“There’s nothing to tell. Cameron and I are trying, that’s all. I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. And I’m not even sure yet. I’m just late. But I don’t want to drink just in case.” Tessa smiled again. “I’ll probably take a test next week. Don’t say anything.”

“I won’t say a word,” Victoria said. She pulled Tessa into a tight, rigid hug.

That evening, Jasper ran to the market for steaks. Tessa slept soundly in a lounge chair on the patio. Cameron came down the stairs and Victoria met him in the hallway where Tessa had spilled her secret earlier in the afternoon.

“You’re a bastard!” Victoria said, bringing her hand up and slapping him sharply across the face.

“What the hell?” Cameron grabbed her wrist.

“She’s pregnant?”

“What?”

“Tessa is pregnant?”

“No.”

“You’re trying. She told me all about it.”

“Lower your voice! You want her to wake up?”

“I don’t give a shit. You’re a bastard!”

She tried to slap him with her other hand, but Cameron grabbed that wrist as well.

“Stop it,” he said, fighting to subdue her as she flailed against his grip.

“You told me you weren’t sleeping with her,” Victoria said.

“She initiated it. What was I supposed to do? Tell my wife I’ve taken a vow of celibacy?”

“So what’s happening here? You’re trying to get your wife pregnant? The woman you promised me you’re about to divorce, you’re now trying to impregnate?”

“You’re being irrational. It was the first time we’ve slept together in months.”

Victoria clenched her teeth together. “You made me get a goddamn abortion, Cameron. I aborted our baby because you convinced me the timing was not right. That it was too soon and that it would blow up our lives. Do you remember this?”

“Of course I remember.”

“But the timing is right with Tessa? You’re a fucking monster! And a goddamn liar!”

He put his face in front of hers, so their lips were just inches apart. “You know I love you. And you know I want to be with you.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

“What do you suggest I do? Walk out there right now and tell Tessa I want a divorce? Wait for Jasper to get home so we can all have a discussion over dinner about our affair, about how we’ve fallen in love and that we plan to leave them?”

“We’ll have to have that discussion at some point.”

“I know that. But I’d say over the Fourth of July while we’re all staying together is not the right time.”

There was a pause while Victoria looked down at the floor. “Is she really not allowed into your studio?”