“Heyyy there, Minnie Mouse,” Connor said.
“Hey,” she said, wondering if Adam could hear her or if he really was sleeping. She thought about going upstairs to check but decided not to.
She could see that Connor was wearing a ratty T-shirt too and a pair of sweatshorts. Minnie’s desire flickered at the intimacy of it. Connor usually practiced in his basement too. His was finished like theirs, with cushy carpet and a row of paperbacks and college textbooks behind him.
“You want to play it together to see what we’ve got?” he asked.
“Okay,” she said, suddenly feeling quiet. She’d wanted to see his face on her phone, she wanted to play, but now she was tired. Tired of everything.
“I was drinking a vodka tonic. A vodka tonic with lime,” Connor said.
“Are you drunk?” she asked.
“Off one vodka tonic? I’m offended.”
“Well, I don’t know how many you’ve had!”
“Oh, Minnie Mouse, are you in a fussy mood? Have you eaten?”
“Yes, I’ve eaten! Stop that! I’m fine,” she said, laughing lightly.
“You’re the WORST when you’re hangry,” he said, readjusting his camera so he could sit in his chair properly. He put his viola underneath his chin. He looked buzzed, his hair bed-headish. She’d seen him buzzy and drunk before and easily recognized the familiar wide, sheepish grin.
“Are we going to play this or are you going to bug me instead?”
“I may be a little drunk,” Connor admitted. He let his viola rest on his knee, looked right into his phone camera. He made a tiny space between his thumb and forefinger.
“Asshole,” Minnie said.
Connor lifted his viola, put it under his chin again and played the beginning of the new piece perfectly. Minnie watched, listened. Then he played Beyoncé’s “Halo” for her too. They played it together at weddings sometimes. It was one of Minnie’s favorites. Afterward, Connor put his viola on the floor next to him, picked up his phone, looked into the camera.
Minnie covered her face, turned the phone away.
“Hey, are you okay? What’s going on?” Connor’s voice said out at her.
“Nothing. I’m fine,” she said. She was crying. She sniffed.
“Well, turn the damn phone around so I can see you please. You don’t sound fine. Wilhelmina!”
She wiped her eyes, turned the phone around.
“Wilhelmina, why are you sad?” Connor asked. He relaxed his body, leaning back and balancing his left ankle on his right knee.
“I’m not. It’s the song.”
“Where’s Adam?”
“Upstairs.” Minnie used the collar of her shirt to wipe her eyes some more.
“What else are you thinking about?” Connor asked.
“Nothing.”
Minnie sniffed again and with her tender, wavy, cry-voice, told Connor she wanted to run through the piece a couple times. So they did and they sounded lovely together. It would sound even better tomorrow with both violins. Minnie and Connor sat there looking at one another for a little too long.
“All right, little Minnie Mouse…I guess I’m going to hit the hay,” Connor said as he put his viola in the case. Minnie caught a glimpse of the plush, gold lining. He lay down on the floor, his head leaning against his hand.
“Connor, do you think Adam is having an affair with Caitriona?” Minnie asked, lowering her voice and leaning closer to her screen. She blew her nose and left the tissue in a small, tight ball next to her foot. She turned, double-checking the basement door, knowing full-well Adam slept like the dead. Connor didn’t know-know Caitriona but he’d seen her around enough at the theatre, the art center, the city.
“What?” He shook his head.
“You heard me.”
“No, I do not think Adam is having an affair with Caitriona.”
“Do you want to sleep with her?”
“Do I want to sleep with Caitriona?”
Minnie tilted her head to make sure she couldn’t hear Adam upstairs. No. But she lowered her voice even more.
“You know what I mean…is Caitriona the kind of woman a man would have an affair with?” Minnie asked, knowing it was a ridiculous question. Anyone could obviously have an affair with anyone.
“Are you wondering if I find her attractive?” Connor asked.
“I guess…yeah.”
“Are you wondering if I find her more attractive than you?” Connor asked.
“What? No!”
“Sure you are. You’re asking me whether or not…as a man…I’d want to trade you in for a woman like Caitriona and the answer is no,” he said.
Minnie stared at the screen and watched Connor blink at her. He smiled, blinked. They were quiet together, connected by the electric-blued light.
“You’re only saying that to make me feel better.”
“I’m not,” Connor said, folding his arm behind his head, adjusting his phone.
“I thought you were going to bed.”
“I was! But then you started flirting with me so I got a second wind,” he said, laughing.
“Connor! I was not! Go to bed,” she said.
“No. You go to bed.”
“Where’s Samantha?” Minnie asked after his wife.
“Asleep.”
“Where are the boys?” Minnie asked after his sons.
“Asleep.”
“Tonight Adam called us sexual troubadours.”
“Wait, what? Called who sexual troubadours? You and me?” Connor sat up, laughed again. Connor was always laughing. It made Minnie laugh. She put her hand over her mouth before shushing him and turning her phone volume down.
“He said we were more like a duet. He only said it because I was jealous of him kissing Caitriona…in the play.”
“Aaand because they used to date.”
“But never slept together,” Minnie mumbled.
“But you never told him we slept together,” Connor said.
Minnie’s toes twinkled.
“That was a long time ago,” she said softly.
“Right,” he said.
* * *
It happened one night after a wedding, traveling. The quartet was three hundred and fifty miles away. The women got one hotel room, Connor got another. The other two women had gotten drunk and fallen asleep. Minnie was sober, awake, went across the hall to Connor’s room.
It was one of those nights Minnie was feeling lonely although she hadn’t been alone much in days. Ivy was always either sitting on her or underneath her or Minnie had been giving cello lessons to the middle schoolers she always gave them to, or she and Adam were either next to one another in bed or next to one another on the couch or next to one another in the kitchen. But Adam also had rehearsals, work, more rehearsals. He and Caitriona had just begun rehearsals for the play they were in now. The play that had a total of two cast members.
Adam.
Caitriona.
Minnie truly believed Adam was in love with Caitriona even though he denied it and even though he was always good to Minnie. She couldn’t shake it, like she had an allergy to not believing it. And she didn’t want to talk to Connor about that, but she wanted to be close to someone. Adam was three hundred and fifty miles away at home with Ivy. Sometimes when Minnie played weddings they got a babysitter and Adam came with her, the two of them driving home together in the dark, her heels slipped off and cornered on the floor of the car next to her black, slick-footed stockings.