CHOCOLATE CAKE AND MARGARITAS ANYONE?

CHOCOLATE CAKE AND MARGARITAS ANYONE?

"What have I done?" Amelia sat looking out her kitchen window at the calm, iron gray water of Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Watching the lazy sailboats slowly make their way out for the day was always soothing for her in times of stress. Today, though, it couldn't provide the comfort that she was seeking.

Amelia had just left the Harbor Passage funeral home. She had been making final arrangements for the funeral of her now deceased husband, Liam. Liam had passed away suddenly at home three days ago. He had been complaining of his chest feeling tight all afternoon. At first it had seemed like indigestion, and he hadn't wanted to go to the emergency room, despite Amelia urging him to go. That evening, around 8:00, Liam had suddenly clutched his chest, cried out, and become unresponsive. When she could do nothing to rouse him, Amelia had immediately called 911 and had begun CPR. When the ambulance arrived, they did everything they could to try and start his heart again, but he was gone. A partial autopsy had been done, and since Liam had a history of heart disease since the age of 46, his death was ruled natural causes due to cardiac arrest, history of high blood pressure, and blockage of the arteries leading to his heart.

Everyone was shocked and devastated. Amelia had called her best friend, Victoria, and asked her to come right away. Victoria had dropped everything and immediately left her home in Otter Cliff, Maine. Otter Cliff is a little over three hours away, near Bar Harbor. She was expected to arrive at any time. The two had been friends for over thirty years and knew everything there was to know about each other. Some things they knew, no one else would ever know, it was better for their health that way.

This was not Amelia's first time as a widow. Thirty years ago, she had discovered that her first husband, Bart, had been keeping a mistress that he met at work. Amelia had filed divorce papers immediately, but before the divorce became final, Bart had been found in his bed with a gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled a suicide, and Amelia had walked away with his $150,000 life insurance payout. Strangely, Bart had not yet changed his beneficiary. Lucky for Amelia, Bart was a good liar, but a complete idiot when it came to business matters.

Amelia's life had been, if not exciting, at least tolerable until last month. On a normal, ordinary night, Liam had been in the shower when his phone alerted that he had a text message. Amelia had picked it up and noted the message alert was from a number she didn't recognize. Considering that Liam's job involved him traveling often, she didn't think much of it at the time. But when she told him he had a text, he had picked up the phone, and seeing who it was from, he got a strange look on his face, and suddenly found an excuse to leave the room to read it. Amelia had instant red flags pop up in her mind. “What was on there that he couldn’t look at in the same room with me?”, she thought.

When Liam came back into the room, Amelia asked "who was that?". "Oh, it was a new guy from work. Um, he isn’t sure how to run the new machine, so I'm going to go in and show him really quick." he hadn't looked her in the eye during the entire explanation. "No one else knows how to show him?", Amelia asked suspiciously. "Um, I don't think so. I guess the other guy that knows how to do it is on vacation, or something." Liam gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, grabbed his phone and left. She had let it go at the time but made a note to get hold of his phone when he was sleeping that night. She knew he wouldn't catch her. Once he was asleep and snoring, a bomb going off wasn't likely to wake the man up.

Later that night, after Liam was asleep, Amelia quietly got up and grabbed his phone off the bedside table. She crept downstairs and went into the living room. Liam didn't know, but she knew his password. She had seen him tap it in several times and had memorized it. These were just some things a woman picks up after being burned before. The betrayal and humiliation when a spouse cheats on you, is something that never leaves you. It becomes second nature to be wary and to never take something at face value. After Bart, Amelia had sworn she would never go through that again.

Amelia opened Liam's phone and went straight to his text messages. When she saw what was written, she suddenly felt like her veins were filled with ice water. The text that had come in when Liam had been in the shower said, "hey, I miss you. I thought you were coming over last night. I tried calling, but your phone went straight to voicemail.". Liam had responded, "I know. I'm sorry. I tried to get away, but Amelia wanted to go out to eat last night, and I couldn't think of anything to get out of it. I promise to get there tonight. I miss you too." Amelia thought back to the previous night when they had gone out for Chinese. Liam had seemed quiet, but she hadn't been too worried about it because she knew he had been working quite a bit of overtime and was probably exhausted. Now, she wondered if he had really been at work, or had he been going to see the little tart that had sent him the text. Tonight, he had been gone for several hours, and then came up with the excuse that he had caught up on his work emails after showing the employee how to work the machine. Amelia wasn’t buying it, but let it go for now.

Amelia wrote down the number that had texted Liam. There was no name attached to the number contact. She called Victoria the next day and told her what was going on. Victoria took the number and told her she was going to call it from work so it couldn’t be traced back to Amelia. When she called the number, Victoria had told the woman that answered that she was a government employee and was calling to verify the address and phone number submitted in the 2020 census. She was a little surprised when the woman didn't seem to find this odd, and answered immediately with her name, address and verified her phone contact. Apparently, Liam’s girlfriend wasn’t too smart, or was way too trusting.

The next day, Victoria drove the three hours to Boothbay Harbor. She and Amelia had gone to the address the woman had given. They drove through the neighborhood and found a place to park a few houses down from the woman lived. Anytime someone drove by Victoria put her phone to her ear as if she had pulled over to take a call. They had waited for a couple of hours before they saw the door open, and a woman looking to be in her thirties, tall and with red hair, came out and left in her car. Keeping a car length behind her, Amelia and Victoria followed the woman to an Olive Garden that was tucked in behind the local mall. They watched as the woman left her car and walked over to a man waiting on a bench in the front of the restaurant. It was Liam. The two embraced, and walked hand in hand, into the lobby.

Amelia had turned to Victoria and, with an icy calm, said, "he is dead.". Victoria nodded her head. "Are you sure you want to go through this again? When I killed Bart for you, it hurt more than you expected it to. I was afraid it was going to be the end of our friendship. You are the best friend I have ever had. If I do this again, I have to be sure we are still going to be ok." "We will be fine.", Amelia had replied.

On the day Liam died, the morning started out just like any other. Amelia told him, "Victoria and Devon are in town. They are coming here for lunch. Any chance you can leave at lunch time and come eat with us?". "Hell yeah! No way I'm going to miss seeing my sexy man!", Liam replied, and Amelia laughed. Liam and Devon had a strange, and interesting friendship. Anyone outside of their friend circle would definitely think they were a bit odd! They made plans for him to arrive at noon, and Amelia said she would have some type of Mexican food ready for lunch. She knew the entire group loved Mexican, and it was something they all would agree on. "You can have one margarita can't you, even if you go back to work?", She had asked. "Yeah, I can have one.", Liam replied. "No one will say anything. Just don't make them strong.". Amelia had smiled to herself and thought, "oh, it will be just strong enough.". Victoria was an Intensive Care Nurse at a hospital on Mt. Desert Island, and had pretty much unlimited access to all kinds of toxic and deadly medications. Medications that wouldn’t show up on toxicology reports unless specifically looked for. Medications that would cause cardiac arrest if taken in large doses, and couldn’t be tasted if mixed with alcoholic beverages, you know, something like margaritas. It was going to be an interesting, and lethal lunch date.

Victoria and Devon arrived a little before noon, and Liam soon followed. They sat down to a delicious lunch of chicken enchiladas, rice and beans, a slice of scrumptious chocolate cake for dessert, and as promised, margaritas. The couples laughed and visited for a while. Victoria soon told Devon they had better head home, they had over a three-hour drive, and she didn't want to get home too late since she had to work the next day.

About two hours after Liam had returned to work, he called Amelia and told her he thought he was having heartburn from the Mexican food. Amelia told him to take some Tums, he would probably feel better. When Liam got home from work, he told Amelia he didn't want supper because he didn’t feel well. He just couldn't shake this heartburn, and he thought his chest felt tight. Amelia got him some ibuprofen and they went into watch some television and rest. Soon after, Liam clutched his chest, and the events of the evening quickly became a chaotic nightmare and ended in his death.

Now, Amelia sat looking out at the cove. "What have I done?", she asked again. She looked over at Victoria, who was sitting with her sipping coffee. "You haven't done anything.", Victoria told her. She looked out serenely at the water and said, "That's why we do this the way we do. Now, six months from now, when Devon finally “succumbs to his liver disease”, I won't have done anything either. It’s brilliant the way we planned it. I can't believe Liam finally gave us a reason to put our plan into action. What an idiot. If you hadn’t found that text, he may have lived another year. He shouldn’t have cheated on you. We did what we had to do.” The two women looked at each other. Each were thinking of their plans for the life insurance money. They were finally going to see Ireland, maybe Germany and Italy too. There was no need to rush. Victoria had plenty of vacation time built up and after Devon died, she would have plenty of money, maybe wouldn’t have to work at all. Life was about to get very good indeed!

The End