a book in her hand. Pennie was up, watching a movie in her room, and the boys were already asleep. Paul only saw them now on the weekends most of the time.
The next day, he left for work in a rush, and she didn’t have time to remind him about dinner, but she was sure he’d remember. It was the fanciest date they’d had in years.
She traded car pool duty with another mother. Pennie was going to work on her college essays. Eileen went to the hairdresser and got her hair and nails done, and then dressed carefully for her date with Paul. She took a black dress out of her closet that she hadn’t worn in three years, and a pair of high heels, one of the few she hadn’t given to Pennie yet. She wore perfume and earrings. Pennie stopped in her room to see her once she was all dressed.
“Wow, Mom, you look great. What’s the occasion?”
“Dinner with your father. I thought we’d go someplace nice for a change. We’re going to Chez Julien.”
“Pretty fancy. Can I have those shoes when you’re through with them?” She was eyeing her mother’s Christian Dior shoes that Eileen had only worn twice herself.
“No! They’re the last decent pair I have left. I gave you all the others.”
“I’d look good in those too,” Pennie teased her and left, and Eileen waited nervously for Paul to come home. He had texted her the day before that the reservation was for eight-thirty, a little late for them, but the only one he could get, and she used to like dining late, once all the children were in bed. Now they just ate with them at six if Paul was home in time, or she did if he wasn’t coming home at all.
He wasn’t home yet at seven-thirty, and she figured he’d be there by eight. He’d have to rush to dress, or he could wear the suit he’d worn to work and take off his tie. She was mildly worried, but not panicked yet.
Eight slipped by with no word from him.
Eight-thirty came and went. Then nine and nine-thirty. She was livid by then. She was in tears at ten. She had called him a dozen times on his cellphone. He never picked up and it went straight to voicemail. And he didn’t answer her texts. She couldn’t imagine he would do this to her and stand her up completely, unless he was dead. She was afraid something terrible had happened to him, like in one of those novels or a movie where the wife is all dressed, waiting, and the love of her life is dead by the side of the road somewhere. But real life was never as dramatic as that. Unless he was being held hostage by terrorists on the train. She turned on the news and nothing was reported.
He called her finally at midnight, sounding desperate. “Oh my God, Eileen, I can’t believe I did that to you. I had a new client meeting at the end of the day that got organized this morning. We wound up finishing at ten. We never even ate dinner. It was too late to come home and I was exhausted, so I checked in to a hotel. I was going to call and tell you, and I fell asleep the minute I sat down on the bed. I just woke up and remembered that we were supposed to go to Chez Julien tonight. I think I thought you were kidding when you suggested it, and it went right out of my head after I booked the reservation. I’m so sorry. We’ll do it another time, I promise.” He sounded frantic and mortified, and she wasn’t even angry by then, just sad. He had completely forgotten about her and their “date.”
“Don’t bother,” she said in a tired voice. “I guess that’s not who we are.” She had taken the black dress off two hours before, handed the Dior shoes to her daughter and told her they were hers now, and she had put on her nightgown and gone to bed an hour before.
“I’ll be home first thing in the morning. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” But she knew he couldn’t, and probably wouldn’t try. They were past date nights and restaurants like Chez Julien, if he couldn’t even remember a Friday night dinner plan with his wife. She’d been a fool to think otherwise and felt like one.
“Come home whenever you want,” she said in a dead voice. “I’m taking the boys to soccer tomorrow.”
“I’ll try to come by before the end of the game.”
“I won’t tell them in case you don’t show up, so they’re not disappointed,” she said without malice. She knew him well.
“I deserved that,” he said humbly.
“What hotel are you staying at, by the way, in case the house burns down?”
“I’m staying at a hotel in SoHo, which is where we had the client meeting. It’s a British boutique hotel. It’s pretty good. We’ll have to stay here sometime. The Crosby. I’ll see you tomorrow, and I’m really, really sorry I forgot our date.” He sounded sincere and contrite when he said it.