The Anniversary

Chapter 2

“Can I ask you something, Toby?”

Toby lowered his glass and looked at his friend lounging in the chair opposite, his muscular legs clad in white shorts stretched out in front of him.

“Sure, what is it?”

“How the hell are you still smiling these days?”

“Excuse me?”

Emil Girdwood shrugged.

“You’ve been married twenty years. You shouldn’t have anything to smile about.”

Toby couldn’t help but smile. He shouldn’t smile; Emil had got divorced the week before for the fourth time and he was in a bad mood about marriage. This game of squash they had just played had been his way of trying to take his mind off his fourth wife taking his money and walking away, threatening alimony in spite of the fact they didn’t have children.

Evidently Emil’s mood was too much and he wanted to take a pot shot at Toby’s marriage.

“When you’re married to someone like Simone, Emil, you certainly have something to smile about.”

Twenty years next month they would have been married. Twenty-seven years and three months altogether. It had been an amazing twenty-seven years despite the aggravation from his family and former friends and their many attempts to split them up over the years. He hadn’t spoken to his parents since Carl was a baby and his high school friends turned their backs whenever they saw him. Back when he had sold his company for billions at the right time, they had flocked around him hoping to get some of the cash because they were ‘friends’. Then when they discovered he wasn’t going to favor them at all they had disappeared again.

Toby didn’t need them. They weren’t worth his time.

Emil, on the other hand, was worth his time. They had met at university and gone into business together. Now both had more money than they needed and spent their days at their pace. Emil splashed his money on women and expensive trips to the Caribbean. Toby spent his on his family. They had differences about how to spend the money but their friendship was solid, even with Emil’s constant womanizing and bed-hopping.

Emil looked envious, glowering as he looked over the tennis courts below them from their position on the terrace.

“You have certainly got yourself a good woman.”

“I certainly have.” Toby tried to stop his chest from puffing out with pride but failed. “I wouldn’t change her for anything.”

“Why can’t I find a girl like her?” Emil gave Toby a sly, hopeful look. “Can I borrow her?”

Toby laughed.

“No way. You’ve ‘borrowed’ several wives off their husbands and married four of them. You’re not doing that with Simone.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. How are you still friends with me with my lifestyle?”

Toby had wondered about that. Emil was shameless with women and didn’t care if they were attached or otherwise. Toby often got snide comments about being friends with a man who ruined marriages but Toby knew the real Emil. When you saw the real Emil Girdwood, it was worth it.

“I’ve smacked your head against a wall enough times.” Literally as well as figuratively. “But why can’t you find a woman who’s single to marry?”

“Why?” Emil shrugged and sipped at his beer. “I just don’t find single women attractive.”

“Liar.”

Emil loved all women. Tall, short, curvy or skinny, red, brown or black-haired, he wasn’t fussy. Ethnicity wasn’t an issue, either; his last wife had been Japanese. But he was right; he was drawn more to women who were unattainable.

They didn’t stay unattainable for long once they had Emil’s charm hit them. It made it easier to fall for the charm with Emil’s handsome looks. Tall, muscular and jet-black hair, he was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. Women swooned all over him even when he wasn’t working his charm.

Simone was probably the only woman who hadn’t succumbed to it. Her and her family. Maria simply laughed at his attempts and their mother swatted him, playing up to his flirting but keeping her hands to herself. Emil was a big hit with Simone’s family.

“Maybe that’s what Simone’s doing.” Emil said slyly, a dry smirk spreading across face. “She’s sleeping around to make the marriage more interesting.”

Toby stiffened. This felt like a replay of the conversation he had had with his brother the week before. Another attempt to say Simone was only with him for his money. Toby had ignored it all but after nearly thirty years he hated it. And Emil knew this.

He jabbed a finger at his friend.

“Don’t mess with my head, Emil. You know Simone would never do that. Just because you’re in a bad mood about your divorce doesn’t mean you can take me down with you.”

“Sorry.” Emil shook his head. “But I’m still wondering what a beautiful woman like her is doing with an old git like you.”

“You are a bas*ard today.”

“I know.” Emil finished the rest of his pint, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Speaking of bas*ards, are you still going ahead with your lunch date with Mike?”

“He is my brother and it’s best to keep the peace with him.”

Toby wasn’t looking forward to it but Mike made things difficult until Toby gave in. So he gritted his teeth and got on with it.

“But he’s nasty. I don’t know why you do it.”

“Neither do I.” Toby pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “I don’t understand his motivation for having lunch with me when all he wants to talk about is Simone cheating on me and only with me for my money because that’s what black women do. But it’s better to keep him sweet.”

“You just talk to him because he’s the only person in your family who does.” Emil pointed out. “Your parents haven’t spoken to you in nearly eighteen years. Your brother and sister are only talking to you when they want money, hoping you’ll give them a chunk.” He sighed. “I was playing golf the other day and your father was playing with an old friend of his. He called Simone a gold-digger and the things they both said about her made our ears burn.”

Toby swallowed back the anger. His father was even worse than Mike and it hurt that the man he had looked up to as a kid refused to have anything to do with him. All because of Simone.