Page 141 of The Bad Husband

I hope I’m not getting in trouble on day one.

He’s still mad at the situation.

He is so upset that I forgot about my own struggle with Henrietta.

He insists I won’t go anywhere, and I want to believe him, but I know how determined Henrietta is.

It’s strange how these things change.

Seemingly, I have ignited this woman’s deep desire to destroy everything. I don’t know what these two have in common, what keeps them together, but it can’t be something good.

The more I get to know Damon, the harder it is to imagine the two of them together.

Not now. I’m talking back then.

“Are you sure things will be all right with her?” I ask.

“Yeah…Yeah,” he says, evading my eyes, which is never a good sign.

He’s probably not sure. Henrietta is an unpredictable woman. Despite the legalities of it, she took my presence in his house like a personal affront, and now she doesn’t want to go away.

Feelings or no feelings, she showed him.

He’s harboring dark feelings and barely containing himself.

I wish I knew more about their arrangement––I’m sure that would explain a lot of this––but the club comes into view, and the window of opportunity swiftly closes, so I try to focus on what I need to do as the new floor manager.

The car rolls to a stop before we step out.

He gives me some instructions on what I need to do as we walk into the venue.

I need to distract people as much as I can and pay attention to the men and women who Damon suspects are cheating.

The women work for him.

He hired them a few weeks back, and since then these two men are on a winning streak.

His words register with me, yet somewhere in the back of my mind a different story is playing. I’m still thinking about the possibility that Henrietta will force his hand, and I’ll be on a plane on Monday.

Thinking about spending the rest of the summer in New York with her makes me nauseous.

I ask him if I’m allowed to drink, and he says yes.

I grab a cocktail as soon as he invites me into the back room, where the air is cold and smells like mint, while he gives me a tour of the space.

The patrons have not arrived yet, which works for me. I need to calm down and get into my character.

I meet the servers, the real floor manager––a man––and witness the sweeping of the room for bugs.

Damon has nerves of steel to recruit and hire all these people, considering all the illegal things happening here.

Fifteen minutes later, the guests arrive, and Damon retreats. I panic a little, but then I get used to acting like the manager and interacting with people.

I distract people a lot, all right. Everybody wants to know who I am, and why I’m here. Two hours in, my cheeks are burning, and I get a tightness in my chest as I begin to spot a pattern. Every time they cut the cards, one of the waitresses lingers closer to the main table, whether she has something to do over there or not.

I step back to observe the men’s behavior and notice how one of them keeps looking at the woman.

They even flirt a little, and while doing that, the woman slides her eyes down a couple of times and then her fingers move as if she has a nervous tic, signaling numbers.