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“It’s in Alpine.”
“Why Alpine? Is Kassie with you?”
“No. She asked me to leave last night, so I’m in New Jersey.”
“What the hell? Are you with your girlfriend?”
“How’d you find out?”
“Kassie told Sandra last night.”
“Sorry. I’m just a big disappointment to everyone.”
“Tony, you’re going to have a baby. You need to be sincere if you want to get back with Kassandra. Don’t see Janine anymore!”
“I didn’t have anywhere to go.”
“You should have gotten a hotel. Look, get your shit together, Tony.”
“You don’t know what it’s like, Andy.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I was divorced with kids, remember? And then what about Ginger dying? I know what it’s like. Kassie is wonderful, Tony, and you know it. Don’t mess this up.”
“I’ll hang up now,” Tony replied, ending the call.
Looking at Janine scowling across the table was just as bad as being admonished by his overachieving brother.
“Why am I putting myself through this?” Tony asked, running his hand across his bare head. “I’m here, with you, and you’re still miserable.”
“I’m not miserable. I just want you in my life. And I want you to be happy with your new baby on the way, too. The situation could be easily worked out if you could convince Kassandra to allow you to keep seeing me.”
“Never happen.”
“It sounds to me like she was angry that you had lied for ten years, Tony. Not that you had sex with another woman.”
The problem was that he didn’t want to keep seeing Janine. “This was a mistake. Come on, I want to leave.”
“I’m staying.”
“Then stay alone. I miss my girlfriend.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“I know it.” He got up from the booth and placed four twenty-dollar bills on the table before leaving.
On the way out to his truck, he keyed in Kassandra’s number. But the call went to voicemail.
***
About twenty miles south across the Hudson River, Ryan Maddox woke up in a strange bed in his new apartment. Jolene’s apartment. The racket of a trash truck emptying a dumpster echoed up ten floors.
“So much for sleeping in on a Sunday,” he muttered to himself.
Throwing the covers back, he sat up, looking around the guest room. It was cluttered with junk, as Jolene had said. Last night, she’d offered the other half of her bed, but he hadn’t wanted to jump in.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but let’s not do that yet,” he’d said.
“I offered my bed, nothing more.”
