Gina Had a Secret

Gina had a secret.

She had a secret that Vanessa knew but Raoul did not. Raoul had a secret. He had a secret that neither Tamara nor Gina knew. But the waiter in those snappy fitted black trousers certainly did.

Davis had a secret. He had a secret that he hoped to share with Gina after dessert. Gina, and everyone else, obviously. But mostly Gina, his comely girlfriend with her bouncing blonde ringlets and deep mocha-brown eyes. His secret was building and blurring and making concentration more difficult. What had Tamara just said to him? She was staring in an odd way. Pass the wine? Pass the salt? Pass out, was more like it.

After the main course, Gina excused herself to go to the restroom, her sundress a swirl of chiffon around her. She was secretly pleased the other women hadn’t decided to accompany her to the ladies, because in reality her destination was the pay phone in the hallway where she used a calling card to dial her lover Kirk.

Kirk had a secret.

Gina thought she was the only woman he was currently bedding, but “define currently” was Kirk’s philosophy. Or perhaps “define bedding.” Kirk was in Albuquerque, and he was busy at this very moment with a pretty cocktail waitress he’d picked up when on a date with a pretty banker he’d picked up when buying flowers for a pretty girl named Gina. Kirk was a player. It was not a secret to anyone except to Gina, who thought he was her own private dreamboat.

They had met at a work event. He’d been bartending. She’d been networking. Somehow the latter had morphed into making out with him in the coat room. The making out with him behind the venue. And finally making out with him in his beat-up hot rod, her hand on his fly, his lips on her neck.

“No hickeys,” she’d said, breathlessly. He couldn’t leave a mark.

She and Davis were in Los Angeles for a week, visiting old friends and having dinner at a hip restaurant in the heart of Hollywood. The restaurant was painted boudoir pink, and there were practically pin-up photos of the chef’s wife on the walls.

Up until now, Gina been able to hide her affair by “working late” or “hanging with the girls.” But being away was challenging. She kept reaching his answering machine. And she had issues trying to find times to call when she wasn’t joined by Davis.

This had been a perfect moment. Until it wasn’t.

When Gina returned to the dining room, her cheeks were fuchsia and her full lips pulled back over her teeth. She looked feral. She was hissing at Davis before she’d reached the table. Tamara thought she looked like a mongoose.

“Why’d you do it?” she demanded. “Why would you do that?”

Davis was surprised. He hadn’t done anything. Yet. Not to his knowledge, anyway. Had she found out he’d asked the chef to put the ring in her champagne? Why would that make her so angry?

“Cancel the calling card!”

Now, he was honestly confused. The rest of the party was, as well. Raoul, who has been making eyes at the waiter, suddenly started paying attention. Tamara, who had caught a look between Raoul and the waiter, suddenly realized in one of those lightning-flash epiphanies that maybe her boyfriend was into other experiences.

“I didn’t,” Davis said, because he hadn’t. They shared a joint calling card for long-distance, like almost everyone did in 1988.

“You found out about Kirk, right? And rather than be a man and confront me, you measly little—” Raoul coughed politely over her swearword, “you cancelled the card.”

Davis shook his head, on the defensive for doing something he hadn’t done, and then he and Tamara said at the same time, “Kirk?”

Vanessa looked down at her napkin. Gina had confided in a moment of cocktail-inspired honesty that she’d been straying for six months. Vanessa, who had known Davis since college, had found the news repugnant and the fact that she’d been asked to remain silent deeply distressing. She had been on the verge of giving Gina an ultimatum: "You tell or I'll tell,” and so she was quietly thrilled by this soap opera in action. No more secrets.

Gina sat down now, still seething. She said to Davis, “Yeah, Kirk. I’ve been seeing him since the Christmas party. And you found out. And you…”

“I didn’t. I don’t. Wait, what? Six months?”

Gina started to sag, her anger deflating as she began to realize the breadth of her faux pas. “You mean, you didn’t cancel the card?” Had she simply misdialed? Pressed a wrong number? Let the worms out of the can and the snakes out of the bag all on her own?

Davis shook his head. Behind Gina, he could see the waiter bringing the champagne and he waved him off, but more fiercely this time. Raoul stood up to intercept the man, and Tamara watched carefully as the two returned towards the kitchen together.

“You really didn't know?” she asked next. The energy had left her. All eyes were on her. All eyes except Raoul’s because he and the waiter had now disappeared into an alcove.

Vanessa said in her even manner, “Maybe we should skip dessert and get the bill.”

Davis said, “Who the f-ck is Kirk?”

And then everything came out at once. Yes, Gina had been cheating on Davis with Kirk, which she’d told Vanessa briefly about but not to the level of what the affair meant. Raoul, who slunk back to the table with a glazed look of lust in his eyes had been on cruising on the down-low for guys who just wanted a quickie. Tamara was relieved more than anything else because her self-esteem had dropped to zero since Raoul had started rolling away from her at night. And Vanessa, who had always had a thing for pixie-like Tam, saw a possible opening.

When the bill came, there was the usual who had what and who owed what, until, in a fury, Davis threw money on the table.

On the sidewalk outside the restaurant, Tamara talked about calling a taxi, but Vanessa put an arm around her and offered to drive. She’d take her home to pack—move out of the apartment she and Raoul had shared. She could even stay with Vanessa a while. Davis wondered if he could get a refund on the ring. Three months' salary was three months’ salary. Gina imagined what the flight back to Albuquerque would be like sitting next to her now ex, and she also wondered why Kirk never seemed to answer the phone when she called. Was he up to something? Was there someone else? And Raoul didn’t even bother to show up on the sidewalk. He and the waiter were behind the building, finding their footing near some discarded boxes.

As the five beautiful people stood on the sidewalk for a moment in various states of emotional angst, the neon sign in the large plate-glass window flickered becomingly.

The fancy restaurant was named for the chef’s wife.

The chef’s wife had a secret…