Eli either coughed or quietly snorted but had the good sense not to say anything.
“Okay... maybe I could help you pick out new fixtures?”
She shook her head and then turned on her side, so her body was curled into the back of the couch and she could properly cry into my shirt. “No, it’s not the fixtures. That was just the tipping point. It’s working seventy hours a week and eating a cup of microwaveable mac and cheese even though Max always leaves me a plate of homemade food in the refrigerator.”
“But Max is a great cook.”
“I just... got married when I was twenty-four and I woke up one day and realized that I am living the life that twenty-four-year-old me chose and is that fair to me now? And I hate that when I get home at night, I have to eat dinner alone. It makes me sad when I see the artwork the kids bring home but they aren’t awake to tell me about it and then...” She paused for a moment. “Oh god, does that make me sentimental?”
I shook my head as I gathered part of her hair in a loose braid. “No, just human, I think.”
“And then we’re still down to one shower and there’s only one working outlet in our bedroom right now, so I’m always showing up to work with a dead phone. And I forgot Violet’s science fair last week and when I said I was sorry, she said, ‘I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed.’ Vera! I’m the mom. That’s my line!”
Eli set the plate with the sandwich down on the coffee table with a quiet “Oof.”
Tess rolled over onto her other side, her pants twisting around her ankles. “But I’ll tell you what! Twenty-four-year-old Tess didn’t know she was signing up to be a bad mom.” She gestured to Eli. “Even he thinks I’m a bad parent.”
Eli shook his head. “Not judging. Just relating, I swear. When Brigid was in preschool, I was doing a rainy day pickup where they load your kid in the car for you. It took me two blocks before I realized they’d accidentally given me Javier, one of Brigid’s classmates.”
Tess sniffed. “Okay, thatispretty awful.”
“Thank you?” Eli questioned.
I mouthed a silentthanksbefore resuming my best friend duties. “Last year, I left Marlon at the dog park,” I admitted in a rush of shame. “I took his leash and just walked right out. I made it all the way home and poured his dry food in his bowl before it dawned on me.”
Tess flopped back over and looked up at me. “Was he traumatized forever?”
I shook my head. “When I showed up, he was rolling in the grass, nipping at another dog’s back paws. But I did buy him those little doggy ice-cream cones to assuage my guilt.”
“Where is that little shit?” she asked.
“At the boarders’. We just got back into town.”
My best friend narrowed her eyes at me. “We?”
“Ruby was receiving a lifetime achievement award at a horror convention in New Orleans.”
“Well, that explains why you were there, but what’s his deal?” She hiked a thumb over at Eli, who was leaning up against the TV cabinet now with his arms and ankles crossed.
“I went as Ruby’s physician,” Eli said evenly.
Tess looked from me to Eli and then back again before sitting up and reaching for her sandwich suspiciously. She pulled the plate to her chest and sat in the corner of the couch as she continued to eye us, looking more like Gollum and his precious than a ferocious entertainment lawyer who was more trusted by her clients than their favorite plastic surgeons.
“Right,” Eli said. “I’ll be in my room if either of you need me.”
His door wasn’t even shut before Tess pointed at me, her mouth stuffed with the egg and cheese sandwich. “You’re fucking the good doctor!”
I waved her off but couldn’t hide the searing blush on my cheeks. I supposed if there was anyone who I could tell the messy, complicated truth to, it was Tess. “I guess you wouldn’t believe me if I told you Ruby has Eli on call like she’s Elvis or something.”
“How was it?” she asked dreamily. “Our walls are too thin to have the kind of sex I need to have right now. I just want someone to pull my hair. Did he pull your hair?”
I frowned at her and then stuffed a pillow in my face. “It was... really hot,” I said into the fabric. “But it’s so new too. Casual. No hair pulling yet, but he is very adept at locating the clitoris.”
“Heisa doctor. Please do explain how hooking up with your ex-husband is casual.”
“He was my husband for less than twenty-four hours.”
Her empty plate clattered as she placed it on the coffee table and then slumped down into the sofa with her eyes closed and her arms flung in the air. “Time doesn’t matter in the eyes of God, Vera!”
