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Candice: Oh, please, Blaine. We can work it out. Shouldn’t we try?
Blaine: Maybe… I’m not sure.
Candice: Your parents would be so happy if we got back together. This new girl means nothing to you…
Mia’s feet took over. Without thinking, she opened the restaurant door. The air inside caused goose bumps to rise on her shoulders after the hot sun beating down on them. She pulled her beach cover-up tighter around herself and made a beeline for Blaine and Candice.
“Hey,” she said. “Are you two catching up?”
Candice looked up and gave Mia a stiff smile. “We are. Nice to see you, Mia.”
“Nice to see you, too, Candice,” Mia said. She turned her attention to Blaine. “You have a lot of work to do. And you still have to pack.”
“Right I—“
“It doesn’t take Blaine long to pack,” said Candice. “He just throws stuff in a bag.”
The familiarity irked Mia, especially since Blaine himself had said the exact same thing a few days before when she encouraged him to start packing. She smiled at Candice, and felt very much like one of the sharks that might be swimming around the marina in search of dropped fish bait. “I’ll help him get organized. That’s part of my job!” She purposely kept her voice perky and cheerful.
“Right,” said Candice. “It is, isn’t it.”
Mia nodded. Blaine looked between the two women like a cat watching a tennis ball. “Umm—well, maybe we should wrap it up.”
“Right,” said Candice. “I need to get to the airport, anyway.”
Blaine threw a twenty on the table and the three of them walked toward the exit. Blaine excused himself to use the bathroom, and left Mia and Candice on the little porch outside the restaurant. Mia took her sunglasses from her pocket and retreated behind a wall of protective tinted glass.
“You don’t need to be nasty to me, Mia,” said Candice.
Her bluntness took Mia aback, but she recovered quickly. “I’m not being nasty. Or any nastier than you were the other day. I just want to make it clear where we all stand.”
Candice lowered her own sunglasses. “I know where we stand. Blaine loves you. He’s made that pretty clear.”
“Oh—okay.” Mia felt a strange combination of a warm heart at Blaine’s proclamation and pity for Candice.
“He and I have been friends for a long time. Keep that in mind. We were married for three years, but we dated for two before that. And we met ten years ago. When he was just leaving Microsoft and going out on his own. So I’ve been in his life a long time.”
“Well, that’s fine. But I don’t think you need to be contacting him all the time. Especially after he gave you all that money and you blew it.”
Candice smiled. “That simple, huh? My fault.”
Mia squinted through her sunglasses. “Well, there are two sides to every story—”
“Right. How about my part? How about the fact that Blaine wanted kids and we tried, but nothing happened?”
“So you’re saying—“
“I suggested adoption, but he wasn’t into it.” Candice smiled. “Blaine wants to throw his colors, if you know what I mean. I’m thirty-six. His age. We tried for two years. Guess he figured my time was up.”
Mia didn’t know what to say. Blaine had firmly placed the blame for the divorce on Candice and her lack of real love for him. He’d told Mia she never really loved him at all.
Candice went on. “Look, I played my part. I’m not a very affectionate person. I’m practical, not romantic. I couldn’t keep up with Blaine’s—” To Mia’s surprise, Candice blushed. “Uh—energy level. The more tension there was over our fertility issues, the more of a bitch I became. But he’s the one who pulled the plug. Maybe if we’d had a baby, he wouldn’t have.”
“I’m sorry,” said Mia. “That sounds painful.”
Candice shrugged. “It’s over now. And I made mistakes with the money afterward. But I have a lot of people in my family and no one is wealthy. I probably gave too much away…anyway, I need a bit of help from him now. I learned my lesson, and I really think I can make this massage therapy thing work. So, I gave you a leg up with him. Maybe you can do the same for me.”
Candice refreshed her lipstick as she got into the rented coupe. She drove off in a swirl of red and chrome.
