“Sweetheart, please let us explain,” Tom says as he looks at the photo. His own face is etched with pain, and I can tell he feels just as shitty as I do that Michelle had to find out this way.
“Don’t sweetheart me! Besides, what is there to explain? You’re married, and that’s a major omission. I should have known that our whole situation was too good to be true. You bastards!” she cries.
Within seconds of her impassioned monologue, Michelle bursts into tears, her whole body slumping forward as she sobs. Unable to take it anymore, I go to her and pull her into my arms.
“Please, just hear us out,” I croon as I hold the weeping woman close, stroking her hair. “We can explain everything.”
“No, I don’t want to know.” Michelle’s voice is muffled against my chest.
“Please, honey,” I whisper, “please.”
The curvy brunette looks up at me, still beautiful despite her tear-soaked face and red cheeks.
“Fine, what is it?” she asks in a choked voice. Tom and I nod, and we lead her so she’s sitting on the couch. My brother and I take seats across from her, but I quickly find that I’m too restless to remain still and start pacing back and forth.
“The women in that photo,” Tom begins, but then shakes his head. He rubs his hands against his facial stubble, clearly upset. “No, first – I need to know. How did you learn about all of this?”
Michelle shrugs dejectedly and wipes at her tears. “I was reading a gossip magazine, and this article was suggested. I wouldn’t have looked twice except it was obviously the two of you in the photo.” She bites her bottom lip then asks, “Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Of course we were.” I interject, pausing my frenetic pacing for a moment and staring at the beautiful woman. “Last night in fact.” I shake my head, frustrated by the ill timing of that damn article. “We were going to tell you everything.”
“Funny,” Michelle says dryly. “Now you say that you’re going to tell me. After your cover’s blown. Isn’t the timing just perfect?”
I take a deep breath.
“I know it sounds nefarious on our part, and manipulative too. But the timing really was fucking awful, and I swear, we were going to tell you. We just wanted to wait until things were finalized.”
“Plus, our situation was complicated.” Tom kneels next to where Michelle so that he’s eye level with her. “And we didn’t want to burden you, not before we’d worked out the details.”
“Consider me burdened.” Michelle sniffles, and I can hear deep bitterness in her tone. “Consider me utterly fucked, in fact.”
I shake my head, miserable.
“We were married, Michelle. But the key word is ‘were.’” I explain, trying to find the best way to explain what happened.
She won’t look at me. The curvy girl merely stares out the window, although I can tell she’s listening.
“Did you hear me, honey? Sarah and Victoria? Those women in the photos? Those are our our ex-wives.”
Michelle’s head swivels towards me.
“Your exes?” The pretty brown eyes flit from Tom to me. “I’m sorry, but why did the article refer to them as your wives then?” There’s a hint of mistrust in Michelle’s question, and I know that we have to be as candid as possible in order to make her listen.
“Because these magazines never know what they’re talking about. How many times have you read about how Princess Diana is giving birth to aliens? Or a UFO sighting over New Jersey? They get everything wrong all the time. You see, Tom and I were married. We tied the knot a few years back, and yes, we were married to Victoria and Sarah. But we were never in love with them.”
Michelle looks at us with mistrust.
“I’m sure,” she says dryly.
Oh shit, she’s not believing us, and my brother jumps in with desperation.
“It’s part of the whole appearing more stable and trustworthy,” Tom offers, leaning forward. “For a long time, Gabriel and I were both only seen as ‘wild.’ So wild, in fact, that maybe we shouldn’t run our family company. So we agreed that we needed to settle down, and establish ourselves as respectable.” Tom shrugs. “It’s stupid how much social pressure there is, but that’s why we got married.”
I nod, echoing Tom’s explanation. “The women never loved us either. Don’t get me wrong: they wanted the status, money, and the title of Mrs. Costas. But when we announced we wanted divorces, Sarah and Victoria were more than happy to say yes.”
Michelle narrows her eyes at us.
“So why were you with your exes yesterday then?”
This is the big moment. Gently, I take Michelle’s small hand in my own.
“This picture is from yesterday morning, the exact moment we were leaving our divorce attorney’s office. We all went out to get lunch, and then came back for more paperwork in the afternoon. But we had literally just signed our divorce papers, sweetheart. Tom and I are single men now.”