CHAPTER 5
Valerie also sampled her drink, expressing her satisfaction with a broad smile.
“So what’s on the agenda for tonight?” Bree said as she laid her drink on the small table the two of them had taken over in the far corner.
“That’s up to you,” Valerie said. “I invited you along to enjoy yourself.”
Bree thought about it a bit, and not really coming up with a suitable answer, asked Valerie what she did when she stayed overnight every month.
“I’m sure you don’t spend the night up in your room watching cable,” she laughed.
“Oh, I have my entertainments,” the older woman replied, “but I don’t think they’re something you’d be interested in.”
“How do you know?” Bree inquired, taking another taste of her drink.
“You’ll just have to trust me on that,” Valerie answered, picking up her own glass.
That answer left Bree a bit intrigued, but in the end she decided to not delve further into her friend’s privacy.
Looking over the visitor’s guide they’d picked up earlier, they tossed a few ideas back and forth. They finally decided that, since it was such a nice night, they would take a walk down by the Esplanade along the river and find a nice restaurant for a late dinner. But first, a trip up to the room to freshen up and change was definitely in order.
They finished their drinks and exited back into the lobby. They’d just about reached the elevator when a tall, well proportioned blonde walked up to them and began to excitedly speak to Valerie. That the lawyer might
know a few people in a city she visited every month didn’t seem unusual to Bree. What was confusing was that, despite the fact that she clearly seemed to know Valerie, she repeatedly called her by another name.
“Victoria, why didn’t you let me know you were going to be in town this weekend?” the thirty-something woman who, Bree later learned, was named Alicia asked. “If you had, I’d definitely have canceled whatever plans I had.”
For the first time since she’d met her, Bree saw her friend flustered. She mumbled an almost incoherent answer about the trip having been unexpected. It was almost as if, in the space of a minute, she’d become a totally different woman.
“Are you going to be at Paradise later on?” Alicia asked. “I’m going to be free about nine and could probably swing by.”
Again, in a tone much less confident tone than Bree was used to hearing, Valerie said something about already having plans for the evening.
In response, Alicia turned to Bree and gave her a long, hard look. One that the redhead found just a bit disconcerting. She couldn’t be positive, but she had the distinct feeling that she’d just been judged and found wanting. Once she was finished, the strange woman shrugged her displease and went on her way.
“What was that about?” Bree asked a notably rattled Valerie once Alicia was out of earshot.
“Not here,” she relied, reaching out to hit the button that would summon the elevator.
The elevator ride up to the sixth floor was a short but one filled with a very awkward silence.
The door to room 6C had barely closed behind them when Bree asked the question she had been holding all the way up.
“Care to explain what the hell that was all about, Victoria?” she said.
“To be totally honest, no,” Valerie replied, “but I guess I do owe you an explanation, so here goes.”
She paused to take a few breaths before going on.
“Although it might have sounded otherwise, it’s really not anything ominous,” she began. “I sometimes take advantage of being away from home to let off a little steam. You know, just party a little, go dancing, and have a few drinks, that sort of thing. Paradise just happens to be the club I normally go to, mainly because it’s not that far from here.”
“Uh huh,” Bree said, feeling just a bit disappointed because, from her perspective, the explanation made a lot of sense. “And Victoria?”
“The first night I went there, oh, about a year ago, I had my monogrammed handbag with me,” she explained. “So when I was sitting at the bar and someone asked my name, I looked down at the engraved V and said the first name that popped into my head. It was a silly thing really, but sometimes it’s fun pretending that you’re someone else.”
That too made sense to Bree.
“So are you satisfied now?” Valerie asked.
“Of course,” Bree smiled. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
The look on Valerie’s face was one Bree recognized as relief. “So no more secrets,” Bree said.
“No more secrets,” Valerie agreed.
“Great,” Bree smiled. “So what time does the club open?” “Excuse me?” Valerie asked.
“Paradise – what time does it open?” Bree asked again.
“You want to go to Paradise?” Valerie asked, a tremor back in her voice.
“Sure, why not?” Bree responded. “It’s got to be a lot more fun than just taking a walk down by the water. After all, aren’t you the one who said I should loosen up a little?”
Valerie’s face went blank for a few seconds, then she stepped over and say down on the closest bed.
“Bree, I can’t take you to Paradise,” she said. “Why not?”
“Because it’s not your kind of place.”
“What do you mean?”
There was a very long three or four second silence. “It’s a lesbian club,” Valerie finally said.
“Really?” Bree said in surprise.
Valerie nodded her head.
“That makes it sound even more interesting,” Bree said.
As she did, she recalled how her cousin used to go to gay clubs all the time, just to dance, and loved being able to party and not get hit on. Since Valerie was very much married, Bree simply assumed she did pretty much the same thing.
“Bree, you don’t understand,” Valerie added.
“What’s not to understand?” she started to say, but only got halfway through the thought when, remembering the woman down in the lobby, turned pale herself as all the dots suddenly lined up. “Oh my God!” she gasped.
She looked at the woman sitting on the bed for confirmation, and got a slow nod of her head. This was definitely not what she expected. Slowly, she took a few steps back and dropped down into the wooden chair by the desk.
“I guess you were right,” Bree said after a long silence.
“About what?” Valerie asked, unsure of what she meant.
“Evidently, it is possible to keep a secret in North Cambridge,” she said.
Valerie slowly smiled as well. Hopefully, if Bree could still joke, then things weren’t as bad she had feared they might be.
“How long have you been … been into girls?” Bree asked, thinking it was a natural question but unsure how best to phrase it.
“Since I was in high school,” Valerie said, actually feeling relieved to finally be honest with Bree about it, “that is, if you want to base it on actually being with someone. If you are just asking about attraction, well then, all my life.”
“Fuck!” Bree exclaimed, having expected Valerie to say a couple of years at most. “Does David know that you’re bi?”
“David has known since the day we first met at his roommate’s birthday party, back when he was finishing up his last year at State,” she replied. “There was no way he couldn’t know, because the only reason I was even at the party was because I was dating the roommate’s younger sister. Oh, and for the record, I’ve never been bisexual.”
“What?” Bree said, now even more confused.
“Perhaps I should just explain it all at once,” Valerie suggested. “That would probably help,” Bree agreed.
Over the next few minutes, Bree listened in fascination as Valerie unfolded her tale. Mark Twain had once written, “Truth is stranger than fiction”, and as the story continued she realized just how true that was.
From the time he was fifteen, David Stanton had one great dream – to fly Navy jets. Single minded in his desire, every decision he made over the next decade was weighed against how it furthered or hindered that goal.
Valerie Campbell had her own dream, one that, at the time she met David, seemed to be slipping out of her grasp as the cost of finishing college, not to mention law school, was quickly becoming prohibitive.
During the party, David, who already had a Naval Reserve commission and was about to move on to active duty, found himself in animated
conversation with Valerie. Listening to her plight, he said it was a pity that Valerie wasn’t straight, because then she could marry an officer and be eligible for a special educational program for the spouses and dependents. In her cups, Valerie had joked that if it got her a law degree, she’d still marry the guy – as long as she didn’t have to fuck him, of course.
The next morning, after they’d sobered up, David asked her if she’d been serious. One of the criteria the Navy looked at when choosing officers for flight training, he explained, was stability. Nothing said stability like having a wife and home. In all honesty, he had no desire for a wife, especially one who would expect him to devote a sizeable portion of his time to her. But, if he could have one that, at least looked good on paper – well, that was worth considering.
At first, Valerie couldn’t believe he was serious, but he finally managed to assure her that he indeed was. People entered marriage for many reasons other than love, he said. Citizenship and medical benefits were just two of the possibilities he cited.
It took her a month to make up her mind, but in the end it seemed a deal worth making.
“Please don’t tell me that you had Mark to make David seem more appealing to the Navy?” Bree asked, interrupting the narrative.
“Oh my God, how could you even think that?” Valerie said in shock. “No, I always knew that, somewhere along the line, I wanted to have a baby. So it only seemed natural to take advantage of the situation.”
“So you and David have had …”
“Yes, that was the exception to the rule,” Valerie replied, adding that it was more an exercise in mechanics than anything else, with as little
emotional content as a night with one her vibrators.