I almost look for the dachshund as I take the cover off the chicken and brown rice, like he’s going to be underfoot, begging for food.
For a second, I think,Maybe I should get a dog.
But no.
Not again.
I eat the meal cold on the terrace, standing under the awning and looking out over the foggy skyline.
Is Jenna at a bar, nursing her heartbreak? Out with friends? Surely she didn’t go back to Nathan.
I still.
She’s stubborn.
Would she try to get back together with him just to spite me?
Probably.
Not my problem.
Doggedly, I eat the rest of my cold food.
Think about texting one of my brothers.
Think about texting Jenna.
Tell myself to stop thinking about Jenna because she’s not important.
Then I sit in my study and review product innovations, waiting for it to get late enough that I can do something extremely illegal that Jenna and my brother will pin me to the wall for… if they find out.
15
JENNA
“This is my house too.” My words sound small in the drizzly Seattle dark.
The lights are on in the town house bedroom.
For a second, I think about kicking off my heels and jumping the back fence so I can sneak in and surprise Nathan and Johanna. Just to punish myself, you know?
“I have paid half of this mortgage for the past year and a half,” I tell myself. “This is my house, too, and I will be living here.”
Except my key doesn’t work on the lock.
“Oh, hell no! I have tenant rights!” I yell, mashing the doorbell and banging on the glass pane of the door. “Nathan, I know you’re in there. Open the door. You can’t lock me out of my own goddamn—oof!”
I stumble into the foyer as the door flies open.
An angry Nathanlooms over me.
“You have some nerve.” He grabs the strap of my purse, dragging me so I stumble forward, banging my knees on the floor as I fall.
“You have some gall to accuse me of ruining our relationship when you’re out there bending over for your ex.” The smell of beer is stale on his breath.
“How dare you accuse me of—”
He shoves his phone with its dirty screen in my face.
