“I was wondering if maybe we could talk.”
I hold back the frustrated sigh rising up my chest and cross my arms instead. “What did you want to talk about?”
He shifts his gaze inside the car, checking on Sadie who’s still oblivious to our conversation. “Are you free for dinner? Tomorrow night?”
“I’m going to this cake tasting thing for Mina.”
“Friday?”
I shake my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Please?”
“Leo, whatever you have to say, just say it now.”
“I thought it would be nice for us to be alone.” He takes another small step closer to me and a part of me recoils. “Sadie won’t be here, and we can talk.”
Whatever emotional rage I’ve been tampering down in an attempt to be cordial starts to climb up my throat, and my chest feels tight with frustration. “I really don’t have anything to say to you.”
“But I…There are a lot of things I want to talk about. I need to explain?—”
“What could you possibly have to explain to me?” I hiss, my hands fisting at my sides.
His palms face me. “Okay,” he offers. “I-I’m sorry. Okay?”
“Just go, Leo. If I need to talk to you, I’ll call you. Or my lawyer will.”
“Are you serious? You’re not really going to go through with this.”
I glare at him. “Why wouldn’t I? Youcheatedon me. You fucked some twenty-two-year-old paralegal because she batted her eyelashes at you and stroked your ego.”
“It wasn’t like that?—”
“No? Because I don’t know how you can paint it in a different way. It’s pretty clear what happened.”
“Teeny—”
We’re interrupted by the sudden burst of music when Sadie opens the car door. “Daaad! I don’t want to miss orientation!!”
Our stiff bodies leaned into an obvious altercation, slacken at the sound of Sadie’s voice.
“Yeah, Sade. We’re leaving right now.”
Sadie looks at me with a furrowed brow, taking in my uneasy stance and flushed face. I force a smile and take a few steps toward her before ducking my head to peck a quick kiss to her hairline. “Send me some pictures when you get there. I want a video of that song you’re working on.”
She smiles, her giddy grin beaming with pride. “I love you, Mommy.”
“Love you too, Sadie bug.”
I close the door and catch Leo rounding the car. The somewhat amiable air he tried hard to maintain has dissipated into something unpleasant. Something damaged and irreparable. He looks at me as if barely realizing how broken we’ve become.
* * *
The next day, twenty-four hours post-argument with my soon-to-be ex-husband, I’m driving the twenty-minute drive to Just Sweets, the very hipster and very chic bakery handling the three-tier wedding cake Mina and Josh spent a pretty penny on for their wedding. The day’s shifting into evening, and the sun is gradually falling behind the hills of Del Mar Heights, peeking through the uneven terrain of homes and rise and fall of the highways. As my Spotify playlist decides what to play from my current shuffle, it’s interrupted by the sudden ring of an incoming call from an unknown number through the speaker system.
“Hello?”
“Hi, is this Christine Diaz?” asks a deep, unfamiliar voice.
