When I returned, the water contained no lemon and an excessive amount of ice.

She stared at the glass and sighed dramatically.

“Did Richard train you at all?” she asked.

“How exactly does Richard prefer things done?” I replied.

She leaned back against the sofa with a patient smile.

“Efficiently,” she said. “And with respect for his guests.”

I considered that statement.

“Are you a frequent guest here?”

She laughed.

“I’m here every Tuesday and Thursday when his wife goes to work,” she explained casually. “Sometimes Saturdays too, if she has her little book club meetings.”

I do not belong to a book club.

Two months earlier I had changed my work schedule so that I was no longer in the office on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Richard did not know that.

The Version of Me She Invented

I leaned against the kitchen doorway.

“You seem to know quite a lot about his wife,” I said.

Alexis rolled her eyes.

“Enough to understand the situation,” she replied.

Her voice took on a tone of theatrical sympathy.

“She’s older, apparently very boring, and she doesn’t take care of herself anymore. Richard only stays with her because it’s easier than going through a divorce.”

She said the words with cheerful confidence.

“He told me she trapped him when they were young,” Alexis continued. “Now he’s stuck with a woman who probably doesn’t even know what Botox is.”

Without thinking, I touched my cheek.