“I think Andy is cheating on me,” Lenny heard Stacy saying as he returned from the bathroom.

“I’m sorry,” Lenny said. “Should I come back later?” Lenny hoped for an out. This conversation was going to go nowhere he wanted to be, and he saw this as his opportunity to escape.

“That’s okay, Lenny. However much I kid with you, I feel like you’re a brother and you’re always here for me.”

“Do you see why I love this man?” Samantha said. Flattery was the fastest way to Lenny’s heart, and he sat down and broke off another piece of bread to butter.

“Why do you think he’s cheating on you,” Samantha said. Lenny took a bite from the bread and studied Stacy as she answered. Stacy was plump, with a freckled face and a constant scowl on her face. Her life was one accident after the next. Each relationship was an accident waiting to happen, and when it did, she called Samantha and relived all the gory details. Lenny was lucky to escape most of this exposition, but he usually ended up listening to one side of the conversation, which consisted of many “uh huh,” “I can’t believe it!” and “How is that possible?”

“I’ve been looking through his phone’s text messages. At first it was innocent. I had sent him a phone number by text message, and I forgot it and wanted to get it back. As I was looking through his messages inbox, I came across a bunch of numbers that I didn’t know. I wrote them down—it was all innocent. I just wanted to be sure. You know what I mean? I wasn’t checking up on him, I was just curious is all. I didn’t even think it was another woman. Why would I? He’s such a defenseless man, I didn’t think he could get another woman.”

Samantha made a sympathetic sound. “At first it was an accident, I dialed the wrong number on the paper. I meant to dial the number I had planned to write down—the phone number I originally wanted from his text message inbox, but I forgot which was which and just started calling the numbers.”

The first number I called was for an escort service. I didn’t even know what an escort service was! I had to look up their website—why would he need to call such a place?”

Samantha made another sympathetic sound and Lenny drained his glass of wine, hoping he’d have another urge to run to the bathroom. This was worse than he had imagined. The woman could talk. Samantha was engrossed by the conversation. Lenny wanted to shoot himself.

“And then. Then,” Stacy stopped to blow her nose. Samantha grabbed her arm. “The next number I dialed was for a woman named Tomlin. You should have heard the nasty things she told me. It was awful. I called Andy to ask him who these people are and do you know what this son of a bitch said? He denied any knowledge of these people. He said that he had been receiving wrong numbers on his phone. His phone bill tells a completely different story. He spoke to this woman Tomlin for over an hour three times last week.”

“How did you get his phone bill?” Lenny said, the question slipping from his mouth before he had a chance to evaluate whether this was information he really wanted to know about.

“I snuck a look at it when I visited him yesterday. He’s cheating on me, and I think he’s doing it with hookers.” Stacy started crying loudly. The diners in the other tables began to watch and Lenny hunched over. He signaled the busboy for more water.

The dinner arrived interrupting Stacy’s story. Samantha squeezed Stacy’s arm, and Stacy wiped the tears from her ears, blew her nose nosily, and tucked the cloth napkin into her shirt color. It was served family style. A plate of heaping spaghetti topped with four oversized meatballs was placed in the middle of the table. Two vegetable plates of fried onion rings and fried zucchini came next. The waiter then made room in the middle of the table for the main dish: diced chicken-fried steak. Lenny groaned.

The girls dug in, and within moments of starting, their cloth napkins glowed with the grease from their fingers. Lenny picked at the zucchini, removing the fried shell before cutting up and eating each vegetable. His appetite was hardier than he expected, particularly with the food he was eating. After finishing the zucchini plate, having to dissect and eat quickly to stop the girls from taking his stalks, he started in on the spaghetti, and we he looked up, he had finished half the plate.

“You’re hungry today. Been to the gym or something?” Samantha said.

“No. That’s weird. I was planning on having a few zucchinis and calling it a night. You know how I feel about this type of food. I guess I was hungrier than I thought.”

“I never understood you, Lenny. How can you eat as little as you do? I feel much better knowing that you splurge occasionally. Have some meatballs. They’re yummy,” Stacy said. Lenny rubbed his stomach, which felt funny, like it was hollow or missing something. He was not hungry, but he felt like he could eat more food. He stabbed a meatball and put it on his plate. The meatball dripped orange oil on to his plate. Under other circumstances, the site of the pool of oil would have disgusted him enough not to eat the meatball. But he cut it into fours and ate each piece.

“Are you sure he’s cheating on you? Could you be mistaken? Maybe it was like he said: somebody got the wrong number and started calling it. This happened to Charlie a long time ago.” Samantha said.

“Must you bring up Charlie constantly?” Lenny said.

“Don’t you love it when your guy gets jealous? I try to drop Charlie’s name at least once a day, just to remind Lenny how lucky he has it,” Samantha said and pointed to her nose.

“If I still had a man, I’m sure I’d love it, but at this point in my life. Do you think he was telling the truth? It’s not that far fetched. I sometimes get people calling with the wrong number, and if, maybe, someone was giving out the wrong number—you know how when you first get a number sometimes you don’t remember it that well and you give out the wrong number? Maybe something like that happened, and somebody was giving out his number to a whole bunch of people,” Stacy said.

“It’s possible,” Samantha said.

“Anything is possible,” Lenny said. He wasn’t sure why he said that. But he knew what was going on with Andy. He wasn’t sure how he knew it—he was sure that he wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation—but into his head popped all the information about Andy and his addiction to phone sex and an extortion ring. Lenny’s chest felt warm and there was a strong part of him that felt bad for Andy and Stacy. He felt that they were right for each other, and if they could get past this, they could be happy for a long time. Lenny did not know what he was thinking or why he was thinking it.

“Did you spill spaghetti sauce on your sweater, Lenny?” Samantha said.

Lenny was still overwhelmed by the feeling was that were coming to him about Stacy and her relationship with Andy.

“Your sweater looks redder now. Did the light change?” Samantha said.

“I don’t think so. The sweater does look pinker, now that you mention it.” Stacy said.

Lenny didn’t hear what Stacy and Samantha said. His mind was playing through different scenarios of telling Stacy about Andy. If he tells her the truth, she would never believe it, no matter how many details he gives. Lenny didn’t think how he knew that it was the truth; just that it was the truth, and he should help her out. It had taken him a while to get that last thought through his head. He had consciously weighed the pros and cons. She was a friend of Samantha, and to make Samantha happy, he should help her. But did he want to get involved and make things worse. He wouldn’t make things worse because he has time to think about a good solution and a better outcome. Would Stacy and Andy be happy together? Yes. Lenny’s mind was racing with facts and outcomes and scenarios.

“Lenny? Are you okay? Maybe it wasn’t the sweater that was getting redder, but your face that was getting whiter. Lenny? Are you there?” Samantha said.

“He’s not looking good, Samantha. Is he choking on something?” Stacy said.

He could see that Stacy and Andy would have three children, and the second child would die when he was three years old. He knew he couldn’t change that death. Again, he didn’t know how he knew, but he knew that there were events that would happen regardless of what choices people made. Even with their second child’s death, Stacy and Andy would stay together and become closer through a support group. If they don’t marry, Stacy will never be happy. She will die a bitter old lady. Lenny wasn’t sure if that mattered to him. But he saw that Samantha stayed in touch with Stacy, and would share in her triumph or failures. He started to think about whether Samantha would stay with him and stopped that line of thought. There were just certain things he didn’t want to know at this time.

“Lenny? Lenny? You’re growing paler. I think we should call someone,” Samantha said.

Lenny’s thoughts quieted when he forced himself to not think about Samantha. He heard the worry in Samantha’s voice and looked up. Samantha was behind him, shaking his shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” Lenny said. “I must have blanked out there for a moment. I was having the weirdest thoughts.” But as hard as he tried, Lenny only had a fuzzy recollection of his thoughts. “I think I need some water.”

“He seems to be okay now. No, we don’t need an ambulance. Yes, I understand this is the emergency line, and this was an emergency. We were worried about him. It was a few minutes. Yes. Okay. Thank you—you as well.” Stacy hung up her cell phone.

“What happened there?” Samantha said.

Lenny took a deep drink from his glass and finished the water. He poured the ice into his mouth and started chewing. “I don’t know,” Lenny said between chews. “I’m better now. I think I overheated or something. That was the strangest feeling.”

“Well don’t do that again,” Samantha said. “And you are going to make a doctor’s appointment. How long have I been asking?”

“But my sister is a doctor. I talk to her on the phone at least once a week. What more can I ask?” Lenny said.

“And every time I speak with her, she says that you should see your own doctor, get your vitals check, and have them run blood tests. You’re the only one who thinks that talking to her counts as seeing the doctor. Especially after that—after your episode. If you don’t call the doctor tomorrow I will,” Samantha said.

Lenny nodded and watched Stacy put away her phone. “Stacy, I was thinking about what you said about Andy. I think he’s lying. I’m telling you this from a guy’s point of view. I don’t normally break the guy’s honor system, but let me tell you what he’s probably hiding.”

Stacy leaned forward and Samantha watched with an amused look on her face.

“There’s something he’s keeping from you,” Lenny said. He knew he had to help Stacy fix her problems with Andy. It was the right thing to do. His thoughts were swinging around his head. Where was this advice coming from? He felt so sure about it and began blurting it out, like he was reading a script or reciting the lines of a movie he had watched hundreds of times. “Perhaps it is a girlfriend from an old relationship that he still talks to, or something like that. You have to confront him and drag it out of him. Most guys want to tell you things, and I’m sure Andy is no different. I’ve met him and he seems like an honest guy, and guys like that don’t like to hide things. They like to have a clean conscious. Go to him tonight and talk to him. Sit him down and don’t let him leave until you find out what it is. Once you do, if you can handle whatever it turns out to be, work it out. Then fuck, or do whatever it is you kids do, but make sure you do something to consummate and impress upon him that he did right by telling you. I have a good feeling that you can work out whatever it is that’s wrong.

“I know you didn’t want my advice. I know that the last thing you girls ever want from men is advice. But please trust me on this. I like Andy and I want to see you happy—honestly, I want to see you happy so that Samantha’s happy,” Lenny said. He had one additional thought that he kept to himself. He was sure that even when she was happy, Stacy would find something else to bitch about. Why Samantha enjoyed Stacy’s company, Lenny did not know. And when his thoughts began to whirl in his head, he decided he did not want to know. What he wanted to know was where all these thoughts were coming form. To that, his mind was silent.

“Wow,” Samantha said. “That was impressive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lenny string so many words together in public. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m feeling fine,” Lenny said. “Better than I’ve felt for as long as I can remember.” Lenny grabbed another helping of spaghetti from the serving plate and speared the last two meatballs onto his plate. Stacy sat deep in thought.

“I have to make a phone call,” Stacy said. “Will you two excuse me?” Without waiting for an answer, Stacy left the table.

“What is going on?” Samantha said.

Lenny felt a strong desire not to say anything and blow off the whole incident. But he knew he couldn’t do that to Samantha, regardless of how he felt. “It was very strange,” Lenny said. “I can’t explain it, but I knew that that was the right thing for her to do. Maybe I am coming down with something.”

“It’s called empathy for other human beings,” Samantha said. “And it’s an incurable human condition. Welcome to our race.”

Lenny smiled but didn’t respond. He was too busy stuffing spaghetti and meatballs into his mouth.

Word count: 2,504

Words left: 43,241

Caffeination: Tall Mocha

Feeling: Bored and dragging the first half, and then I hit a sweet spot for the second half. That was the best I've felt writing since I started. I didn't even bother to read it through after I finished.