But then I noticed that Carol seemed a bit subdued, even sad. I guessed that the all consuming seven day weeks for three months could leave you a little let down when you suddenly had no work to do.
“You look tired,” I said solicitously. “When Bob gets back, why don’t you have him drive me to the airport instead of you? Unless you both want to, and then go out to eat in town?”
“Bob’s not coming back tonight,” she sighed. “After the airport, he is, um, heading on to Richmond to take care of banking stuff and pick up supplies for the fall that we are going to need.”
That was too bad, I reflected, I had never had the chance to thank Bob privately for the gift of time with Wendy. Thank God that Carol had not planned on going with him to Richmond, or I’d have had to go on the two-thirty with Stan.
“Wait a minute,” I asked idly, thank about what I was going to do as the evening fell out here. I did have about 400 emails to sort through. “Why didn’t you go with Bob to Richmond? Seems like you two should be celebrating another summer well run.”
“Because…” Carol snapped, before cutting herself off. “Never mind. Don’t worry about it, Casper. Someone has to stay here and hold the fort.”
I looked around at the deserted facility. “Hold the fort against what? Rampaging bands of Cherokee?”
She snorted briefly, very briefly. “No… it’s just…” she hesitated. “It’s just the way things are.”
I looked at her. This nice lady, this hot but primarily nice, lady was in some kind of actual emotional pain. I had never seen her anything but cheerful and fulfilled. I plunked myself down on a camp chair near hers, wondering what I could do to help. If I even could help.
Carol just sat there with a thousand yard stare for a minute, not looking at me at all. After a few minutes, I couldn’t stand it any more. I rose to move away and give her space. Before I could go more than a step, Carol once again said, “It’s just…” then stopped once more.
“What?” I asked, genuinely puzzled.
She suddenly actually looked at me. “It is just that Bob is off in Richmond, fucking one of the counselors tonight.”
I was floored. Not Bob! Surely not Bob! Bob was cool. “Are you sure?” I asked like a stupid person would. Of course she was sure. That pain I saw in her eyes was real, not speculative. “Of course you are sure,” I went on sadly.
Carol nodded. Like a damn bursting, she started filling in details, as if grateful to answer every question I had, in some cases before I could ask them. “It is his little treat to himself, just this once a year, but he’s been doing it for at least five years,” she said defeatedly. “At least.”
“Why haven’t you… why don’t you…?” I stuttered.
“Kicked him to the curb?” asked Carol sadly. “That’s… complicated. But mostly it is because he is a model husband 364 days of the year. We have fun together. We like all the same shows and have all the same friends. He is a great partner in running the camp. A model employee, in fact. He cooks wonderfully. And the sex is still really…” she cut off the suddenly rising enthusiasm in her voice at that and blushed. She sighed and said defeatedly, “Replacing him in any one of his roles would be really hard. All of them would be next to impossible for me.”
I had never been so uncomfortable in my life. I wanted to shy away, but now that she had started talking, it would probably be best to let her keep talking it out. I should keep asking questions.
What I wanted to ask about was how we could kill Bob, but I thought that would not be welcome. I stuttered to a halt on a question or two before I just asked, “Do you even know who it is?”
“A new girl each year, obviously,” Carol said. “Always one who isn’t coming back. Always pretty, of course, and sometimes gorgeous.”
“Who is it this year,” I asked idly, my mind not really engaged or I would not have asked such a heartless question.
Carol started to answer, then looked at me for a moment. “It isn’t important.”
My mind hadn’t been engaged, but suddenly it was. I remembered who all got in that last van.
“Elaine,” I hissed.
Carol looked at me a little sadly, then said, “Yes. I’m sorry, Casper.” She was actually sounding sorry for me! This woman who obviously didn’t deserve having her husband off tapping that glorious, tight, delicious ass later that night, was sorry for me?!?
“Don’t worry about me, Carol,” I said emphatically. “I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?” she asked almost skeptically.
“Absolutely,” I replied. “And I am because of Bob, who up until five minutes ago was my favorite person ever, that rancid, conniving sack of shit.”
Carol looked genuinely puzzled.
“Last session break, Van and I were working with Bob on the screens, remember?” I asked. “I started mooning over Elaine. Bob was very supportive, but was pretty insistent that I would be better off by moving on… Then he set up the schedule so that I would be paired with Wendy.”
“He had decided to go for her that long ago?” mused Carol unhappily. “But that was clever of him,” she added grudgingly. “You and Wendy did seem to work well together, so I guess the distraction worked.”
“It gave him a free field to work on Elaine for himself,” I growled, mad at him not for the Elaine thing, which had been going nowhere anyway, but for being so diabolical to Carol. I said nothing more, since I felt this was not the time to reveal that the distraction had worked to the extent that I had been balls deep in Wendy for the last three weeks.
Carol looked at me unhappily, then suddenly resolute. She stood up with a sigh. “It is only one night a year,” she said again, firmly. “I shall survive,” she said with a small smile.
I smiled back supportively, since that seemed the best I could do.
Carol stretched, and it is a measure of how bad I was feeling for her that I managed not to stare at that sight at all. She looked up at the sky. The sun was still high, and the day was still beautiful and hot. “I need to relax and cool down,” she grumbled. She tapped her hand uncertainly, then heaved a sigh. “I’m going to have a beer and a swim. Want to join me so I’m not swimming alone?”
I looked around for my luggage. “I’m all packed, but I suppose I could dig my suit out, if you give me a minute.”