“Good!” We said it at the same time.
“It was like a free concert every night,” I said.
“Which was lucky, because that was all we could afford,” Aidan added. The saxophonist appeared to have moved down the street. He sighed. “Kat, I want to save our relationship. I’ve said that countless times. These things do take work. You knowthat. Or maybe you don’t. Or maybe you don’t care. Sometimes I have no idea.”
Even now, Aidan could still make me feel like he was speaking down from some moral high ground. A place only people who came from nice families in Westchester could occupy.
But no matter how irritated I was now, those early days with Aidan had bright spots. He was warm and funny and full of life. He was great at playing with Cleo when she was little—Twister for hours was his specialty. And when she was a preteen, he always seemed to be able to get her out of a bad mood by being silly—ridiculous faces and bad jokes galore. Truthfully, he’d gotten me to lighten up, too, ignoring my defenses and demanding that I join in the fun. It was a breath of fresh air, for a time. But that window it had briefly opened inside me had eventually closed amid all our other problems.
“What are you asking for, exactly, Aidan?”
“It’s … I’m stressed,” he went on, his entire demeanor shifting. His eyes were soft, imploring now. “The new movie—we’ve had a couple significant setbacks. And we’re already so far in the hole financially. If we don’t try to see it through and claw the investment back with a sale to a distributor, it will be … disastrous. The company will go under. I—I need some help right now to bridge the gap. That’s all, Kat.”
And what kind of person didn’t respond to a genuine plea for help, especially from someone with whom they’d shared more than twenty years of marriage and a child? Only a bad one, obviously. And the thing was, I did have the money. More than three million dollars still in a separate account, the exact amount Gladys’s cousins had sued for. We’d used some of it over the years, but I’d always replaced it over time with my bonuses.
“Call it aloanif you want, for now. I don’t even care. But it is money I’m entitled to.” He gave his head an indignant shake.
“Entitled?” I asked. Because that exactly did sum up so much. “It’s moneyIinherited.”
“And then put it into an account with my name on it,” he said. “You squirreling away the account numbers and passwords doesn’t change that fact.”
It was true. I had put Aidan’s name on the account. But only because I’d known he’d be mortally wounded otherwise. I deliberately hadn’t researched the legal implications. I’d had a bad feeling what they might be. In my defense, I hadn’t thought we’d ever get divorced. But now the money really might end up half his. How could I have been so stupid?
“How much money do you need this time?”
Now his eyes turned down to the table. “It’s a lot. I’m acknowledging that right off the—”
“How much, Aidan?”
“Two million dollars,” he said, then took a sharp breath. “Well, really two point seven five. I obviously wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t really important, Kat. This movie—it really has the potential to change things. To have a real impact.”
I willed myself to stay calm. “I hear you, Aidan, and I understand. We can absolutely discuss it.Afterwe discuss Cleo, which was why I thought we were here. What did you find out?”
He squinted at me for a long moment. This was a game of chicken now.
“We don’t need to worry,” he said finally. “That’s the bottom line.”
“Okay, and what did Cleo say?”
“That we don’t need to worry.”
“That’s it? Aidan, you asked specifically about Kyle, right?”
“Of course I did. And she’s not seeing him. Like I said. Which was my point about not worrying. My point exactly.”
“Then what was the money for?” I asked.
“I don’t know …specifically,” he said. “But Cleo assured me that she is okay and otherwise asked that I respect her privacy.”
You can’t be that stupid.
But had I actually expected that he’d get her to admit that shewas back with Kyle, even if he’d asked? Cleo had gotten pretty good at lying right to our faces.
“Well, at least she doesn’t have the money,” I said, mostly to myself. Because quite genuinely it was the only comforting thing I could think of.
“What do you mean?” Aidan looked confused. “Yes, she does.”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t see any transfer.”
