AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Someone spills their drink across the room. It’s sudden chaos.
She snaps a photo and then checks my phone to make sure it’s a good one. “Nope,” she says frowning.
We take three more and then another. None are good enough.
Finally, around the seventh try the kids protest and we disband. “The last one was perfect,” Beth exclaims pleased with herself.
“You’ve done well here, Josie,” she tells me afterward. I smile. It takes a lot to get a sincere compliment out of her. “We need to talk about our social strategy,” she tells me, taking my elbow. She takes my phone from my back pocket. “We need more of this,” she says pulling up the photo. “This is what they want. To see behind the scenes. So—” she shrugs. “Might as well give it to them.”
“I was just telling Josie that last night,” Grant remarks. “She doesn’t realize how important her work on social media is.” I look over at him and offer a tight smile.
I glance down at the photo. My eyes are still glossy from the slideshow. The kids look happy. Things get more real around the seventh shot apparently. Still, their friends are here, Avery is smiling again. Grant’s expression says he’s taking it all in, contemplating how lucky he is.
“I do realize,” I say uploading it to Instalook. “See.”
He smiles as he brings the phone closer to his face inspecting it with a surgeon’s eye. Finally, he nods his approval, and I can see why. We look so happy, the four of us. Beth has framed it up so well that I don’t even bother using a filter. I caption it #bestdayever. I had no idea, not then, it would be the last best day.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Izzy
I shouldn’t have gone the first time. I knew I shouldn’t have. But once I’d made the decision, it was done. It’s kind of like telling yourself you’re only going to have one potato chip and then the next thing you know the bag is empty. That’s how it started. Just one peek, I promised myself. I mean, Josie Dunn had invited me there herself initially. Before. When things were so good, I had to cancel. Before Grant Dunn was too busy to return a simple text.
The other night I sat outside their house for hours. I watched the Dunns come and go. I had to. I needed to see for myself. Grant says he’s busy this time of year. It wasn’t a lie.
He has been busy.
Busy buying his wife earrings, and taking her to dinner. Busy throwing parties. But not busy keeping the promises he made to me. He said he wanted to get to know everything about me. He said he wanted to take care of me. Only he isn’t busy doing any of that.
I feel like you’re forgetting what you promised, I texted him.
How could I forget someone so beautiful? He wrote back six hours later. Six hours.
At first, I was relieved to see his name light up my screen. Then I remembered flattery is his currency. He doles it out like breadcrumbs. It isn’t genuine. I can’t believe him. He lies about everything.
Josie Dunn is grocery shopping. She posted a pic of flowers in her cart on Instalook three minutes ago. This means I don’t have long. I tell myself it’s fine being here. I was invited. Maybe not this time but if anything, I’ll just say there was a mix up. I’ll say I thought we’d rescheduled the dance lesson. Everyone knows teenagers get things wrong.
I check my reflection in the rearview mirror. My phone rings startling me. My heart races every time I hear that sound. It might be Grant.
It isn’t. It’s Tyler. I want to slam it into a million pieces. What good is it if the person you want to call isn’t? Not much.
I send the call to voicemail. I know what he wants. He wants his car back. I’ve been gone too long again. The last time I got by with a blow job. This time, I had to go through with the whole thing and then wait until he was asleep. It’s not even a nice car.
But you do what you have to do. Josh taught me that. Anyway, it was worth it, I realize, being here. I can breathe again knowing I’m one step closer. I’ve been suffocating under the weight of Grant’s absence, and then there were the Instalook posts of the kid’s birthday party. I didn’t know what to do, looking at them. I drove over. I wanted to be a part of things. I wanted Grant to welcome me inside. He had no reservations about setting up shop inside me, coming inside me. Making me
erase his baby before it even had a chance. That’s okay. I didn’t want ‘maybe baby’ either.
What I want is him. What I want is for Josie to understand. I’m not stupid. I realize it will take some time. I know women don’t just let go of their men like it’s nothing. Believe me, I know.
But this time it could be different. We could be friends. Times have changed. We could do that thing everyone is doing these days where we co-parent. They could consciously uncouple. We could celebrate holidays together, take a vacation or two. It always works out in the end. And if it hasn’t worked out, it isn’t the end.
I mean, I don’t really like kids. But hey, like they say, you can’t help who you fall in love with.
In any case, I can see that things will need some sorting out. Maybe it isn’t that Grant is busy. Maybe he isn’t good at logistics. And why would he be? He has people to work all that out for him. Also, they say transitions are the hardest part. Maybe he just hasn’t grown into himself yet.
Me, I’m changing. I apply lip-gloss to drive home the point. It’s the kind I saw Josie tag on Instalook. I got a manicure, too. Midnight blue. Now, I just have to make her understand. It’s not that I want her out of the picture. I think there’s room for all of us.
“James?” I cock my head, narrow my eyes. He opens the door a little wider when I say his name.
