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I warned you.
She burst out a sarcastic laugh, and her thumbs shot over the screen, typing a response.What are you going to do, divorce me?
She stared down at it, itching to hit Send.Hewas the one who’d pulled the trigger on all of this.Hewas the one who’d fallen out of love with her and wanted the marriage to end, not her. Did he think she was going to make it easy for him to dump her? After all these years? After she bore and reared his son, nearly dying in the process?
But she was walking a very,veryfine line. One misstep would send her over the edge into oblivion, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. If she could stay the course for a few months, everything would be okay.
She deleted the message.
After a push that slammed the stall door into the wall, she washed her hands out of habit, then strode back to the table.
Chelsea swiped at her bottle bangs. “We were starting to get worried about you.”
“Everything okay?” Naomie’s hazel eyes held hers.
“Just fine.” Julia forced herself to smile. Naomie would see through the lie, but she’d also be sensitive enough not to say anything in front of the others. Julia raised her hand to signal their bored-looking server.
The waitress hurried over and set the check down in the middle of the table. Julia reached for it.
Chelsea’s bubble-gum clad arm shot out to intercept her. “We can’t let you pay on the day your husband filed for divorce. It’s not right.”
Madison chimed in agreement, but Naomie kept quiet. She knew better than to poke that particular wound.
“It’s my turn, and that’s that.” Julia plunked her credit card into the little black folder. No way was she going to allow Pete’s choices to define her life.
“I was just looking at that shop you mentioned.” Chelsea held up her phone, now prominently displaying the Maman et Bébé website. “Look at all the adorable stuff! Seriously, a toddler tuxedo? How did I not know about this place?”
Julia smiled as the others fussed and cooed, swiping and pinching and pointing at outfits. Shopping may not be able to buy true happiness, but it sure as hell smoothed over the cracks.
The waitress sidled up to her, and Julia reached automatically to take her credit card and slip.
The woman leaned in, looking embarrassed, and lowered her voice. “I’m so sorry, but the card was rejected.”
A hush fell over the other ladies.
“Please try it again,” Julia asked.
“I, um.” The waitress cleared her throat. “I did. The card has been reported stolen.”
The world froze for a moment as Julia stared at the woman, trying to make sense of what she was saying, while the other women looked anywhere but at her.
The son of a bitch.
Heat rushed up her neck as the realization hit, but she pinned a delightfully confused look onto her face and reached into her purse. “How strange! Not a problem, I have another one here.” She extracted a second card and sent the waitress off to process it.
Thank goodness she’d listened to her mother.Never go out on a date without money for a cab, she’d said when Julia started dating at fifteen.You never know when a man will leave you high and dry, or you’ll have to make a quick getaway. Julia had extended that wisdom as soon as she realized her marriage was in danger, channeling whatever small sums she could manage into a checking and savings account Pete didn’t know about and securing a set of emergency credit cards. But despite knowing this was coming, she hadn’t realized how painful it would be to have the man who’d once loved her and promised to care for her now declare war on her.
The other women were back to chatting. She sat straighter, lifted her chin, and joined back in. Because she’d faced far worse than this before and always managed to survive.
If this was how he wanted it, this was how it would be.
* * *
Chelsea twisted and turned her way into the front seat of her silver Lexus, then started it up. As she waited for Julia to pull out of the parking spot next to her, a strange motion in one of the nearby parked cars caught her eye. She peered through the darkness, trying to make anything out. A man in a baseball cap sat in one, staring down like something was in his lap, and didn’t look up as she watched. But something about it gave her the creeps.
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. She was just being paranoid because of all the time she spent driving past Sophie and David’s house, and David’s new place. She didn’t like beingthatgirl, but David was her baby’s father and she needed his help. She had to know the truth about him and his wife.
She followed Julia out of the parking lot, fixating on the horrific braided bun that made Julia look like a guard in some 1960s prison movie. Try as she might, Chelsea’s subtle hints about how sexy Julia would look in a messy bun went nowhere. Such a shame, because Julia really had a decent figure—for a forty-something—though she had to hide it under nurse’s scrubs most of the time. But even when she wore her black hair down, she kept it pin straight—sotwo-thousand-and-ten. Such a shame she refused to try a little harder.
