“Hi Marg, it’s Vicky.”
She was obviously surprised to hear my voice and it took her a moment to respond. “Oh hi, Vicky. It’s so great to hear from you, how are you?”
Do not cry, I told myself. “Oh, you know, I’m okay. How’s Dave holding up, Marg?”
She sighed and lowered her voice, “Not great. He’s been trying to keep it all a secret from the patients, but you know how word travels.”
I tried not to think about Dave being bombarded with offers from desperate single moms.
“We should have lunch, Vicky. I miss you. We all miss you.”
“Thanks, I miss you guys too. I would like that very much. Maybe next week…but right now I really need to talk to Dave, does he have a second?”
“Sure Vicky, I’ll put you right through. It was good hearing from you,” she said right before the elevator music kicked in.
“I’ve bought a house.” The words fell out of my mouth barely two seconds after Dave picked up the phone. I waited for him to digest what I had said and respond.
The line was silent for longer than I could bear.
“Dave?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you hear me? I said I bought a house.”
Dave exhaled loudly into the phone. “Yeah. I heard you. Sorry, I was just thinking.”
I took a breath to ease my sudden frustration. What could he need to think about? It had been long enough; I was ready to move on why wasn’t he? Maybe he needed a push.
“Okay, well I haven’t actually bought it yet. But we either have to put the house up for sale or I need you to buy out my half.”
Silence.
“Dave, I need the money for the…”
“Where is it? Where is the house?”
“West end,” I answered, not sure why it mattered.
“Hmm, not too far. That’s good.” He was thinking out loud. “Okay well, I have an appointment in a few minutes. Why don’t you have Zoë come to the house and do up an assessment; you’ve still got the key so you can go whenever, I don’t need to be home.”
I got the distinct feeling he’d rather not be home. “Are we going to sell?” I bit my lip waiting for his answer, not sure what would be worse: him living there without me or getting rid of the house altogether.
“I don’t know, Vic. Don’t worry, though, you’ll get your money. I’m just not sure what I want to do yet. Let’s see what Zoë says. Okay?”
Nice to see I hadn’t been the only one wallowing in paralyzing denial.
“Are you sure you want Zoë to look at the house?” I looked over at my friend and shrugged an apology. She shook her head, not offended. “Do you want someone neutral that neither of us knows?” There was no denying that Zoë was my friend first and the last thing I wanted was Dave accusing her of giving a biased assessment of the house. Zoë was a consummate professional, but I had to admit there was a chance that she could bias her assessment in my favor.
“No, I trust her.”
“Thanks, Dave.” I breathed into the phone, relieved I’d made it over another hurdle. “Maybe we’ll go over now, if you don’t mind. I’d really like to get rolling on my offer for the other house.”
“Go ahead, Vicky. I’ll be home tonight if you need anything else.”
I hung up the phone and dropped it back into my purse. “Do you have time to go do this now?”
Zoë glanced at the clock and nodded. “Yeah, let’s get this over with.”
* * *
“Are you sure?” I looked up from the market evaluation form Zoë had just finished filling out. We were sitting in one of the closing rooms at the real estate office, each of us with a full mug of coffee thanks to Jim’s ever-full urn.
Zoë nodded, but I wasn’t convinced. The figure at the bottom of the paper said that my house, the house I had lived in with Dave, was worth way more than I’d thought. More than she had quoted me earlier. “How do you figure this? Are you sure you’re not exaggerating to get me more money?”
“Vicky, I’m a professional,” Zoë said, indignant that I had suggested she was anything but. “Listen, I had forgotten about the new bathroom and appliances. If you were going to put it on the market, I really think you would get that much. Providing, of course, that Dave cleans it up a bit.”
I snorted. It had been embarrassing taking Vicky into frat house central; Dave had obviously gone back to ordering takeout and the clothes had found their way back onto the floor. What was missing from among the clutter were the pictures of me; although I wasn’t sure if I was sad or relieved.
“Okay, so now what happens?”
“Well we take this to Dave and if he agrees with it, we get him to give you half. You should get this all done up by a lawyer, though.”
This was beginning to sound complicated. “So what about my offer on the other house?”
“Let’s do it up now and just make it conditional upon financing. You said he can pay you out, right?”
I nodded right before a herd of butterflies took off in my stomach. I willed myself not to be sick, swallowing the sudden excess saliva in my mouth. “What do you think we should offer?”
Zoë screwed up her face, looking at the ceiling. “Hmm, it hasn’t been up long so you don’t want to insult them or chance losing it, but you don’t want to overpay, either.” She looked down and noticed a fluff on her sleeve which she eradicated with a maddening slowness.
“So?” I asked, anxious.
“Um, you know what, why don’t I give the other agent a call and let him know there’s an offer coming in. That way, maybe I can read what action there’s been so far.”
She grabbed the receiver of the phone sitting square in the middle of the table and picked it up, dialing a number she had in her head.
The butterflies got the better of me and I had to get up and go to the back of the office to get some water. I didn’t remember being this nervous when Dave and I bought our house together, but then again, I had left most of the actual buying part up to him and Zoë while I did most of my work at Sears, picking out new blinds, furniture, and other necessities.
“Hey there, Vicky, how are things going?” I heard over my shoulder as I bent down to fill the paper cone from the water cooler.
“Good, Jim, thanks.” I smiled up at my new boss. He wasn’t as bad as Zoë made him out to be, although he was a bit weird.
“You’re not working today, are you?”
I shook my head, “No, Zoë’s working on a deal for me. I’m looking to buy a house.”
“Congratulations,” Jim said, a big smile spreading across his face.
“Thanks,” I murmured, tossing the empty cone into the garbage.
Jim scowled, “Oh shit, yeah, sorry. I forgot about your…situation.”
“It’s okay, Jim. It’ll be nice to have a fresh start in a new home.”
“You know…if you ever feel like some company, I like to rent movies, maybe I could…”
“VICKY!” Zoë hollered from the front of the office.
Ew, Jim was just about to ask me out. Oh my God, thank you, thank you, thank you Zoë, was all I could think in that exact moment. That was a very close call.
“I gotta go, Jim, see you Saturday.”
I hightailed it back to the closing room, fighting a new round of nausea that had zero to do with pregnancy.
Chapter 18
“Congratulations, you are the new proud owner of number seventy-two Carriage Lane!” Zoë hollered into the phone.
I held the receiver away from my face to protect my sensitive ear, but her enthusiasm was contagious. “Really?”
“Yup, they accepted your offer. I think it was your flexible closing date that did it; they’ve already bought another house and can’t afford to carry both. No one wants that kind of hassle.”
Butterflies and sudden thoughts of shopping trips to Sears clouded my head. “Uh…No, I guess not. That’s so awesome, Zoë. Thanks for all your help with this.”
“W
ell, there’s just the matter of my fee…”
I smirked, wondering what Zoë had up her sleeve; she would never take a monetary commission from me, that much I already knew. “And that would be?”
“A night of babysitting.”
I was speechless. This was the last thing I would have expected to fall out of Zoë’s mouth.
It was the least I could do for her, but…
“I’m kidding!” she laughed. “That was what you call a joke, Vicky. Jeez, do you think I’d ever make you do that?”
“So what do you want, then?”
“Take me out. Like we did when you first left Dave. That was so much fun, like the old days. I want to do that again.” Her voice dripped with nostalgia.
I groaned inwardly. Obviously, I didn’t want to relive the night that netted me more biologically than just a whopping hangover, but what could I say? “I don’t know, Zoë. It took me a long time to recover from that.” Yeah, like nine months.
“Come on, Vic. Don’t be a party pooper, that’s what we’ve got Kendra for.”
The vision of Kendra standing outside of the maternity boutique flashed into my head, bringing with it a wave of guilt. How could I so effortlessly accomplish what she so desperately yearned for? Where was the karmic justice in that?
“She’s not so bad,” I said, feeling the need to defend my oldest friend.
“No, she’s not.” Zoë concurred. “But I’m not taking no for an answer; you’re taking me out. I’m going to call Alf and make sure he’s okay with it, but we’re going out this Saturday night.”
I sighed. There was not much I could do: Zoë was as bad as Jen when it came to being stubborn. “All of us?”
“Well, since you’re still couch-surfing, I don’t see how we can’t invite Jen.”
A kernel of an idea planted itself in my brain; maybe if we went back to the same place, I would meet up with the guy again. Maybe seeing him while not being mentally and physically debilitated by alcohol would help me with my decision. It was a long shot, but I didn’t have much else to go on. My appointment at the doctor’s was only a few days away and I was still no closer to making a decision.
“Okay, Zoë, I’m in. But let’s go back to the same place, it was fun there.”
“Now you’re talking. Oh, Jaime’s home from school, I gotta go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
”Yeah, thanks again, Zoë.”
I hung up the phone and looked around. I was suddenly very restless. Jen wouldn’t be home for a while and I didn’t feel like watching TV. Glancing at the clock, I realized if I hustled I could make it to the gym in time for a drop-in yoga class. Buoyed by the thought of being able to clear my mind, if only for an hour, I launched off the couch, grabbing my car keys and gym bag on my way out the door.
* * *
“So can you do this for me?” I asked my brother over my steaming mug of decaf (until I decided what I was doing with the tiny nugget of bastard DNA growing inside of me, there was no reason to take any chances). We were sitting at a local coffee shop just around the corner from his place, at my request; last time I had walked into his apartment, I swore never to return. He took the concept of ‘dorm room decorating’ to a whole new level. He made Dave’s new living conditions look like something right out of Martha Stewart’s magazine. And I hated going to see him at his law office; he was so busy I always felt like he was distracted and I was imposing on his time.
“Yeah, I can,” he said, his displeasure at doing me a favor obvious.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be a putz, Steve.”
“You know how busy I am? Why should I be happy about doing this shit for you for free?”
I rubbed at my temples, wishing I’d just sucked it up and paid an unrelated lawyer to do my real estate deal. “Okay, Steve. Don’t be surprised when you get a bill in the mail for all the years’ worth of dental cleanings and that mouth full of fillings.”
“Oh, uh…”
“Yeah, ‘oh, uh’” I did my best imitation of his caveman response. “So cut the shit, will you do my deal, or what?”
“Yeah, Vic. Of course, I’ll do it,” he grinned. God, he was insufferable sometimes. “But I want another favor from you.”
I sighed, “What is it, Steve?”
One of his infuriating mischievous smiles crept across his face. “I want you to hook me up with your friend, Jen.”
Oh my God. I had so much more to think about than playing high school fix up with my brother and friend. “Steve, she’s seeing Seth still.”
He shook his head. “Nah, I saw him at the gym yesterday and he said they were over.”
“What? No, they’re not.” Jen definitely would have said something. “Your sophomoric wishful thinking doesn’t make it so.”
He shook his head. “Okay, well maybe not over yet, but he’s going to ditch her this weekend.” He frowned. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you.”
I stared at my daft brother, appalled. “Are you kidding? Ugh, I gotta go.” I slugged the last of the coffee, cursing silently that it was still hot enough to burn my esophagus on the way down. Pushing the chair back, I leaned down to get my purse from the floor.
Steve didn’t move. “So you gonna set me up with her?”
What a piece of work. “No, I’m not going to set you up with her. And, anyway, why would you want to go out with someone who will apparently be on the rebound?”
“Rebound chicks are hot; they’re looking to forget the last guy with some crazy sex with the new guy.”
Ugh. It was so gross that I was one of my brother’s clichés. Grabbing a crumpled up napkin from the table, I threw it at him. “You’re disgusting.”
“All that and more.” He grinned. “Make it for tomorrow night. She’ll be impressed that I want to take her out on a Saturday night.”
I had no idea what he was talking about but didn’t even care. “Not going to happen. We’re going out tomorrow night anyway.”
“You and Jen? On a date?”
”You really are a putz. No, the girls are going out. Kendra and Zoë too…”
“Mmm, hen night. Hot.”
“Goodbye, Steve.” Slinging my purse over my shoulder, I turned and left the table, leaving my brother with the bill and his sordid thoughts of my friend.
“Have Zoë send over the paperwork,” he hollered just as my hand reached for the door.
I turned back and nodded, forcing a smile on my face to let my brother know that I was grateful, for his legal services anyway.
As I left the café, I zipped up the front of my coat against the increasing chill of winter. Worse than the chill in the air was the freeze on my heart; I was going to have to tell Jen that her breakup from Seth was imminent. No good friend would bury that information, I had to give her the option of ending it first. It was the least I could do after she’d let me stay on her couch.
With a sigh, I climbed into my SUV and headed back to Jen’s apartment, but first, I would drive by my new little house.
* * *
“That asshole!” Jen said for about the ninety-sixth time. “Are you sure?”
“As sure as I can be. Like I told you: my brother’s a putz, but he’s not a liar.” I handed her a Kleenex. “I’m really sorry, Jen. I thought it would be best if you heard it from me.”
She took the Kleenex and waved me off. “Whatever, I guess it’s not that much of a surprise. I should have kicked him to the curb a long time ago when I first got the inkling he wouldn’t commit.”
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“I just don’t want to have to start all over again, you know?” She looked up at me.
“I do know. Um, I’m sleeping on your couch, remember?”
Jen smiled, “Yeah, at least we can be spinsters together, not like those bitch turncoats Zoë and Kendra.” She winked.
“Speaking of which, the four of us are going out tomorrow night.”
Jen’s smile broadened s
ignificantly. “Nice, I could use a bender.” She cocked her head, “As a matter of fact, it’s Friday and I’ve got nothing going on; no reason we can’t start now.” She pushed herself up off the couch and headed towards her kitchen.
I was about ready to join her but the microscopic zygote inside of me made itself known through a sudden wave of nausea. How was I going to get through this weekend without drinking? My friends were surely going to notice.
I quickly got up and intercepted Jen in the kitchen. “Why don’t you go have a hot bath? I’ll make the drinks.” Jen was not likely to notice if I was drinking straight soda, just as long as I kept playing bartender.
“You’re the best,” Jen said before she threw her arms around my neck. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Don’t get too comfortable,” I said, my words muffled by her mass of hair. “I am moving out you know.”
Jen ended the hug first. “Yeah, Zoë told me you found a place you like. She said it was really cute.”
“I bought it. So it’s official.” I had trouble containing my excitement, although it felt inappropriate to be so happy in front of my just-dumped friend.
She didn’t seem to mind, though, as evidenced by another throttling hug, “That’s so awesome! Congratulations!”
“Thanks, I’m not leaving right away, but at least you know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Jen frowned, “You know I’ve never minded you here, actually the opposite: it’s been really nice. I’m sorry about why you had to be here, but you’re a good roommate, all the same.”
I smiled at Jen’s very rare and unexpected show of affection. “Thanks. Now get into that bath. When you get out you will have a drink waiting for you and maybe even some dinner.”
“You rock,” Jen said as she left the room.
Chapter 19
So there we were, back again at Jen’s apartment, four friends and their assorted sorrows.
As an opener, Kendra had announced upon entry to the apartment that she and her husband were officially out of money and would have to put a second mortgage on their house if they went for any more fertility treatments. We all said the obligatory ‘I’m sorry,’ but then turned to Jen’s story of the phantom breakup. I commiserated silently about my own woes, still unwilling to break the news of my unplanned pregnancy to my friends.
Life, Sideways Page 10
