With all the other coincidences linking Andy, Andrea, Nicole and Nick, the odds against Andrea's mom and Nick's dad also connecting must be astronomical. Still, it was the only logical explanation.
So lost in thought was Andrea that she didn't see Nick approaching until he was almost back at their table. With no consideration, acting only on impulse, she jammed both envelopes into another section of the book and buried her face in the page it was opened to. She had to think about this more before mentioning it—to
anyone
. She forced a smile when Nick sat down.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
She tapped her textbook. "Just not sure I'm as prepared to take this test as I thought I was."
"You'll do fine. You know this stuff backwards and forwards. Let's get on to class."
"My turn for the rest room, first." She still had the textbook in her arm so she walked off with it as though she didn't realize she had it. However, when she reached the restroom, she turned on the hot water, and when steam began rising, she used it to open Nick's envelope. It came as no surprise that it was the identical card, exact same quote, and even the handwritten message was nearly word for word. But it sickened her. She nearly felt like she was going to vomit. Replacing the card in the envelope, she pressed it between the pages of her book. Hopefully, as it dried, it would re-seal.
Andrea wet a napkin with cold water and pressed it to her face to calm her down before leaving the restroom.
She had to force herself to concentrate on the test, a task made all the more difficult by the horrible secret bouncing around in her brain. Fortunately, she knew the subject very well and she thought the answers came easily, but that also scared her.
The question now was what to do with the information she had. Did she tell Nick? Her dad? Or just let it go? However, the more she thought about it, she knew she had to talk to her dad.
Nick tried to talk her into spending the afternoon together again, but she felt as though she needed to be alone until she talked to her dad. She made an excuse about having to clean house before he and his mother came that night. He offered to come and help. But she told him they would never get around to cleaning if he did. On the promise of an evening to top last night, he reluctantly left. Andrea indecisively toyed with the idea of driving to her dad's office, but instead, she called him to propose her idea for dinner. He was eagerly in favor of it.
"Can you come home early?" she asked.
"Do you need my help?"
"I need to talk to you."
Andy heard something in her voice. "Is everything okay?" he asked, suddenly concerned.
"I found mom's letter."
"I just thought you—"
"I read it. We need to talk."
There was no refuting the seriousness in her voice. "I'm on my way."
Not easily rattled, Andrea felt edgy so she decided to soak in the Jacuzzi in the master bath until her father arrived. When the water reached the proper level, she turned on the jets, angling the closest against her pussy as she had seen her mother do so many times and as she had done often when no one was home. She couldn't remember if she'd had an orgasm when her dad roused her sometime later.
"You okay?" He asked when she awoke.
"Guess I dozed off." Andrea sat up. "Want to get in?"
"I think it's about time you got out. You're about to shrivel up. Besides, I called Nicole on the way home. She's coming here straight from work." Andy checked his watch. "We've only got about an hour. What was so urgent about your mom's letter?"
So as she dried off, Andrea told him about the identical postmarks on the same day, the cards with the same writing and very similar message and how she discovered it.
"Oh, shit!" Andy exclaimed, plopping down on the edge of the tub. "That's not good."
"I figured it wasn't," Andrea said. "Why?"
"Nicole's ex made off with all of their savings—hundreds of thousands."
Andrea blew out a high whistle. "Nick never said anything about that."
"He might not know," Andy surmised.
"Should we tell them?"
Andy shrugged and didn't answer right away. "I'm not sure anything would be solved by it."
"Shouldn't we be honest with our new lovers?"
"Like I told you this morning, she—they—are probably not still in Miami. But if anyone tells anybody anything, I've got to tell Nicole in case Nick doesn't know."
"Okay. So, are you going to tell her?"
"What would be the point?"
"My
mother
ran off with Nick's