Page 40 of Life, Love, and Other Messes

“Your favorite person is on her way,” I told Ollie. He gave a little wuf from where he was lying in the hallway, but didn’t look up. My favorite person was on her way. I went back to the kitchen and pulled out dishes and silverware. I contemplated whether or not to add wine glasses, but decided against it in case it made it look too much like a date. In just another moment, there was a knock on the door.

“You can just come in, you know.”

Lisa looked a little surprised but smiled. She was holding a huge paper bag and a bottle of wine. She was also wearing good slacks, a nice blouse, and a jacket, and her hair was down. I’d never seen her in anything other than a T-shirt and hoodie with shorts or jeans. “This might need to go in the microwave.”

Please don’t let this be tofu. I wasn’t sure if Romano’s even sold tofu; it was an Italian market with both hot to-go food and frozen homemade pasta and sauces. To my delight, it was meat ravioli, cheese ravioli, red sauce, Italian spinach, and crusty bread. “I think it’s warm enough. It looks wonderful. I love Romano’s. And…” I glanced back at her shyly. “You look really nice.”

She laughed shortly. “Spent the day in court.”

“Oh this was your court date. With Corey?”

“Yep. Do you have a corkscrew? I’m glad you were home or I would’ve had a couple bottles by myself.”

“I have more.” I opened the wine, pulled glasses off my shelf, and brought in serving spoons. I gathered she wasn’t in a great mood, so I waited until we’d dug in and eaten quite a bit before I broached the subject. “So did everything go okay?”

“Yes. I shouldn’t be in a mood. I don’t know why, but I kind of am.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure it was stressful and it’s hard to come down after something like that.”

She nodded and took a deep drink from her wine glass. “So I am officially divorced.”

“Congratulations. Is that the right thing to say?”

She smiled. “Yeah. It is.”

“How long did this take?”

“Almost three months.”

“It seriously takes that long even without kids?”

She nodded. “With kids it can take forever. This was as easy as it gets, no-fault, nobody asking for alimony. Just bye-bye, we’re done.”

“But you get the house.”

“That was our deal. I didn’t bring up his infidelities, I got the house. I did pay him a bit, but we sat down and decided who got what furniture.”

“That’s incredibly civilized.”

“I guess. The judge said it was one of the most amicable divorces she’d ever come across.”

The word amicable caught me hard after hearing the same word from the vet today. “So you didn’t have to go into…”

“Not at all. No mention of me being a lesbian or him being a whore. Just irreconcilable differences, no blame thrown. Just that we don’t want to be together anymore. That’s it.”

“That’s good. I’m glad.”

“I’m just glad it’s over.” She sighed and stared out the back window. “God, I’m glad it’s over.”

“That’s a lot to go through.”

She nodded, then looked at me deliberately like she was done with that. “How was your day?”

“Pretty good classes, then we went to the vet.”

Lisa looked back at Ollie, who hadn’t moved from the hall. “Oh no! Is my old man sick?”

“Just checkup and shots. The vet says he needs to lose a few pounds,” I whispered, “but we don’t agree with her.”