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"True."
The seller immediately put two bags on the counter.
I made to reach for my wallet, but Spencer said, "No."
"But I wanted the jars."
"No way." His voice was stronger than usual and cutting. Well, if he wanted to treat me to this, I wouldn't say no. It wasn't an exorbitant gift. For most people, it was probably a necessity in their grocery shopping. I was just extra careful these days. After he paid, we moved to my next favorite stand. They had various fruits, all locally grown. Not many were in season right now, but they did have berries.
"What do you want?" I asked Spencer. “The berries are amazing.”
"Penny, I can't believe this."
I stilled. Oh God, this couldn't be. I turned around and nearly stumbled backward. What was Wally doing here? And to make matters worse, he wasn't alone. He was with a woman who looked vaguely familiar. My body tightened up. My throat closed in. Nausea formed at the back of my throat.
"Hi, Wally," I said, keeping my voice as steady as possible.
He glanced down at the baby and then at Spencer.
"Honey, I'm going to the booth on the other side, okay? And line up for coffee," the woman said. She avoided my eyes and scurried away.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"I came shopping with Sasha. She likes farmers’ markets."
"I like farmers’ markets, and you always hated coming with me."
He rolled his eyes. "Give it a rest. We're divorced. You can stop keeping pro-and-con lists of all the things I did or didn’t do."
"There was never a pro column. It was just a long line of cons." I couldn’t help it, I had to get my dig in.
"And who is this?"
"I'm Spencer Whitley." Spencer spoke through gritted teeth.
"Whitley as in Whitley Industries?" Wally asked.
"Yes," Spencer said, clearly disliking where the conversation was going.
Wally burst out laughing, then turned to me. "What did you do? Tell Taylor to find you a rich man? Spencer, I hope you can keep up with her. Not easy to please her."
The fucker! How dare he? The nausea subsided, giving way to pure anger.
"Because she has good standards, and you are just..." Spencer looked him up and down. "Obviously substandard."
"Who the fuck do you think you are?"
"Someone who can appreciate her when you didn't know how to."
"You want to hang around this stick-in-the-mud, that's your business. I'm glad to be rid of her. Now I can make sure Sasha gets all she needs."
It took me a few seconds to realize what he was saying. "You were seeing her when we were still married." And then I realized why she seemed familiar. “She’s a colleague from work.” I blinked rapidly, trying to ignore that my eyes were burning. Another memory floated in. “When my work event ended early that time, and I joined you at Steve’s grill, she wasn’t there for business talk, was she? You went to our friends’ house with her.”
Oh my God. I felt so small. And so stupid. Steve and Emily had been our closest friends. And none of them told me. I remembered that Saturday, crystal clear. I’d gone from work directly to their home. I hadn’t bothered announcing myself because initially they’d invited both me and Wally to the grill party. When I arrived, Sasha was there. Steve said he’d asked her over because she was the sales director in Wally’s company, and he was interested in acquiring their product. They both worked in IT, so I hadn’t questioned it. Sasha had left minutes after I arrived.
All our friends knew.
He rolled his eyes. "You didn't put out for six months. What—"
