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“Two?” The server handed Rebecca two menus and beckoned for Rebecca and Victor to follow her to a booth. There, Rebecca slid onto the vinyl cushion and stared at the menu as her father adjusted across from her.
The story about Bethany had made Rebecca jittery. Why had her father brought it up? Did he want to remind her of how normal their family had once been before he’d abandoned them during their darkest hour? Did he want to call attention to the elephant in the room? Was he that ignorant?
The blurry menu contained photographs of mid-grade breakfast and lunch items such as waffles, chicken tenders, and grilled cheese sandwiches.
“I’ll have the three-bean soup,” Victor said, “and a turkey club.” He passed the menu to the server, who glanced at Rebecca.
“And I’ll just have a chicken salad with the dressing on the side.” Since nothing tasted good to Rebecca anymore, it was best to stick to the basics.
“Anything to drink?”
Both Rebecca and her father ordered water. Rebecca stared out the window for a full minute as Victor checked something on his cell phone. After he finished, he waved his cell in the air and said, “Pretty wild how far technology has come over the years, huh?”
Rebecca had the sudden urge to run out of the diner and away from this man as quickly and as far as she could.
When the food came, Victor scooped a large portion of bean soup and blew over it. Rebecca shifted her fork through her salad.
“So. What happened?” Rebecca lifted her eyes to his.
Victor chewed and swallowed his spoonful of soup. “What do you mean?”
Rebecca shrugged. “With Bree.”
Victor’s eyes became shadowed. He took another bite of bean soup.
“I mean, she was the love of your life. Right?” Rebecca hated that she suddenly sounded a little bit like Lily during an argument.
Victor set his jaw. “You were married for many years. You know how complicated it is.”
“My marriage was a success,” Rebecca retorted. “We were loyal to each other. We held each other’s love above everything else.”
Victor blinked at her. Rebecca’s cheeks burned with shame.
“As a family psychologist, I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands, of couples,” Victor recited. “And I…”
“Oh, don’t give me your ‘I’m a family psychologist’ crap.”
Victor couldn’t look at her. Rebecca took a breath and told herself to calm down.
“I don’t necessarily think my marriage to Bree was unsuccessful,” Victor said softly. “We were married for thirty years and built an entire life together. There’s a quote from John Updike that I love. ‘If temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.’ I suppose, to me, it means that nothing in life is meant to last forever. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t honor what we’ve had.”
Rebecca sipped her water. She felt on the verge of bursting into tears. The only thing that stopped her was her sheer embarrassment of crying in front of world-renowned family psychologist Victor Sutton, especially in a public place.
“I just don’t think you have any right to tell anyone how to live their lives when you’ve had so much trouble with yours,” Rebecca muttered. She then leaped to her feet and hustled into the women’s bathroom. She collapsed on the toilet lid and wept into her hands, feeling like a child.
Rebecca remained in the bathroom for fifteen minutes. A part of her thought Victor had taken off in her SUV by now. But no, there he sat in front of a paper to-go box, in which he’d placed the rest of his sandwich and an additional turkey club he’d had made just for her.
“You might be hungry later.” He spoke to the box rather than her.
Outside, Rebecca got into the driver’s seat and turned the engine on. For a long time, they sat in silence.
“I’m sorry I asked about Bree,” Rebecca said.
“It’s okay.” Victor palmed the back of his neck. “I have so many things to apologize for.”
Rebecca waited for him to explain which things, but he didn’t. When would those apologies come?
“Have you reached out to Bethany or Valerie?” Rebecca asked. She didn’t dare look at her father.
