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“Ever.”
Oh.
Had her divorce been that bad? Amy hurt me too, but I wasn’t ready to give up. I wasn’t ready to date yet, but eventually.
I handed back her phone. “You lied on there.”
“Uh, about what?”
“You said you like tacos. Those are not real tacos you like.”
She made a fake indignant face. “Oh, stop.”
“How’s your stomach? Everything okay?” I asked, grinning at her with my hand on the cat’s back.
“Mind. Your. Business, Jacob. Cat whisperer. I’m taking you to Taco Bell with me one day and I’m gonna eat ten of those and you’re going to be impressed and not at all grossed out.”
I cracked up and she laughed with me.
God, this was easy.
I wondered if she saw how easy it was too. Or maybe for her all her friendships were like this. Mine weren’t. To have this kind of rapport with someone so early on was unusual for me.
Briana made me the best version of myself when I was with her somehow.
She stopped laughing and smiled at Cooter in my lap. “Why did you and your ex break up?” she asked, petting the cat.
I blew out a breath. “It’s hard to explain.”
She waited.
“It’s like…I was a prop.”
“A prop?”
“Yeah. Like she was the main character, and I was her sidekick. It was always about her. What she wanted to do, what she liked. I was there just to be there. And when I finally said something about it, she left.” I laughed a little dryly. “The funny thing is, Jeremiah really is her sidekick. And he likes it. They like all the same stuff and he’s perfectly happy just facilitating whatever it is she wants.”
“Oh, I totally get that. That’s what it’s like with my mom and Gil. He follows after her like a puppy dog. How did your brother and Amy meet?” she asked.
“They work together. They actually knew each other before we met. She’s a pediatrician and he’s a nurse practitioner in the pediatric department at Memorial West.”
“Is that why you left the hospital?”
“That is why I left.” I let out another long breath. “What about you?” I asked. “What happened with you and Nick?”
She pressed her lips together and looked at the cat instead of me. “Well. We were together for twelve years. Married for ten. And he spent two years of that having an affair with a friend of ours. So.”
I peered over at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. It was pretty messed up. Kelly and I hung out. She texted me almost every day, which just made the whole thing so much more disgusting. I’m pretty sure the emotional affair went on a lot longer than the physical one. I think he basically wished I was her for most of our marriage.” She laughed a little. “I’ve never said that out loud to anyone else but Alexis. It’s embarrassing.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s just poor taste on his part and poor character on hers.”
She nodded, but she didn’t look at me.
“Anyway. Then he proceeded to fuck me over in every way possible. The house was his from before we got married, and my name wasn’t on it. It was his grandmother’s and he had me sign a prenup for it, so I got nothing there. Half the stuff inside of it was mine. I got awarded that. But they were living there, so it was all tainted and gross and I didn’t want it anymore, so I had to fight him for over a year in court to get a payout for it.”
Her face had gone flat.
