AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And so it went. Until the night of the concert. The night he went from “You’re losing your spark” to “I’m sorry, Maggie. I just can’t do it anymore.”
The concert was in Miami and was billed as a country music extravaganza. The owner of the dealership where Craig worked had invited Craig and Maggie to join him and his wife for the sold-out event. Craig had been both flattered to be asked and excited at seeing some of his favorite artists perform. Even Maggie had been looking forward to the evening. But as their host was pulling his white Jaguar into the parking lot of the American Airlines Arena, Maggie saw a small army of bikers circling the grounds and felt a huge bubble of panic lodge in the pit of her stomach, a bubble that grew as they entered the arena and people began occupying their seats. It expanded even further as the lights dimmed and the show began, then threatened to burst when she saw two men with beards and tattoos laughing across the aisle.
“Those men…” she whispered to Craig, pointing with her chin.
“What about them?” he asked, although she knew he knew.
“We have to leave.”
“We can’t leave. Just calm down. Take deep breaths.”
The deep breaths did no good. “I’m going to be sick,” Maggie said.
“You’re not going to be sick.”
“Is there a problem?” Craig’s boss asked.
“No. Everything’s fine,” Craig told him.
“I can’t breathe,” Maggie said, gulping at the air.
“You can’t panic every time you see a man with a tattoo,” Craig muttered between clenched teeth.
But Maggie was already on her feet. “I have to get out of here. We have to leave. Now!”
Craig grabbed her arm, forced her back into her seat. “We just drove an hour and a half to get here, and it’s not our car.”
“Thenyoustay. I’ll take a taxi….”
“Keep it down, will you? You’re embarrassing me….”
“Is everything okay?” Craig’s boss asked.
In the end, they left the concert after the opening act, Craig’s boss speeding up I-95, as if whatever madness had infected Maggie was contagious, his wife so angry at having her evening ruined that she barely said a word until Maggie was climbing out of the backseat. “I hope you’re feeling better,” she said, throwing the words over her shoulder like grains of salt.
“I hope you’re happy,” Craig said once he and Maggie were inside. “I’ll be lucky if I still have a job come Monday.”
Monday came and Craig still had a job. But Maggie no longer had Craig.
“I’m sorry, Maggie. I just can’t do it anymore.”
The landline on the nightstand beside the alarm clock rings and Maggie jumps. Leaving the window to answer it before it can ring again, she says, “Hello?” and braces herself for the menacing voice she’s sure will follow.
Instead the voice she hears is soft and lyrical, a faint Southern drawl winding through each word. “Is this Maggie McKay?”
“Who’s calling?”
“It’s Dani Wilson. From next door?”
“Yes?” Maggie asks. Dani Wilson has barely spoken to her since they moved in. If anything, she’s gone out of her way to be unfriendly. The one time Maggie phoned to ask if they could arrange a playdate for their sons, she’d been given the brush-off. So why was Dani Wilson calling now?
“Sorry to bother you, but I’m in a bit of a bind and I was hopin’ you might be able to help me out….”
“What can I do for you, Mrs. Wilson?”
“It’s Dr. Wilson, actually.”
“Sorry.”Bitch,Maggie thinks. “What can I do for you,Dr.Wilson?”
