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“Okay,” I said weakly. “Thank you, Carmela.”
“Of course, honey. I am so sorry about the store. I know how much it meant to you.”
“Yeah,” I said, still holding back. Should I tell her what happened between Victor and me? Would she be impartial since Victor and Mark were so close? I didn’t know what the right move was, but it was eating me up inside.
“You just have to take it day by day, you know,” she said. “Little baby steps. But for today, all you need to do is take careof yourself. All the other stuff can wait. Insurance can wait. Everyone can wait. You just went through a serious trauma.”
“Okay.”
“Mel?” she asked, her voice sounding like she was trying not to pry but also wanting to be as thorough as she could “Is there something you haven’t told me? Are you okay?”
I couldn’t help it. I needed to tell someone. I needed to get it off my chest and into the world.
“No,” I said, “I’m not okay. Something happened with Victor and now everything is so complicated.”
“I thought so,” she said. “What did he do?”
A small part of me was warmed by that. She instantly took my side, something I hadn’t expected but appreciated.
“His ex-wife showed up,” I said.
“Oh, God, not Sarah,” she said.
“You’ve met her?” I asked, shocked.
“No, but I feel like I have,” she said. “She avoided all get-togethers and stuff where the boys saw each other and introduced significant others. They got together and married way before I hooked up with Mark, so I never met her, but I’ve heard enough about her to know I don’t like her.”
“Oh,” I said. “She’s horrible.”
“I know,” she said. “I’ve heard. She showed up? Why? Where did she show up, at the store?”
“No,” I said and sighed. I was just going to come out with it. There was no use holding anything back. “I went over to Victor’s place. We kissed. It felt like something was happening and then she showed up and called me a whore and all this crap. I ran off and got a call about the storm and headed to the store. I was barely there for ten minutes before Victor showed up by himself wanting to help. We got everyone out but the storm was on top of us, so we had to use the shelter. And then…”
“And then?” Carmela asked.
“I hate that he came into town, Carmela. I do,” I said.
“I know,” she said. “You have every right to because of what happened.”
“Exactly. He stole my store from me. But I can’t really blame him because it was the board who sold it. He apparently had no idea who I was or why I would be mad.”
“I heard,” she said.
“I just feel like something was happening between us. We were clicking, you know? Even despite everything, we were clicking. Then, I went over to his house, and we kissed, and it was electric. Then his wife just burst in.”
“Ex-wife,” Carmela corrected. “Trust me, if I know anything about Victor, it’s that he was ecstatic to be away from that woman.”
“You don’t think he would go back to her if she wanted him?” I asked.
“No,” Carmela said, laughing. “Most certainly not. Not after the way she treated him, and not after the way their marriage ended.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding and sinking a little further in the tub.
“I wouldn’t worry about her,” she said. “I’m sure whatever she thinks she knows, she doesn’t. She got off easy before, getting his business and everything because he didn’t want to fight it. He just wanted out, even if it meant losing his shirt. He told Mark and Camden that. His lawyer begged him to fight her over it because he knew they would win. But Victor was just so done with her.”
“She was a terrible person in my limited contact with her,” I said.
“Well, what did he say about it when you were stuck together? How did that go? I can’t imagine that was fun.”
