Dread

Yesterday took a weird turn. Started out normal and slow, changed up midway.

Went to Target with my mom in the early afternoon, normal. Pulled into the driveway, and Bill's on the phone. He said "here, ask her" as I hop out and start grabbing my bags. I took the phone, thoroughly confused, and it was Harriet. You guys remember Harriet...

She was going to upstate NY, to take her nephew home. He was visiting, and his dad needed him home a few days early, to work. She called, because she was looking for a ride partner, so she didn't have to come back alone. 4 hour round trip.

First thing that struck me: Why didn't she call my number? Why did she call Bill? Any other day, he'd have been at work, or driving from the county job, to his first batch of lawns. He'd have been busy, wheras, around 4 p.m. I'd be just getting home from running around all morning. Seemed illogical.

Second thing: I've invited her to hang out about 6 times, since the end of the school year. She's bailed almost every time, save for 4th of July, when we all went and saw fireworks, together. I felt a little used. Don't call to hang out, but call when you need something. I wouldn't normally be so suspicious, but that's the nature of her way, I've seen her do it to people before, and now it was my turn.

Third thing: The woman's ego. She's been a monster to be around, lately. She's a chain smoker, she listens to loud country music, when she drives, and she won't stfu for three seconds. When she's not on her phone, she's talking about how this guy thinks she's hot, or how she flirted with that pizza guy. Her kids are screamy, and I hate them, pretty much. Whenever we go anywhere in her car, it's insta migrane. Between her mouth, smoking, the music, the cartoons blasting on the DVD player in the back, the air conditioner drying out my eyeballs, and the kids screaming to compete with the rest of the noise...yeah, that's an accurate picture of my private hell. Plus, she's road ragey, and drives like a fucking lunatic.



I told her, I'd call her back when my mom left, and I'd had a chance to digest the info.

Now, I had promised to take Alden to this town picnic thing, the National Night Out, on the beachfront, he was looking forward to it. I told Bill, to call her back, and tell her we couldn't go, we were taking Alden out. My mom wanted to take him, also, but I figured since Bill was home, we'd go as a family instead. He balked. He said "But I hate those things, I don't want to go, plus I told her I'd go with her already."

Enter: Suspicion. He HATES going places with her. For the same reasons I mentioned. He's the worst complainer, he's the one that pushes for seperate cars, whenever we'd go anywhere. So, add "why the fuck would you want to go?" to "why the fuck didn't you call my phone?" and you have this growing ball of suspicion.

I did the only thing I could think of. Call him on it, then invite myself. Hustled the boy off to Nana's, and set myself up for a roadtrip to hell. He didn't even realized how the situation looked, but you take this voraciously sexual predator of a woman, angling to be with my husband (whom she thinks is attractive) alone for at least two hours, and you have something that just doesn't look right.

I trust him, naturally. We have this perfect love, perfect trust, thing. Hell, I'd probably let him go along with anyone else, even if I knew for sure they were gonna do something...buuuut, this is personal. I've got it in my mind that this woman is trying to steamroll me, and go after Bill. She's just that kind of girl.

See, I'm normally not suspicious at all, about anything, but she makes me wonder. She calls him sometimes, for landscaping advice, car questions, etc. Sometimes she shows up where he gets his coffee in the AM and buys. Stuff like that. Add to that, we already had a Situation, a few years ago, where a woman was actively pursing him, and trying to cut me out of the picture...and, well, you can see why I would worry a little.

He realized what he had accidentally done, by being so amiable. He just said yes, without even thinking about what it was gonna be like, or that we had plans (admittedly, I hadn't really enforced the whole town picnic thing, he thought my mom was taking Alden). He's very good natured like that, though, one would call him a pushover. Shirt off his back kinda guy.

So, we both went.