Page 63 of The Wife Upstairs

Missed you today!

Bea stares at that text, then scrolls up.

Again, it’s maddening how little actual evidence there is, how there’s not one definitive thing that tells her they’re having an affair, one thing she could point to and ruin them both, but collectively…

A series of moments, of conversations. Of a closeness they’ve both denied is there. Blanche’s bad day, Eddie’s frustration with how often Bea is gone. Funny little phrases that make no sense, but read like in-jokes, snapshots of something they share that has nothing to do with her.

It has honestly never occurred to her that Eddie would cheat on her, but it’s the betrayal from Blanche that stings the most.

That actually hurts.

So really, it’s only fair what happens between Bea and Tripp.

They’re all over at Caroline’s for a neighborhood barbecue, and Tripp is, as usual, drunk as a fucking skunk before the sun has fully set.

“They sure are getting cozy, aren’t they?” he says to Bea as they watch Eddie and Blanche chat by the grill, Eddie holding a beer, Blanche a margarita. They’re laughing, and it’s the most relaxed and happy Bea has seen Eddie look in a while.

Blanche glances over then, seeing Bea and Tripp, and she just grins,raising her glass in greeting. Bea and Tripp raise their glasses, too, and everything is fine, everything is like it should be, all of them just the best of friends.

Only Bea notices the way Blanche’s smile turns up at the corners, curdling into a smirk.

Only Bea notices how Eddie reaches out to touch Blanche’s elbow to make a point.

“So, if they’re fucking, do you think Eddie should give her a ten percent discount?” Bea asks Tripp now, and that startles a laugh out of him.

Tripp is better looking when he laughs. More like the Tripp that Blanche married.

The Tripp that Blanche had been in love with.

“Blanche should actually probably give him a twenty percent bonus,” he replies, and Bea looks over her shoulder at him, grinning slowly, letting him see her gaze drift over him.

“I think maybe you’re selling yourself a little short there, Tripp.”

He’s not, it turns out.

The sex he and Bea have in Caroline’s upstairs bathroom is decidedly mediocre, and Bea doesn’t even bother pretending to come, focusing instead on the heinous print Caroline has hanging on the wall, a banal picnic scene.

As Tripp groans against her neck, Bea thinks about how she’ll have to send Caroline one of those new block color prints they just got in for Southern Manors’ summer line.

As soon as it’s over, Tripp is surprisingly remorseful, rubbing his hand over his face and saying, “I don’t know why I did that.”

Bea knows exactly why she did it—to get back at Blanche and Eddie, to take from Blanche before Blanche can take from her—but she feels empty all the same.

Later, Tripp texts her.

I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry, either.

Bea knows exactly how he feels.

PART VII

JANE

24

JULY

Over the next few weeks, I resolve to trust Eddie, to be the fiancée he wants and deserves. I go ahead and buy the dress I wanted from Irene’s in the village, complete with a veil, new shoes, the whole thing.