On the night in question, dressed in a sheer pink baby-doll negligee and a G-string, I sashayed up to Tom and handed him his second whisky laced with the sleeping pill in it.
“See, now that’s what I want in a wife,” he said. “Someone who is one step ahead of me.” He smiled with satisfaction at my Stepford ways. “Sexy bitch!”
I allowed him a grope or two. When he tried to slip his hand into my G-string, I grabbed it. “Go upstairs, strip, and wait for me,” I said in a husky voice. “I got some plans for you. It involves sweating. Both of us sweating.”
“Ooooh, I like it!” he cried and drank up. Within half an hour he was fast asleep. Snoring.
“Tom?” I pinched him, tickled him, and even slapped him, but he didn’t wake up.
I nodded, and as instructed by Bear, I slipped on some latex gloves, walked up to a shrub in my garden, and removed a packet from under it containing a large bag of white powder, together with several small bags of white powder.
I walked up to a sleeping Tom and pressed his fingers to the bags.
Next, I went to the safe, opened it, and got out his 9 mm. I knew that his fingerprints would already be on the gun, but I needed to make sure. After placing the gun in his hand and ensuring that I had his fingerprints on the trigger as well, I slipped the gun into a plastic bag.
I fetched Tom’s black beanie, slipped it over his head, then removed it and placed that too in the plastic bag. Finally, I slipped a pair of black gloves onto his hands, removed them, and together with the other items, placed all of them under the driver’s seat of Tom’s Porsche.
I went back inside the house and switched my living room light on and off – my signal for Bear to fetch the bag from under the shrub.
A short while later, after glancing at the clock, I called one of our pretentious so-called friends, Trish, about her cheesecake recipe. (I hated cheesecake.) After thanking her for it, I hung up.
Half an hour later, I dialed another one of our pompous friends, Miriam, about the same recipe, saying that I preferred hers to Trish’s.
“Oh, everybody prefers my cheesecake to Trish’s, Arena,” she bragged. “Don’t know why Trish bothers to bake in the first place. Everything she bakes tastes like it was chipped out of Ayers Rock itself. Dry and tasteless.” She gave a jeering laugh.
“I totally agree, and sorry for calling you so late,” I said. “Didn’t realize the time.”
Around midnight, Bear, wearing a ski jacket identical to one that Tom had, a black beanie, and black gloves, strode into our garage, which was opened, slipped behind the wheel of Tom’s black Porsche, and drove away. In the passenger’s seat of the Porsche lay Tom’s cell phone.
An hour later, I heard the Porsche pull into our garage.
I peeped in to look at Tom – he was still snoring.
Throwing on a gown, I ran down to our garage. Bear was adjusting the driver’s seat back to its original position. He was wearing gloves, so he didn’t need to worry about fingerprints being on the Porsche.
I shut the garage door and looked at Bear. He looked wired, and his eyes were shiny. After he handed me the bag again, we talked in my kitchen.
When he finished, I smiled. “Come with me, Baby Bear. Let me give you a tour of my crib and then I’m going to fuck you silly.”
He smiled.
I showed him around the house, then took him into my bedroom where Tom was sleeping. I motioned to the bed.
“Here?”
I nodded and shed my gown while Tom snored away.
“You sure?”
“Yep, I’m that fucked up right now. The ultimate disrespect. I want to do it with him in the bed.”
Bear grinned. “Whatever floats your boat, baby.”
As we floated my boat, Tom suddenly opened his eyes and looked at us.
Both Bear and I froze.
“Arena?” Tom squinted at me, then at Bear. For a few moments he just stared. Then his eyes closed again and he resumed his snoring.
Bear and I exchanged nervous looks.
“Thought you said he wouldn’t wake up.”
Bear shrugged, then we continued our disrespecting of Tom.
“Do you think he’ll remember this when he wakes up?” I asked as we dressed.
“Nah. It’ll be like a dream if he does. But he’ll wonder if it was really a dream. Trust me, I’ve tried and tested it.”
I nodded. “Hope it plagues him.”
“It will. Make no mistake about that.”
“Now, I have to do what I have to do,” Bear said.
I nodded reluctantly.
“See you in a month, baby,” he said, taking my face in his hands for a deep kiss.
With a heavy heart, and with tears in my eyes, I said goodbye to my lover and friend. The man who loved me enough to kill for me.