THE AFFAIR by Dyanne Davis Page A

From the day she was born he’d collected them for her. Not a one was broken-unlike Mick’s meager collection.
    He’d been standing there looking at his eldest daughter’s collection when she’d come to stand behind him.
    “How do you manage to keep the kids away from those?” He waved toward the curio.
    “They wouldn’t dare touch my things.”
    “Are you saying they’ve never tried?”
    “They tried and I spanked them.”
    He watched as she turned smiling brown eyes on him. “These are precious, they’re all from you. I would never let them destroy them.” His mouth fell open in surprise.
    “That wasn’t the attitude you had with your mother’s figurines.”
    “Daddy, you know Mom isn’t as attached to her things I am.”
    “Erica, it was an anniversary gift. I gave it to her for our twentieth anniversary.”
    He had watched as Erica pouted, her face frowning, her eyes no longer smiling, but glaring at him.
    “If it was that important to her, then why didn’t she just let you buy her another one? Nooo, she had to take it out on me and my kids and make me feel guilty that they’re so lively.”
    Larry looked at his daughter and saw the face of his wife a year before, crying amidst the ruins from her broken figurine, an anniversary gift from him to her. He hadn’t given her many, preferring instead to take the entire family on anniversary trips. Now watching his daughter’s angry face, he recalled every word. He got a shiver as he heard Michelle’s voice in his head calling to him.
    “ Oh my God! Larry, look what they did.”
    “ They’re just kids, Mother,” Erica had answered her mother, before he could say a word. “If you didn’t want it broken you shouldn’t have put it out.”
    At the time he’d ignored the fire in Mick’s eyes when she answered Erica. “ It was on the mantle, Erica . Maybe you should have better control of your kids and teach them to respect other people’s property. They had no business climbing up there anyway.”
    “What’s the big deal, Mother? Just go buy yourself another one.”
    “It was an anniversary gift.”
    “Then tell Daddy to buy you another one.”
    Larry could clearly picture the tears as they rained down his wife’s face. He’d wanted so much to stop her from hurting, but he chose to stop the fight. “Erica’s right, honey. Stop crying, I’ll buy you another one tomorrow.”
    “If you do, I’ll break it myself,” she’d replied. He had watched, as she finished picking up the broken porcelain and dumped it in the trash without another word.
    For the first time, looking at Erica in her uncluttered home with over twenty years of an expensive Lladro collection intact, he was beginning to understand. Mick was right, Erica was selfish.
     

Chapter Five
     
    “Michelle?”
    I dared to breathe, the relief evident in my bones. If I closed my eyes in a certain way I could almost see the string that connected me to the voice on the phone.
    “Michelle, I’ve been waiting for you to call me. I’ve had time to get used to this.”
    A pause.
    “I was so sure when I found you, that you would be ready for this. I’m sorry I didn’t give you more time.”
    I couldn’t believe it. Chance was apologizing to me for my behaving like a fool and running away from him.
    “Chance, can we talk?”
    “I’m swamped with patients until six.”
    “I could buy you dinner.”
    “Where’s your husband?”
    “In Arizona.”
    I heard the slow, even breathing from the other end of the phone. I shivered. I wondered how long Chance had been collecting these things to show to the woman he loved. Then it hit me. I was the woman he loved, the one he’d stored up treasures for.
    “I could meet you at your house at seven…bring dinner fixings…and cook dinner for you.”
    “Do you remember how to get there?”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you sure you want to come?”
    “I have to.”
    “Then I’ll meet you there at seven…only don’t bring dinner. We’ll order