“I guess…” He peers at the silverware sitting next to his right hand. The pads of his fingertips start to run over the metal handles of the fork and knife like he’s stalling. “I wanted to come back home. I miss being here. I miss Josh and your family.”
But not me.I nod. My throat starts to feel tight and painful. “Well, you know, those sandy beaches are hard to forget.”
“Teeny—”
“Ohmigod, Christine!”
I look up at the excitedly squealed sound of my name to find one of the last people I expect to see here: Erica Davis.
“Erica!” I awkwardly call in the direction of my husband’s colleague’s wife. “Hi.”
I stand from my seat at the same time Erica reaches my side. We hold each other in the quickest of embraces before we part, and her eyes immediately fall on Everett.
“How are you?” she asks, running a hand down my arm. “I feel like we haven’t seen you in ages.”
“I’m good. Just getting ready to send Sadie out to summer camp this week.”
“Right, she signed up for that music camp out in LA,” she says. Her eyes shift to Everett again while I do everything I can to avoid introductions. “You’re going to have a lot of time on your hands.”
I laugh awkwardly. “I’m taking on more clients,” I tell her, though it’s really none of her business what I do with all of this supposed “free time.” “I think I’ll have my hands full for the summer.”
Erica laughs too, though her over-exaggerated chortle sounds arrogantly forced. “You working moms,” she comments as if us “working moms” were some exotic breed. “I don’t get how you do it. I couldn’t stand to be away from my babies.”
“Heh,” I huff, laughing to fill the uncomfortable silence with politeness instead of with something cheeky and just as backhanded as her comment.
“Well,” she adds, breathing a sigh with subtle undertones of annoyance. “I’ve got to run. I’ll tell Marcus we’ll set something up soon. I’m sure Nikki and Sadie would love to have a little girls’ day at the pool.” She throws another look at Everett before pulling me into a goodbye hug, one that feels more like a cold shoulder with the phony sideways peck against my cheek.
“Bye, Erica.”
“Too-da-loo!”
I slink back into the booth seat and look at Everett. “What in the real housewives of San Diego was that?”
I hold back the laugh at his sarcasm with an irked shake of my head. “She’s the wife of Leo’s colleague.”
“So does that make you one of those Stepford wives?”
I tsk. “With my cooking skills? Never.”
That draws a loose chuckle out of him.
“I just have to…play the part. Be the happy wife with the beautiful family and home.”
“Are you—I mean, were you happy? Before you found out…”
“You mean before I found out my husband had a side piece a speed dial away?”
Everett grimaces, but he quickly tucks wherever that expression came from and looks at me with those sad puppy dog eyes I can’t stand.
“I was,” I finally answer, looking away. “When we got married, and when we had Sadie, I was. But we haven’t been happy for a long time.”
We’re interrupted by the arrival of our order. The waitress slides the steamy cup of coffee in front of me, and by the time the plate of waffles sits between us, I realize what I’ve just told Everett.
We don’t touch anything. We don’t lift a single silverware or napkin. Instead, we just sit in silence.
“I’m sorry, Teeny.”
“So you’ve said.”
