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Lauren snorted as he straightened and pushed the door closed. “Austin, relax. I’m not going to tell you thedetailsof our bedroom.” She snagged a mug of coffee and the cream. With shaking fingers, she poured and mixed the swirling contents with a spoon. Her eyes glazed over as her heartbeat slowed, the silence of the room calming—an open window to vent frustration. “I think we’re just at the end of the road.”
“Should I talk to him?” Austin wrinkled his nose, panic rising in his voice.
A bubble of laughter burst from her belly as fear grew in his eyes. “Oh, God no!” Bringing the mug to her lips, she winced at the hot liquid. “If he knew I was telling you any of this he’d be mortified.” Her eyes widened as she set the coffee down. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think his er—partsweren’t working...”
Austin nodded. “Yeah... okay.”
The pent-up secrets and silent frustration shattered the shields around her heart, the weight of the heavy discomfort tumbling from her lips in a rush of fumbled words.Sweet Austin, the keeper of all our secrets.“I just don’t know what to do anymore! When one person wants a divorce... you get a divorce!”
He nodded. “I mean, yeah, but Lauren, you guys really can’t be at that point yet.” His gaze fell to a crumb on the counter. Brushing it to the floor, he shook his head. “I just talked to him yesterday.”
Lauren coughed, choking on a gulp of coffee. “You did? Why?”
“Doesn’t matter. Just a dumb question about electric. But Lauren...” He reached across the counter and gripped her hands. “When I talked to Mitch, he wanted me to make sure you had fun this weekend, that you saw everything you wanted to see. He even thought your phone was broken because you hadn’t called him.” He squeezed her fingers. “I work with divorce clients every day. Believe me, Mitch didn’t sound like one of them.”
She hung her head, her gaze resting on her brother’s fingers blanketing her own.
“I know he still cares, Austin. It’s like what you said about Mavis. You can’t just get rid of feelings you’ve had your whole life. But Mitch... I think his feelings have justchanged.”
Lauren pulled her hands away and scooped up her mug, staring down into the brown liquid. The steam tickled her face, the coffee warm and delicious in her hands. But the longer it sat, the cooler it would become... until cold and unappealing entirely. She swirled the contents, wrinkling her nose as some stray coffee grounds floated to the surface. The steam lessened as the silent minutes ticked away.
And as she sucked down the last of the liquid, her gaze settled on the grounds coating the bottom of the mug—soggy, unappealing, and ready to be discarded.
Just like my marriage.
––––––––
Lauren folded her clothesand shoved them back into her suitcase two days later. Drawing in a deep breath, she exhaled, the weight of her crumbling marriage stuffed back into her luggage as her flight home loomed.
“Just make it through the wedding, Mitch...” she whispered. “We can’t ruin anything for Josh or Mavis.”
From her bag, she tugged out their wedding invitation and cringed, having found zero strength over the course of her visit to hand it to her brother directly. With a sigh, she pulled a pen from her purse and scribbled on the envelope.
Austin, we’ll get through it together.
Lauren propped the invitation on the bedside lamp. She zipped her suitcase closed and hauled it off the bed, and with a quick fluff of the bedspread, she left Austin’s bedroom and departed Chicago.
