Page 73 of Living at 40

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I walk Autumn to her car, where we kiss hot and heavy for a few minutes before she pulls back and settles into the driver’s seat. I don’t want her to go, and I fight a whine similar to Lorna’s, begging Autumn for reassurance that she’ll return. Instead, I press a hand to the window once she starts the car, and she matches mine on the other side of the glass before she sets the car in reverse and backs out of the drive.

“Loverboy,” Mason announces once I enter the apartment above the garage. His voice slurs as he holds a bottle of tequila against his thigh. Shit.

“What’s going on?” I say, collapsing on the couch next to Zack, whose eyes are half-mast.

“We’re celebrating,” Zack says, or at least I think that’s what he said as it sounded more like celibating, but I’m certain he’s not going celibate.

“And what are we celibating?” I tease.

“Zack is divorcing Jeanine.” Mason holds up the tequila bottle in salute.

My head swivels on the couch back. “What?”

“My wife went to France to fuck an intern while I was on vacation here.”

What the fuck is it with France?

“He’s ten years younger than us. Aren’t I supposed to be the one looking for someone younger?” He slurs through the question.

“You’re married. You aren’t supposed to be searching for anyone,” I remind him.

“Is that what love and honor, and faithfulness in the vows mean? I no longer remember their definition.”

Fuck. “Zack, man, I’m so sorry.”

“Not as sorry as me.”

I’m not convinced Zack really loved Jeanine as much as he wanted to do the right thing by marrying her. He wanted to be present for his children unlike his father, who wasn’t there for him. He wanted to offer Jeanine the support his father didn’t for his mother.

“Loving someone sucks,” Mason states, and I narrow my eyes at him. What does he know about loving a woman? He’s never been in a serious relationship.

“I didn’t love her.” Zack’s dismissive tone isn’t a surprise.

“But you married her,” Mason reminds him.

“She was pregnant, remember?” Did he feel trapped?

I don’t want you to think the endgame is a trap. Autumn’s concerns come back to me.

“I’m still sorry. Divorce sucks,” I interject. It can be a painful process, even if he didn’t love his wife. Plus, he still has two unruly boys connecting him to Jeanine for the rest of his life.

“So does marriage.” Zack swipes a hand into his hair and pauses on the top of his head. “What the fuck am I going to do?”

“Zack, man, you have this.” He’s capable and intelligent. He already has a nanny, but he might need to cut back some hours at work and do a little better at being present as a father for his boys.

“You fuck the nanny. Hire a full-time au pair. Fuck her, too, and then you quit your lame ass job and come work for Four Points,” Mason states.

“Mason.” What a dick. “We aren’t discussing au pairs.”

“I’m not giving up my monsters to Jeanine. She doesn’t want them anyway.”

“How do you know she doesn’t want the boys?” I ask, shifting on the couch cushion to better face my friend, who slouches into his like he wants to melt into the material.

“Because she said she never wanted children, and she never loved me, and now she’s going to go off and fuck her little toy while my dick shrivels up.”

“Oh my God, Zack. Shut the fuck up. Your dick is not going to shrivel up. Not that I want to discuss your dick. I’m sure it’s a very nice dick, but we aren’t talking about it.”