A Good Friend

But he knew the answer even before he finished. If Mel had handed that note to me, I'd probably have blown up too. But what was I supposed to do: act like everything is fine? Jeri was right: I can't just ignore the email. That wouldn't have been fair to Mel or to me.

Despite spending the rest of the evening mentally rehashing the situation, he was no closer to figuring out what to do than when he started. He knew that he and Mel needed to talk, but he couldn't even decide on the right thing to say to her. All he knew for sure was that he wanted his wife home so he could try to make things better.

Emotionally exhausted, Adam felt himself growing tired, but he was determined not to go to bed until Melanie came back. After another hour of waiting, he lay down on the sofa and soon dozed off.

Sometime after midnight he was awakened by the sound of the door opening. As he sat up groggily, Melanie marched into the living room and stared at him, her hands on her hips. "Mel, we really need to . . ."

"I don't want to talk about this now," she cut him off curtly. "You can stay there on the couch tonight, and we'll talk in the morning." Without waiting for a reply, she turned on her heel and headed down the hall to their bedroom. When he heard the door slam, he groaned and lay back down on the sofa, hoping sleep would return. It took a long while.

Normally, Adam rose early so he could get to the office before everyone else. But although his internal clock woke him at the usual time, he felt obligated not to leave until Melanie put in an appearance so they could talk. He made a pot of coffee and then sat down in front of his laptop to read the news while he waited.

It was almost eight o'clock before Melanie walked into the kitchen. Adam was shocked to see that she was pulling her suitcase behind her. "Where are you going, Melanie? I thought we were going to . . ."

Before he could finish, she held up her hand to stop him. "This has been a terrible shock, Adam. It calls our whole marriage into question. I need some time by myself to think about what's happened. Spring break starts tomorrow, so I'm going to drive down to Florida to visit my mother."

She pierced him with an angry stare. "I'm planning to spend all week down there and then come back in time for classes the following Monday. While I'm gone, I don't want to hear one word from you. I need this time for myself. Don't call me, don't call my mother, don't call my mother's house. Do you understand?"

He nodded helplessly.

"I mean it, Adam. If you try to call, I may not come home at all. Got it?"

He nodded again.

"Fine," she said flatly, and marched out the door to her car, dragging her suitcase behind her.

When she was gone, Adam sat there for a few minutes in shock. Finally, he trudged back to the bathroom to shave and change clothes. Then he glumly drove to work.

There was a measure of good news waiting for him when he got to the office. His foreman had taken the initiative to get the missing components distributed to the proper stations on the model production line, and the testing was progressing smoothly. "At least the business isn't going to crash and burn today, unlike my marriage," Adam told himself ruefully.

He was working on a spreadsheet that afternoon when his phone rang. When he answered, he heard Jeri on the line. "I was concerned so I wanted to check in with you. How did everything go last night with Melanie?"

"Oh, wow, it's a long, sad story," he said dejectedly.

"Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. Want to get together to talk about it over a drink again?"

"That would be great, Jeri. Same place okay?"

Once again he checked his email before leaving, but there was still nothing from A Good Friend.

When he walked into the bar, Jeri immediately spotted the dark circles under his eyes. "Poor Adam. Looks like you didn't get a lot sleep last night. Tell me what happened."

He took a big swig from his beer mug and began to recount the previous night's clash and Melanie's departure in the morning. Jeri regarded him with a mixture of sadness and guilt. "Oh, Adam, I feel so terrible. You took my advice and it turned out to be exactly the wrong thing to do."

"No, Jeri, I've thought a lot about it, and I'm convinced it was the only thing I could do. I certainly didn't expect Mel to react so angrily, but there's no way I could have kept that email to myself and pretended nothing happened. All I can do now is hope she cools down and we can talk things over when she comes home."

"You're sweet to say that, Adam, but I still feel guilty about what happened. So, what are you going to do the rest of this week?"

"I don't know, Jeri. I don't see any way for Mel and me to move forward if we don't talk about what happened. Maybe I'll wait a few days and then try to call her."

"No, Adam, that's the one thing you mustn't do! She already believes you don't trust her. If you try to contact her after she explicitly told you not to, that will just prove to her she was right."

"Yeah, I guess I can see that. But I feel so damned helpless. There's no way I know of to find out who sent the email. About the only thing I can do while she's gone is to keep trying to find out who this Professor Bellingham is."

"That makes a lot of sense. If you could find him, maybe he could fill in some of the blanks for you."

Over the next few days, Adam tried repeatedly to unravel the mystery of the anonymous email. Despite his lack of success, he was still convinced that Bellingham was somehow connected to the university. Then he had a brainstorm. Maybe the reason I can't find this guy is because he's an alumnus, not a faculty member. Well, I'm an alumnus too, so maybe Alumni Relations can help.

When he called and identified himself as an alumnus, Adam was immediately transferred to the Development office. The fellow who answered took down all the relevant information on Adam's address, phone number and email. Then he asked how much Adam wanted to pledge to the Alumni fund. "No, no, I'm not calling to make a contribution, I'm trying to track down a Professor Bellingham. I think he may be an alumnus."

The man put him on hold while he checked several databases. "I'm sorry, sir, but it appears we've never had a graduate with that name."

"Really? What about the graduate schools?"

"I checked them as well."

"Perhaps he's not a graduate. Perhaps he just attended a year or two and then dropped out or transferred."

The fellow seemed to lose interest. "I'm afraid I can't help you there. Our database is limited to graduates. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

After Adam turned him down, he hung up and swore in frustration. Dammit, all I've succeeded in doing is to ensure I'll get called for their next alumni giving campaign.

Unable to make any progress on line or by phone, he took an hour off the next afternoon to visit the Graduate School of Business. When he got there, the place was almost empty. It's spring break, you dummy! Adam cursed himself. But he did find a few people around, and he made a nuisance of himself going from one office to the next asking for information about Professor Bellingham. Finally, an assistant dean confronted him. "Sir, I'm sorry. but you're going to have to leave now. If you won't comply, we're going to have to call campus security." Adam apologized and beat a hasty retreat, more frustrated than ever.

When he returned to his office, he sat down heavily at his desk. After one more futile check of his email, he put his head in his hands. What am I going to do now?

At that moment, his office phone rang. When Adam answered, an unfamiliar voice asked, "Are you the young man who's looking for Professor Bellingham?" When Adam confirmed that he was, the man continued, "My name is Dr. Avery Mayfair. I'm a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of Business, and I may be able to help you. But first, may I ask why you're trying to locate Professor Bellingham?"

Adam was hesitant to discuss his situation with a stranger, but desperation won out and he gave Dr. Mayfair a condensed summary of why he was searching for the missing professor. When he finished, the caller made a contemplative sound.

"I see. I overheard your inquiries at the school today, and the way you phrased some of the questions made me wonder if something like that might be the case. At any rate, I believe I can put your mind at ease, young man. Bellingham was an adjunct professor at the Graduate School two years ago. He was a decent educator, but, unfortunately, enrollment for his class fell below our minimum requirements. His course was cancelled and his contract was not renewed."

"I see," Adam said. "Does that mean . . ."

"There's more," Dr. Mayfair continued. "I received a communication from Professor Bellingham at the beginning of the current school year. He was writing to inform me that he had found employment at Black Hills State University in South Dakota."

"He's in South Dakota?" Adam asked wonderingly.

"That's correct," the professor affirmed. "And there's something else you might wish to know. In that same communication, Professor Bellingham informed me of his recent marriage to his long-time domestic partner, Harold."

"Harold? So that means that Bellingham is . . ."

"Exactly."

"Dr. Mayfair, thank you so much for your phone call. I still don't understand why someone would send me such a treacherous email, but I'm now certain that it was a lie."

"I was hoping I could put your mind at ease."

"Sir, may I ask one more question? Why did you decide to call me? Don't misunderstand - I'm very grateful, but I'm just a stranger to you."

The tone of the professor's voice changed. "I don't mind telling you, young man. Years ago, something very similar happened to me. My wife deserted me to run away with her lover, so I have a deep sympathy for anyone else potentially facing such a situation. Fortunately, in this case the warning you received was spurious, so I was glad I could relieve your mind. But, as you can imagine, I have very strong feelings about anyone who interferes with a marriage. Had the allegation been true, I would not have hesitated to inform you."

"Thank you, sir. You don't know how much I appreciate what you've done."

That evening, Adam called Jeri to tell her the good news. "I still don't know who is trying to break up my marriage, but now I know for sure that Mel's not having an affair with Professor Bellingham."

"Are you certain you can trust this Dr. Mayfair?"

"Absolutely. After the call I looked him up and found him on the Business School faculty. He's an older man, probably in his sixties, and is apparently well respected. But just to make sure, I also checked out Bellingham on the Black Hills website. Sure enough, there he was."

"That's great, Adam. You must be so relieved."

"Yeah, I am. But now my problem is what to say to Mel when she gets home."

"That's easy, Adam. From what you told me about your confrontation with her, she never really gave you a chance to talk. When she gets back, you tell her that you never had any doubts about her. Tell her you'd already found out about Bellingham, that you'd tracked him down as soon as you got the email. But because she reacted so violently, you never got a chance to tell her. If you play your cards right, Adam, she'll wind up apologizing to you."

"I don't know, Jeri. That isn't the way it really happened."

He could hear the smile in her voice. "Come on, Adam. Is it really so bad to stretch the truth a little to get what you want?"

Melanie

On Sunday before she returned to town, Melanie surprised Jeri with a phone call. "Hey, girlfriend, I just wanted to check in with you before I come home to see if you know how Adam is doing. I'm a little nervous about what I'm going to walk into when I get there."

"The one thing I know for sure is you owe me big time for all I've done for you while you were off having your fling. Thanks to a little handholding from me and a touch of good luck, you're going to be able to return to your husband with your marriage in better shape than ever." With that, she went on to describe the week, ending with Adam's discovery of Bellingham's location.

"If you play your cards right when you get home, Adam will apologize to you, you'll apologize to him, and everything will be back to normal in your life."

There was a pause on the line. "What if I don't want things to go back to normal?"

"I don't understand, Melanie. What are you saying?"

"It's just that I had a blast this past week. Carl, the guy I've been with, is so much fun." Melanie's voice grew a little husky. "And best of all he's a fantastic lover. I haven't had that many orgasms in years! Anyway, I'm not ready for my little adventure to be over. I want to keep seeing him, at least until the semester is over. Come on, Jeri, you've got to help me find a way to help me."

"Whoa, Melanie, you've already taken a huge risk going off with this guy for a week. If you try to keep the affair going back here in town, you're really pushing the odds, girl."

"Maybe, but you've got to admit: your little plan worked to perfection. I'll bet you could figure out a way for me to do it again. Come on, Jeri, please? This guy is really hot."

"I was afraid something like this might happen." There was a long pause. "Okay," Jeri said slowly, "I can come up with a plan to do what you want. But you need to understand that you'll be jeopardizing your marriage to Adam. He's a good guy, Melanie. He's hard-working, loyal, and a real family type. Men like him don't come along every day. Are you sure you want to gamble all that just for a little fun between the sheets?"

Melanie snickered. "You had me at 'I can come up with a plan.'"

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you. Now here's what you need to do. Do you still have that email account you set up?"

"Sure. You told me to keep it active."

"Good, because you need to send another email from A Good Friend. Only this time, you're going to send the message to yourself, to your regular email account."

"Uh, okay, I guess. What does the new email say?"

"It's just like the earlier one, except this time you say that Adam is having an affair with me."

"What! But that's not true and Adam knows it. How is that gonna help?"

"It's simple. The first email accused you of having an affair. Adam found out that you couldn't have been unfaithful with Professor Bellingham, but he might still have lingering doubts about your fidelity."

"Wait a minute, Jeri, you told me the Bellingham email would give me a free pass with Carl."

"And it did. But now, after he gets this second email, he won't have any doubts. He's already proved you weren't having an affair with Bellingham, and he knows for sure he's not having an affair with me. Obviously, the 'Good Friend' is a total liar, which means Adam no longer has any reason to doubt you. That means you'll be able to get away with pretty much anything you want without raising Adam's suspicions."

There was silence on the line. Then Melanie gushed, "Jeri, you're a genius. I don't know how you come up with this stuff, but you've just given me a 'hall pass' I can use till the semester is over."

"There are just two more things you need to do, Melanie. First, make sure Adam tells me about the second email."

"Okay, but why?"

"Because that way I can reinforce the idea that you're trustworthy and this unknown 'friend' is not."

"Ooh, that's good. He really cares for you, so he'll listen to your advice. Now, what's the other thing?"

"After you send the message to yourself, don't forget to log out of the 'Good Friend' email account. You wouldn't want Adam to find it accidently."

"Omigosh, no!"

"In fact, you probably ought to stay logged out of both your email accounts when you're not using them. You wouldn't want Adam to find any love notes from Carl either."

"I've warned Carl never to email me. But that's still good advice - better to be safe than sorry."

Adam

When he got home from work that evening, Adam was alarmed to find Melanie had been crying. Everything had been going so well between them ever since she'd returned from Florida that the sight of her in distress caught him off guard.

"What is it, Mel? What's happened?" he asked when he'd rushed to her side.

"Oh, Adam, it's starting again!" she said tearfully, handing him a copy of the email.

"Son of a bitch!" he swore when he read the accusing message. "You know this is a lie, don't you?"

"Of course, honey. I know you'd never cheat on me, just like I'd never cheat on you. And even if you did, I know it would never be with Jeri. She's such a good friend to both of us that she'd never do anything like that."

"Dammit, someone is still trying to stir up trouble for us, and I have no idea who or why. There must be some way to trace these things."

She looked up at him hesitantly. "Are you going to tell Jeri about this?"

"Do you think I should?"

"I think you have to. Like it or not, she's involved now. It wouldn't be fair to her not to let her know."

The next morning when Adam called, Jeri answered in a friendly way. "So how are the two love birds doing today?"

Adam's tone was solemn. "We're fine, Jeri, but something new has come up that I need to see you about. Are you available to meet after work?"

"Actually, I'm planning to work at home this afternoon. Could you come by my apartment instead?

"Sure, that's fine. I'll come by between six-thirty and seven."

When she opened the door to her apartment that evening, Jeri immediately noticed the solemn expression on Adam's face. "What is it, Adam? I've been concerned ever since you called."

He shook his head. "I'm so sorry, Jeri, but it looks like you've been dragged into this mess with Melanie and me."

When she looked at him quizzically, he handed her a copy of the latest email.

After she'd read it, she looked up at Adam in exasperation. "But this is ridiculous: we're not having an affair. I would never do that to Melanie. I hope she knows that."

He nodded. "She does. In fact, she said the very same thing to me."

Jeri shook her head in confusion. "I'm glad to hear that. But what do you think all this means?"

"I think it means that someone wants very badly to stir up trouble between Melanie and me. First that Professor Bellingham warning, now this. The only thing I can think of is that I have an enemy, maybe a business rival. Only I don't have a clue who it might be. But in any case, since it seems to have involved you now, Mel and I agreed that we needed to alert you."

She nodded. "I'm glad you did, Adam. You're always so thoughtful. But I don't know what we can do about it, unless the mystery person does something overt or makes a mistake. I don't think calling the police would do any good."

"I agree, Jeri. But it's so frustrating. I'm sick of this whole mess - I just want whoever it is to leave us all in peace."

"How's Melanie taking it?"

"She's pretty upset. When I got home, she was in tears."

"I'm not surprised, especially after the ordeal the first one caused. Listen, Adam, I think Melanie is pretty fragile right now. Between all this and the fact that she's so close to graduation, I expect she's a bundle of nerves. You need to protect her as much as possible."

"Do you think we should both just block all mail from that account?"

"That might be a mistake. If he sends any more, I'd think you'd want to know about it."

"Yeah, you're right. But how do I protect Mel?"

"For starters, if you get another one of these damned emails, I wouldn't tell her about it, at least not right away. For that matter, I think you ought to check her email on her laptop any time you get the chance. If she receives another one, you can forward it to your own email before she sees it. That way you wouldn't have to involve her."