Still reeling from Jeremy’s open declaration of love, Gloria walked back towards the kitchen table and mechanically picked up the sheet of paper on which he had scribbled various cost estimates. She absentmindedly turned the page over. That other side contained a detailed e-mail. At first glance, the message didn’t make sense. She was still mesmerized by what she had just experienced. On second glance, however, as she figured out what the message meant, Gloria began to shake with indignation, then anger.

He tells me he loves me, she thought, yet he carries around with him an e-mail from another woman. She is, or was, his mistress. And judging from the way she writes, she must be a person of uncommon decency and sensibility. She’s the furthest thing from a slut. She loved him, was devoted to him, and yet he ditched her when the initial excitement wore off. I can feel her pain from the way she writes to him. Poor lady! Doesn’t Jeremy have any feelings? Is love for him just one conquest after another, like a hunter bagging trophies and then bragging about them?

But there was more than just anger in Gloria’s heart. At first she didn’t want to acknowledge its existence. Being extremely lucid, however, she was forced to admit that she was experiencing a particularly ugly emotion for the first time in her life: jealousy. Although she pitied the mistress Jeremy had so obviously ditched, Gloria was hostile towards her and all the other women with whom he had enjoyed affairs. However irrational her feeling was, Gloria wanted to be the only woman in Jeremy’s life, even though she knew that this was wishful thinking. The Ice Queen has melted, she mused sadly, She’s now nothing more than a big puddle of hot water. Shame on me! What’s going on inside of me? I can hardly recognize myself anymore.

Gloria was entering a frightening, new emotional territory. The calm, cool, even-tempered character she thought was no longer existed, and a much more complex individual had emerged. Her heart, tormented by her passion for Jeremy, was pulling her in one direction. Her mind was pulling her in another. Her heart was functioning as though nothing mattered except Jeremy. It was acting like a vampire inside of her. It was feeding off her flesh, and, consequently, was dependent on her for its existence. Yet it was carrying on as though it enjoyed a completely independent life. Gloria’s heart had created within her a craving for a man and a feeling of jealousy that, from a purely rational point of view, was totally without justification. Even though she had never experienced anything remotely resembling passion for her husband, Corey, she cherished, admired and honored him as a human being. She wanted at all costs to remain faithful to him. So why should she care one way or another who Jeremy loved or didn’t love? Why should it matter to her in the least whether he had made one conquest or piled up hundreds of conquests? Why should she be jealous of his former and present mistresses when she had every intention of being a faithful wife to her husband? What difference did it make whether he received one e-mail or hundreds of e-mails from women who he had loved and then dropped? As a human being, Corey was morally superior to Jeremy. He deserved to be loved. He deserved her undying, unconditional support. So why was her heart drawing her into this abyss of madness? Why was she letting the irrational part of her dominate her rational part?

Her emotional turmoil became so intense that she was gripped by panic. Is my attraction to Jeremy out of control? Will I become the kind of woman I used to trash? Who will help me? I desperately need help!

The telephone rang and jolted her out of her anguished frame of mind. It was Jeremy, asking her about the sheet of paper on which he had done his calculations. Gloria’s heart sank. Contradictory emotions raced through her brain at the speed of lightning. Should she feign ignorance? Should she express outrage? Should she pretend to be completely indifferent? Before Gloria could decide on a course of action, Jeremy informed her that he would be back at her home within the next half-hour, and urgently requested that she wait for him.

True to his word, Jeremy appeared exactly on time. While waiting for him, Gloria had some time to collect her thoughts and regain at least a semblance of self-assurance. She made up her mind that she would take the bull by the horns and confront Jeremy. I have to lance this abscess of jealousy, she thought, otherwise I won’t know a moment’s peace.

As Jeremy entered the vestibule of Gloria’s home, his beguiling smile turned to an expression of consternation the minute he saw how angry she appeared.

“Gloria,” he asked with earnest solicitude, “What’s the matter? I’ve never seen you in this state before. What’s happened?”

Trying her utmost to dominate her boiling mass of emotions, Gloria replied: “Jeremy, I wonder whether you bothered to see what was on the other side of the sheet on which you drew up your estimates.”

“What in God’s name are you talking about?” he asked, puzzled.

“There is an e-mail on the other side,” she answered, her voice vibrating from the sheer intensity of the emotion that was invading her.

“An e-mail?”

“Yes, a letter from a woman whose heart you broke, shortly before you made your impassioned declaration of love to me. In my vocabulary this is called hypocrisy.”

“My dearest Gloria,” Jeremy replied laughingly, “Allow me to allay your anxiety. That e-mail wasn’t addressed to me. It was addressed to a colleague of mine. I needed some scrap paper in a hurry, so I picked it up after he left it lying on his desk. I may be the biggest womanizer on the face of this earth, but you’ll never be able to accuse me of hypocrisy.”

It was Gloria’s turn to be flabbergasted.

To be continued…………..

“The Ice Queen” is on every Wednesday at 9am EST. Please participate in the show by leaving comments and suggestions about the show or what you think it should happen next! Our author might consider your ideas for the next episode! For more information about the author Dr. Leonard Rosmarin and his book “Getting Enough” please visit here.

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About The Expert

On our About the Expert page, you can learn more about the author, including contact information and other posts they've written. About Dr. Leonard Rosmarin.