by E. L. Todd
Hearing them bicker and argue was annoying, but I missed hearing it. I took it for granted when I was around them all the time. Now I realized how comforting it was. It reminded me of home.
“Anyway…” Skye held up a hand to silence them. “What were we talking about?”
Slade shrugged. “The price of tea in China? I don’t know.”
“Only three weeks left, Cayson,” Trinity said. “Then you’ll be home and we’ll have game night and eat Mega Shake every day.”
“Don’t say that…” I touched my stomach. “I could down a milkshake in ten seconds if I had it in front of me.”
“I can do that now.” Slade said it like it was something to be proud of.
Trinity grabbed a handful of popcorn and threw it at him. “Don’t be annoying.”
He wiped the pieces off his clothes. “I’m not. You’re annoying.”
“Still in the honeymoon phase, huh?” I asked.
“Dude, we’ve been fucking like crazy,” Slade said. “I’m surprised Trinity can walk right now.”
“Okay.” Skye cut them off. “Enough of that.”
Slade snatched the bucket of popcorn from Trinity then poured it on top of Skye.
Skye screamed then swatted the pieces out of her hair. “You son-of-a-bitch!” Then she jumped off the couch and started chasing him around the house. “How dare you! This furniture is brand-new.”
Trinity sighed then looked at me. “It looks like they’ll be a while…so what’s new with you?”
Every few seconds, Slade and Skye would dash across the screen. I saw them in the background as I looked at Trinity. “My life is pretty boring.”
“Boring?” she asked with a laugh. “You’re traveling the world. We’re the boring ones.”
Slade ran by again with Skye on his heels. “Shit, calm down!”
I ignored them and kept talking. “How’s my wife doing?”
“Good. She’s a lot better now that she knows you’re coming home soon.”
“Soon?” My voice was full of sarcasm. “Three weeks is forever. It’s twenty-one days. Ugh.”
“Three weeks is better than three months. Think about it that way.”
Instead of Skye chasing Slade, now it was the other way around. Slade chased Skye with a flyswatter. “I’m going to get you, you stupid brat!” They kept running.
I continued on like nothing was odd. “She’s been eating and everything?”
“She and I trade off making dinner every night. But she does sit around a lot. She doesn’t feel like doing anything.”
That explained the weight gain.
“So, she’s been okay?”
“Yeah, Slade waits on her hand-and-foot.” She rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t even treat me that way.”
“I’ll have to get him a nice gift when I get home.”
“I’ll give him a blowjob for you,” Trinity said. “There you go.”
I chuckled. “Uh, thanks.”
Slade and Skye came back into the screen but they finally stopped running. They were both breathing hard and sweaty. Skye had the flyswatter and she pointed it at Slade.
“Go ahead.” Slade extended his arm to her. “Do your worst.”
Skye spun the flyswatter in her wrist with a mischievous look in her eyes. Then quicker than I could see, she slammed the flyswatter down hard on Slade’s bare forearm. A loud smack echoed even through the screen.
Slade bit his lip and cringed. He was quiet for a long time. Everyone held their breath as they waited for his reaction. Then he screamed loudly like a bear. “Shit, that hurt like a motherfucker.”
Skye put her hands on her hips. “That’s what you get, asshole.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Lexie
I stormed into the house without knocking. I hadn’t lived with my parents in five years and I never barged in like I owned the place. But I was so pissed off that I didn’t give a damn about manners.
Mom was sitting at the kitchen table reading a magazine. There were boxes piled around her with my dad’s things marked on the side. She sat there like her world wasn’t falling apart.
When she finally noticed me, she looked up. “Oh…” She clutched her chest like she had a momentary shock. “I didn’t see you there, Lexie.” She caught her breath then relaxed. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” I put my hands on my hips and tried not to scream. One of the boxes on the counter was labeled with Dad’s shot glasses. “What’s wrong?” I shoved the box as hard as I could and it flew onto the tile floor of the kitchen. “Dad can go to hell. That’s what’s wrong.”
Mom’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “Lexie, why are you acting like this? Calm down.”
Dad came down the stairs with a concerned look on his face. “What’s going on here?” Then he spotted his box on the kitchen floor. “Lexie, what the hell are you doing?”
Looking at him just sent me into a rage. He was leaving my mother for another woman, and the fact he was hurting her like this, trading her in for a younger and newer model just made me hate him more. “How could you do this to Mom?”
Macy came down the stairs when she heard the commotion, but when she reached the dining area she hung in the background and watched.
Mom abandoned her newspaper and watched me with a shocked expression on her face.
Dad didn’t react, like he was still trying to hide the truth. “Your mother and I just couldn’t work it out.”
“Because you’re fucking a slut half your age!” My eyes watered from anger, not sadness. “You’re a piece of shit. How could you do this to the mother of your children? The woman you’ve been married to for twenty years?”
Dad’s eyes immediately flickered to Mom and accusation was in his eyes.
“I didn’t tell her,” Mom blurted.
Now I hated him even more. “You’re such a fucking coward!” I marched to him then shoved him as hard as I could. “I saw you with that woman at the lounge last night. I saw the ring on her finger. I saw you all over her while Mom is home alone.”
Macy gasped. “What?”
Mom covered her face and sighed.
Dad bowed his head and had a guilty look on his face.
“You should be ashamed of yourself.” The tears fell freely down my face. “What’s wrong with Mom? What’s wrong with her?”
“Dad…?” Macy looked just as heartbroken as I was. “Who is she?”
“Why isn’t Mom good enough for you?” I demanded. “She takes care of you and puts up with your shit. You would really break up a family just because you found a woman with perkier tits?”
Mom rose from her chair then came to me. “Lexie, calm down.”
“No.” I pushed her off me. “How can you act like everything is okay? Dad cheated on you and you’re not screaming and yelling?”
Mom put her hands on my shoulders. “It’s hard…I know it is. But this is the way it has to be.”
“How can you be so calm about this?”
Mom took a deep breath. “Lexie, everything will be alright. Just breathe deeply.”
“No.” I stepped away from her and glared openly at my father. “I hate you. I hate you.”
Hurt came into his eyes and he looked away.
“How can you not love Mom anymore?” Macy asked. “You’ve been together for so long…” She was taking it harder than I was.
I stared at my father and wanted to break his jaw.
Dad cleared his throat then headed to the door. “I should go.”
“Yeah, you really should,” Macy said savagely. “Go find your stupid bimbo.”
Dad walked out of the house with slumped shoulders. He looked like a shadow of the man he once was. Once the door was shut, the silence echoed in the halls. The house no longer felt like home. Now it felt foreign and empty. Without my parents’ love it felt like a place I’d never been before.
I looked at Mom, feeling so terrible for her. “Are you okay, Mom?” I came to her side and rubbed
her back. “I can’t believe he would do this to you…”
“Asshole.” Macy came to her other side.
Mom’s eyes watered slightly but she blinked them back. She tried to hide her emotion in front of us like it would make it easier. “How did you know, Lexie?”
“I saw him with her in a bar…kissing her. She had an enormous rock on her finger.” My stomach burned with acid at the memory. “He looked so stupid and happy…being with a woman half his age.”
Mom stared across the kitchen with a ghostly look on her face. “Is she pretty?”
She was. She was thin with long legs and a curvy waist. “No. She’s got nothing on you, Mom.”
Mom gave me a slight smile like she knew I was lying.
“How long has this been going on?” Macy asked. “How did you find out?”
Mom sat down at the table and rested her hands on the surface. Now that the truth was out, she wasn’t as strong as she normally was. Unable to hide the truth, she was stiff and uncomfortable. “He started being happy all the time. We used to fight over stupid things but those stopped too. He was always in a good mood…I thought it was odd. When he started coming home later than usual and took more business trips, I knew something was off. As ashamed as I am to admit this, I went through his phone…”
I cringed at her words.
Mom pressed her lips tightly together before she spoke. “And I found everything I needed to know.” She fidgeted with the bracelet on her wrist, avoiding our gaze. “I assumed this was just something on the side, something meaningless and different. But when I confronted him about it…he told me he was in love with her. Then he asked for a divorce.” Her eyes watered again and she quickly blinked.
I couldn’t believe he did this to her. Mom was the sweetest woman on the planet. How could he hurt her like this? “He’ll realize what a stupid mistake it is. He’ll realize she isn’t half the woman you are. And when he comes back on his hands and knees, you kick him as hard as you can.”
Macy shook her head. “I can’t believe him…I hate him.”
Mom composed herself before she spoke. “I would never want either one of you to hate your father—ever.”
We both stared at her in shock.
“I know this isn’t how any of us wanted things to work out. It’s painful and difficult to get through. But your father is still a good man and I’ll always love him. I want you to love him too.” Mom kept her eyes on the table as she spoke.
How could she be so understanding and forgiving? I was more upset than she was. “No, all he cares about is himself. Why should we care about someone who doesn’t care about you or us?”
“Yeah,” Macy said in agreement.
“These things happen…” Mom sniffed loudly. “When he told me the truth, I didn’t beg him to stay with me. I didn’t ask him to change his mind or stick around for you and the kids. I refuse to let myself look so weak. But that doesn’t mean I stopped loving him. The twenty years we spent together were wonderful and I wouldn’t trade them for anything…even if I knew it was going to end.”
Seeing my mom act so calm just made me feel worse. She was so amazing and my father didn’t even care. How could he walk out on her when it was obvious he would never find someone to love him like she did? It just wasn’t right.
“I know things are hard right now,” Mom said. “But we’ll get through it together—as a family.”
***
Mom wanted to be alone so Macy and I walked out of the house together. Since I found out the truth about my father, I hadn’t had the time or energy to hate Macy for her childish ways. It was forgotten in light of the tragedy.
She and I stood together on the sidewalk like we had nowhere to go.
Macy turned to me, sadness in her eyes. “Want to get a drink?”
I didn’t think twice about my answer. “Sure.”
We walked into a nearby sports lounge and ordered our beers. I slumped in the booth and breathed through the pain in my chest. Seeing my mom like that tore me apart. Now I knew how she felt when I was in pain.
Macy drank her beer then set the bottle on the coaster. “I keep thinking this is all a bad dream and it’ll just go away…but it never does.”
I nodded in agreement.
“I just…can’t believe this is happening. Twenty years of marriage and Dad just takes off with some slut?”
I didn’t even know the woman and I hated her.
“What does she look like?”
“Thin brunette, attractive.”
“Prettier than Mom?”
I shrugged. “I don’t think it’s a beauty contest. I think it’s more of an age contest.”
“How old is she?”
“Probably a few years older than me.”
Macy cringed. “That’s disgusting. He could be her father.”
“I know…” The thought made me sick.
“How could he do this to Mom?” She shook her head. “He’s really throwing everything away for some young girl?”
“He’s an idiot,” I said. “And I hope he regrets it.”
“He will regret it,” she snapped. “Because he not only lost his wife, but his two daughters as well.”
I didn’t touch my beer. “I just feel so bad for Mom…she’s such a nice person.”
“I know.” Macy’s eyes darkened with sadness. “I didn’t even notice anything was going on. When Dad was happy, I assumed he was just a happy guy. I didn’t know it was because he was fucking some stupid broad.”
I stared out the window and the people walking by.
“I hate him.” Macy’s voice was full of venom. “I really hate him.”
“I hate him too.” It didn’t matter to me that he was my father. If he hurt my mother like that I would never respect him.
Macy drank her beer and fell into silence.
How could someone hurt a person they loved like that? How could they just walk away without ever looking back? Jared cheated on me and snuck around behind my back. He dragged my heart through the mud even though he kept saying he would change. Now my dad did the same thing to my mom, but he actually left her because he found someone better.
Did all relationships end that way?
Did love just die?
Did a hotter woman walk by and immediately snatch your husband right from under your feet?
First it was me and now it was my parents. Those weren’t good odds. “I’m never getting married.” I felt the bottle in my hand and touched the label with my fingertips. “Never.”
“What about Conrad?”
“What about him?” I peeled the paper off then felt it in my fingertips.
“I thought you loved him.”
“I do—very much.” I would never hurt him the way my father hurt my mom. But didn’t he think the same thing when he was my age? Didn’t he make the same promise to her as Jared did to me? Maybe I would do the same thing to Conrad. And if I didn’t do it to Conrad, he would do it to me.
“But you don’t want to marry him?”
“What’s the point?” I asked. “We’ll just get divorced later down the road. I already went through that with Jared. I can’t do it again. I don’t want to end up like Mom.”
Guilt moved in Macy’s eyes and she didn’t meet my gaze.
“It’s just how it is,” I whispered. “Relationships aren’t meant to last forever. You stay with one person until the chemistry and sparks die. Then you go your separate ways. Otherwise you just resent each other down the road. It’s a practice humans can’t handle.”
“I don’t know about that…”
“I do,” I said without hesitation. “Conrad will do the exact same thing to me one day. I would much rather have our relationship end on a good note when we still care and respect each other rather than have a painful betrayal like that. I just can’t handle it.”
“Conrad would never do that to you.” She finally looked at me again. “He loves you, Lexie. I can tell he would never hurt you.”
She bowed her head in shame. “Yes…”
“Well, it’s the beginning of our relationship. Give it a few years and I’m sure you’ll wear him down.”
Macy shook her head. “Not even then, Lexie. He really is a good guy. He’s nothing like Dad.”
“For now.”
She felt the top of her bottle with her fingertips. “I’m really sorry…for everything I’ve done to you.”
I stared at her but couldn’t really see her. I tried to digest the foreign words but couldn’t really process them. Did she say what I think she said? Did Macy actually…apologize?
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” Macy said. “After everything I’ve done, I don’t deserve it. But I am sorry.” She gave me a look full of remorse. “I’ve always been jealous of you. You’re so smart and pretty…. I’m just stupid and worthless. I guess I wanted to be like you but I didn’t know how.”
“By stealing my men?”
She lowered her gaze. “I told you I don’t expect your forgiveness. If the situation were reversed, I wouldn’t give it to you.”
I never expected Macy to say any of this. I assumed we would be enemies for the rest of our lives.
“With Jared, he always had wandering eyes. I caught him looking at me a few times, long before we slept together. And I know he did it when he was around other girls too. He was an unbridled horse that couldn’t be saddled. His actions didn’t surprise me at all, and I just fed on his weakness to hurt you. But Conrad…is nothing like that. He only has eyes for you, Lexie. He stares at you like you’re his whole world. His eyes never wander to greener pastures. He prefers to sit next to you and water his own lawn.”
I looked out the window because I couldn’t hold her gaze.
“I’m not saying Jared didn’t love you because I think he did….as much as he could at the time. But Conrad is completely different. He looks at you like you’re the one he’s been waiting his whole life for. You don’t have to worry about him hurting you. I can tell he’s loyal—and not just out of obligation.”
