My sincere thanks to Wedjat for his editing skills.




The night that was
Chapter 3
It’s final

Diane Taylor sat aimlessly at the kitchen table. Her long, modest robe had partially come undone to reveal the unpretentious bra and panties she wore underneath. Her body completely drained of any strength, leaving not even the energy to get herself a cup of morning coffee. Her eyes were fixed on the window overlooking the back yard, but she didn’t notice the crystal blue sky, or the left over droplets from last night’s spring rain clinging to the green leaves.

Even the ringing phone could not break through the fog that was her brain at the moment. For the first time in a month tears once again stained her cheeks.

On the table in front of her was a torn open envelope from the Cook County District Court. And next to it laid several sheets of unfolded paper. At the top of the first sheet was the heading;

“Termination of Marriage.”

This was not a surprise. It had been six months in the making. Still, try as she did, there was just no way to prepare herself for this moment. She was officially without her husband, and without the life she had known and loved for the last eleven years. Yes, it was official, through no one’s fault but her own. She had ruined `her life`, her `husband‘s life`, as well as that of her children.

Diane thought back to the first time she saw him. Having a successful career in modeling, she had met hundreds of photographers. Even dated a few. But Dan had something special. At the time she couldn’t put her finger on it. It wasn’t self-confidence. He was confident in his abilities as a photographer he was just somewhat shy in other areas. It wasn’t his good looks, although he was good looking, she had known thousands of good looking men.

It wasn’t until their first date that she realized what it was about Dan that set him apart. It was his passion! Passion for his work, passion for life, passion for always trying to do the right thing whether it was the popular thing or not. And the passion he already had for her.

When they met, Diane was in the midst of a successful modeling career. Her face was immediately recognized among the jet-set crowd, but even the woman ahead of her in the check out, at the super market, would stare and say, “I know you, you’re the girl from the magazine.” Yes, Diane was at least, mildly famous, and yet, when she took his arm and walked beside Dan, it was she that puffed out her chest with pride and thought, look everyone, look who I’m with.

Later that morning Dan was in the back room of his studio paying bills for another month of being in business for himself, when he heard the buzzer ring indicating someone had entered the waiting room. He leaned back in his chair and craned his neck back to see who had walked in.

Beverly Hall was standing in the doorway. She was not his favorite person. `Now what the heck does she want`, he thought.

“Bev,” he yelled with a motion of his hand. She looked in the direction of his voice. “Back here,” he said, “Be careful of all the cords and stuff.”

Bev carefully maneuvered through the maze of light stands, cameras, and cords that made up the studio’s shooting room, and approached Dan in the rear office. As she got closer, Dan could see she was upset. Her eyes looked as if she had been crying, and her hands were shaking.

This was not the Bev he knew. This was not the sarcastic bitch who told Diane about his date with Cathy. This was someone he had never seen before.

“You have to stop this,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion. “You have to stop! You have to go back to her Dan! You have to!”

“Bev, what’s the matter, is something wrong with Diane? I’ve never seen you like this before.” Dan’s voice now showing concern instead of indifference.

“She got the divorce papers today. She was supposed to go shopping with me today, but when I got to the house she was just sitting there, staring at the walls, almost catatonic.”

“I wondered,” said Dan, “I’ve been trying to call her all morning. I knew those papers were coming. I got mine today too. I wanted to warn her so it wouldn’t be so much of a shock but she never picked up the phone.”

“Dan, I don’t think she would have understood a word you said if she had picked it up. I never saw her like this.”

“Well is she alright?” Dan was getting worried.

“I don’t know Dan. I walked her up to bed and asked your neighbor if she would stay there for awhile.”

Dan immediately picked up his cell phone and dialed his house phone.

“Hello.”

“Mrs. Walker, this is Dan.”

“Hello Mr. Taylor, are you coming home?”

“Mrs. Walker I can’t really leave the studio right now. How is she?”

“Well, she stopped crying, I think she is asleep.”

“Mrs. Walker, can you do me a favor please. Just peek in on her and make sure she’s okay for me. But do it quietly if she is asleep. I don’t want to wake her.”

“Yes Mr. Taylor, just a minute.” The elderly Mrs. Walker took each step slowly as she climbed the stairs and looked into the master bedroom. There she saw Diane, in somewhat of a fitful sleep, still breathing erratically from a morning of crying.

Mrs. Walker descended the stairs so she wouldn’t disturb Diane before assuring Mr. Taylor that she was sleeping. Dan thanked her and asked if she could still stay there in case she woke up. To Dan’s relief, the kind neighbor promised she would stay.

Dan told Bev that Diane was sleeping. “Have a seat Bev.” he said in a kinder tone, “Can I get you some coffee?”

Bev sat down and accepted his offer. “Dan please, I have known Diane almost all our lives. She loves you, you have to go back to her.”

“Tell me how Bev?” Dan started. “Tell me how to trust her again and I’ll go back with wings on my feet. There was a time when I would never have questioned her fidelity. I trusted her implicitly, but that trust was betrayed Bev. She ripped my heart out. Even if I could get over the hurt, tell me how to get back that trust? If you can do that I’ll go back tonight.”

Dan’s hand was starting to shake now as his emotions climbed from being forced to talk about it again.

“Tell me Bev. Tell me how I could come to work and not wonder where she is or who she’s with. Tell me how I keep from being suspicious every time she leaves the house to go shopping or to go have lunch with you or one of her other friends. Please tell me! Tell me and I’m back.”

“Dan, she hasn’t seen anyone since you walked out. I know her, she would never do this again.” Bev’s voice was also weak as she pleaded for her friend.

Dan noticed her coffee cup was almost empty and took it for a refill. “Bev, you may be right, but how would I ever know for sure? Diane couldn’t live like that either. Can you imagine being under constant suspicion? How would you feel if every time you left the house you knew Jim would be wondering if you were cheating on him? If every time you came home, even if he didn’t ask you, you could tell he was wondering where you’ve been, who were you with? And then see doubt in his eyes when you tried to reassure him he had nothing to worry about.”

Dan handed her a full cup of brew and filled his own cup again. “I know I couldn’t live under constant scrutiny like that. I’m sure Diane would be understanding at first, but for how long? How long would it take me before I started trusting her again? Would it be before or after she started to resent my suspicions? How long before she started to resent me for still having them? “

Bev was starting to understand. It wasn’t his ego or his anger that was keeping Dan from going back home. He had thought it out completely and from every angle. She could see he looked for a way back but couldn’t find it.

“Bev” Dan said, “Don’t you think I want to go back? Hell, I‘d give up everything I own if I could go back in time and have everything as it was. By God! I’ve stayed awake nights trying to come up with way to go back and make it work. Some kind of a plan, therapy…something! But I’ve come up empty…Every time, absolutely empty. It all boils down to one thing…`Trust`. When I think back to that night I caught her, I just think of her looking straight in my face and lying to me. I can‘t forget that, Bev. As much as I love her, I don‘t think I could ever really trust her again, not completely.”

Now Bev saw the tears welling up in Dan’s eyes. Before, she thought Dan was just being a hard ass. But now she saw this was killing him as much as it was Diane. He just had more strength to deal with it than she did …. That’s all.

“Bev, you’ve got to help her,” said Dan, “You’re her best friend, and she needs you. Please, no more running to her telling her all about some girl you’ve seen me with.”

Bev hung her head low. “I know….. I shouldn’t have done that. I was so sorry after I saw how it affected her. I’ve been pissed at her too. I knew about Jerry and, to this day, I don’t know why. She didn’t even seem to like him. I didn’t even know about the guy from the bank, so when I found out she cheated on you again, well I just got pissed and when I saw you with that pretty girl I guess I just felt she deserved it.”

“She needs to start getting on with her life, Bev. She needs to find someone who will make her happy,” said Dan wiping a tear from his eye.

“I don’t think there’s much chance of that,” said Bev. “She told me the other day, if she couldn’t have you she didn’t want any man.”

“That’s just silly, Bev,” Dan said with a scowl on his face, “she needs someone to love and who will love her. She can’t punish herself forever. I don’t want that.”

“Well there was another reason she said she shouldn’t date as well, she said she would never bring another man home in front of Amy and Marsha. I think she means it, Dan. I know her and I don’t see her dating, at least not for a long, long time.”

“I have a client coming in soon. When I’m done I’ll close up and go to see her. I’ll talk to her.”

Beverly thought for a minute. “Dan, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I wanted to come and talk to you in person. I really thought I could persuade you to go back to her. I see now I was wrong. I’m going back, I’ll take care of her for awhile. I’m going to stop by my place and pack some clothes and stay with her and the kids for awhile, but she’s got to learn to face this, to stand on her own two feet. If you go there again she’ll just keep leaning on you and hoping you’ll come back to her. No, let me do it.”

“Okay Bev, if you think that’s best,” Dan was doing everything he could again to hold back his tears. “I do still love her you know, that will never change, I’ll love her until I die. I just can’t go back. If I did, I think there is a chance we would learn to resent each other. That wouldn’t be good for her, me, or the kids.”

“I know, Dan, I know. I’m glad I came over. I see everything from a different perspective now. Damn, someone should make a movie about you two and show the unbelievable hurt an affair can cause. I guaranty it would make people think twice before stepping out on their spouse.”

As Bev left, Dan had a completely different opinion of her than when she walked into the studio just an hour ago. He always thought he was a pretty good judge of character, but he sure misjudged her. Jim, her husband, was always such a nice guy he wondered what he ever saw in Bev, now he knew.

Bev did go back and stay with Diane, for over two weeks. She worked hard to convince Diane that she needed to start getting her life back in order. Finally Diane started to take care of herself again. At least she was getting dressed in the mornings and not walking around in her robe. She was wearing make-up again and looking ravishing. Bev convinced her it was time to start looking for a full-time job.

On the Q.T. Dan was calling Bev on her cell phone and getting updates on her progress. He started to feel a little better himself. He certainly took no pleasure in watching Diane suffer. She was the mother of his children and it didn’t do them any good to watch their mother agonizing every day either.

A couple months had past with not much happing.