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Things hadn’t been easy between us since Theo, maybe never, but within the space of a day my ex-husband had twisted every last vestige of pity I felt for him and guilt I harboured of not being a good enough wife to him.
Jamie
I’d surprised myself. I had every intention of finding Richard and causing him some serious brain damage, or just knocking a couple of his teeth out. That would’ve done me nicely, but instead I invited him out for a drink. What kind of idiot invites their ex’s partner and their girlfriend’s ex for a drink? I don’t know, maybe it was the look on his face, like he wanted to beat the shit out of me, but at the same time he looked like how I’d felt when I found out about him and Jenna. So instead of my fist meeting his face like it’d been a long time coming, I blurted out some half-witted stupid invite for drinks.
Sometimes, I really wondered just how intelligent I was. You would’ve thought I’d have told Quincy too, but no, instead I’d stuck her in a taxi with the excuse that I was meeting my sister. Which I was. Wednesday was our day to meet for a drink and chat. Dorian was always good for a non-chat chat, we usually just let Daniel talk for the both of us whilst we sat in silence. She’d always been so quiet; we were all surprised at how talkative her son was. Clearly, he took after his dad.
So, there I sat in mine and Dorian’s booth at one of the burger bars Daniel loved, waiting for Richard. A part of me hoped he wouldn’t show. The other part wanted him to be there already, so I could tell him that he needed to stop acting like a twat. That whether he liked it or not I wasn’t going to let her go. That I was going to make her happy and that he needed to suck it up and play nice. Because if he didn’t we were going to have bigger problems than him marrying my ex-wife and me dating his.
He lingered outside for the best part of ten minutes. Pacing the front of the restaurant like he was debating with himself whether he should go in or not. He wasn’t even a smoker, so it wasn’t like he could pretend that he was finishing a cigarette. He finally stopped and looked in. I raised my hand and he actually stiffened like I was aiming a gun at him or something.
He walked over to the booth and did his usual OCD coat fold and refold before he tucked it just so to the side with his briefcase on top. He’d always been like that, since we were kids. Phillip and I got into a few scuffles with the playground bullies because of it. That was how close we’d been. I never thought he’d do anything to sever our friendship, nothing like what he’d done anyway. Funny thing was, I used to be so angry about it that I couldn’t even be in the same room as him. But it was like the closer Quincy and I came together, the less it bothered me. At first, I thought it was some sick sense of revenge, but then I realised that actually I’d just never really cared. I thought I did because it’s what any man in my place should do. They should get angry and want to hurt the people who hurt him. That’s not what I wanted though. I wished they’d done things the honest way, sure, but if they wanted to be with each other that was fine with me. So long as it didn’t get between Molly and me, I was okay with it.
“That one’s for you.” I pointed at the pint of larger on his side of the table.
He looked at me as he wrapped his hands around it, “Thanks.”
We must’ve sat there in silence for ages. How do you start a conversation about dating your ex-best-friend’s ex-wife? No one ever bothered to tell me about those conversations. If they did, I sure as fuck wasn’t listening.
“I heard about your infant brain tumour.” He stated as he fidgeted with the salt and pepper shakers.
“You should’ve sent him for a CT.”
“I should’ve. I wish I had. But I promised Jenna—”
He looked up at me like a deer in headlights.
&n
bsp; “I know what she’s like.”
“Don’t say it like that. She’s not a bad person.” He went back to fiddling with the salt shaker. “A lot of that neediness came from you neglecting her for so long.”
“I didn’t neglect her. I was there when it mattered.” I snapped.
“Is that another dig at me? Because I didn’t stay with Quincy?”
“Well, you did leave her when she probably needed you to stay the most.”
“I don’t know what she’s told you, but she didn’t want me around after what happened.” He shook some salt into his palm and stirred it with his finger. “I don’t even know how she got pregnant with Pippa. We were arguing and then we weren’t and two months later she threw a sonogram at me.”
“You know, maybe if she hadn’t found you with another woman things would be different.”
“We both know they wouldn’t. I regret not being there for her, but the reality is that it wasn’t me she wanted anyway.” His eyes met mine pointedly. “I was never the one that she was in love with. You coming back changed things and the moment that baby was cut out of her…she changed. You don’t realise it, but she’s not all sunshine and sunny days. She pushes people away. She’s worse than an Ice Queen because you don’t realise how cold she is through all her sweetness and charm.”
“She’d just lost her child, Richard.”
“Yeah, so had I.” He took a long gulp of the beer and shook his head. “You know what? This is a waste of time.”
“Maybe, but if you hurt her again so help me God.” I marked him with a glare. “Why did you tell her I kissed Jenna?”
“Actually, Molly saw you both after I left. Kids are so easily confused, if Jenna hadn’t told me about your conversation…”
“So, you knew that nothing happened? Why did you—”
“I was angry. She should’ve told me about you two. I shouldn’t have to hear it from hospital gossip.”
“What? Like her hearing about your affair with Sam or all the other ones you just dipped your dick into from all the gossip?” He actually flinched at the words. “Do you think that you and Jenna telling me about your affair out of guilt and because she wanted a divorce made it better?” I laughed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
