My Husband Moved His Mistress In So I Invited My Three Lovers novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: I Can Vouch

Two lovers at one dinner table and a mistress calling Bea Sister Bea. Ends on the boyfriend's text.

By seven-fifteen there were five chairs at my dining table and one more guest than I had laid a place for.

Jax Rowan stood in the doorway with his battered suitcase and a fresh cigarette.

"Phil," he said. "Bea. Don't get up. I smell lamb."

Phillip had gotten up.

"Jax. Why are you here?"

"A fan club found my building," Jax said. "They chained a banner to the lobby door. It says I'm their husband."

"Call the police."

"They're very polite. They brought a casserole."

He pulled a chair out from the head of the table, took the seat beside mine, and the housekeeper laid a place without being asked.

Behind him, the robot vacuum rolled out of the hallway and nudged his suitcase twice.

"Excuse me," it said, in a woman's calm voice. "Obstacle detected."

Willem's company had built that vacuum.

It was the only thing in the penthouse he had ever been allowed to install.

"Charming," Jax said, and lit the cigarette.

"Not at my table," Phillip said.

Jax put it out in the gravy.

The housekeeper took the gravy away.

Dinner reorganized itself into two camps.

Phillip and Linnea sat on one side, speaking in low voices about the hardships of Europe.

Sterne, Jax and I sat on the other, where we were having a much better time.

Sterne was telling a story about a man who had swallowed a tuning fork.

Jax was acting it out, humming.

I laughed so hard I had to put my fork down.

"Sister Bea," Linnea said softly.

We all turned.

Her eyes were wide and shiny, and she held her napkin in both hands.

"Are you upset that I moved in? I feel like you're ignoring me."

"I'm not," I said.

"I know I'm not rich like you," she said. "I can't even afford a hotel. I'd never want to come between a husband and wife."

"Sister Bea," Jax murmured to Sterne, delighted. "She called her Sister Bea, and she's the older one."

Sterne dabbed his mouth with his napkin.

"I can vouch for Bea," he said. "She is not ignoring you."

"I've been ignored by Bea for years," Jax said. "She has never once looked this attentive."

"I'll put that in writing," Sterne said. "On letterhead."

"Thank you, gentlemen," I said, because someone had to.

Phillip's chair scraped.

He looked at the three of us on our side of the table, then at his own side, which was a plate of mashed potatoes and a woman in a cardigan.

"You've organized this," he said to me, very low. "You've set them against her."

"I set a table," I said.

"You have a performance for everyone but your husband."

Jax leaned back and said, to nobody, "That's untrue. She is extremely available."

Phillip went white at the mouth.

"I've lost my appetite," he said. "Enjoy your dinner."

He took the stairs two at a time.

Linnea rose, her napkin falling off her lap.

"I'm so sorry, Phillip. Wait. I don't want to cause trouble."

She went up after him, her cardigan trailing around the banister.

I listened to the steps going up for a moment.

Phillip had left half his lamb.

It was a ridiculous thing to notice, and I noticed it anyway.

"Do you want us to follow him?" Sterne asked quietly.

"No," I said. "He needs to eat something, but not tonight."

Jax picked up Phillip's fork and ate the lamb.

"I'm sorry," he said, with his mouth full. "I want to apologize in advance for whatever I do next."

Sterne cut into his pear tart with the edge of his fork.

"I'd rather you didn't tell us what that is."

"I'll show you in the morning," Jax said.

I took out my phone to log the evening.

It's my habit, and it was a household now.

I opened the calendar, and a small yellow banner slid across the top of the screen.

Shared with 4 people.

I stared at it.

When I had added Jax and Sterne to the move-in schedule from the elevator, my thumb had hit Send to All.

Everyone in my contacts tagged Calendar had just received the whole household.

Red, green, and blue.

My phone buzzed against the table.

Willem: Why does your calendar show a red man on Tuesday, a green man on Wednesday, and a gap labeled "Willem (blue), TBD"?

And a minute later:

Willem: I'm in the lobby.

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