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“I didn’t think she was actually dating anybody,” Abi said, her tone saying the exact opposite.
“Right.”
“I mean, I heard the rumor, but Josh still lives in the house—”
“Josh lives over the garage.”
“Yeah. The garage attached to their house.” Abi made a noise he couldn’t decipher, and he wondered if he should suggest they facetime or something. This was probably not the kind of conversation a person should have not face-to-face. “They’re stilltogether. Sabrina was handing out invitations to their anniversary party at the preschool last week.”
“But they’re not like, together together,” he said, annoyed that he was hashing this out. It wasn’t so much that he was telling her Rachel’s business, but it was that he had to tell her Rachel’s business to make his problem even make sense.
“Clearly,” Abi said. “Wait, so does this mean that the thing about Josh and that tennis instructor--”
“I have no idea. Probably. I don’t know. That’s not the point.”
“I’m turning you around,” she said, and he was surprised by the note of honest apology in her voice. “I’ll shut up. You say your thing.”
“Thank you,” he said, “I’m going to tell you this, but I need for you to not, you know, spread it around.”
“I’m not going to tell anyone your business,” Abi said. “I’m a little hurt you would think that.”
“I mean, don’t even tell Leah.” While he didn’t interact with Abi often, he saw Leah pretty regularly. After all, she was always with Simon, and he and Simon were friends, so he saw Simon at least twice a week.
“You are a terrible storyteller,” Abi said, and he got the feeling she was trying to make him laugh to diffuse the tension or something. “I don’t actually tell my twin sister everything. I don’t have to, what with the telepathy and stuff. She just knows.”
“Okay, I get it. You can keep a secret.”
“No, no, the telepathy is legit. You should probably know that in the interest of full disclosure.”
“Abigail, you’re doing the thing again.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. Point taken. Whatever you tell me is private. I won’t even tell Leah.”
“Thank you,” he said, though he made a mental note to ask Leah the next time he saw her if she really did justknowthings about her sister or if that was just urban legend bullshit. “Rachel and I started seeing each other a while back. She says Josh won’t give her a get, so even though they don’t even file joint taxes anymore, they’re still technically married, and she has to be respectful because of the kids.”
“That… sounds really complicated,” Abi said quietly. He could tell she was really listening to what he was saying, and he felt exposed. More exposed than he wanted to feel.
“I mean everybody knows they have a weird relationship,” he said, hating that he felt like he had to justify himself. His whole body itched with the desire to change the subject.
“True,” Abi mused. “That’s so weird, though.”
“It sucked,” he said honestly, “but I got it. She wanted to be discreet because of her kids, and I couldn’t really say she was wrong, so…”
“So what it got old after a few months and you called it off?”
He laughed, really laughed. It felt good to laugh about it if he was honest.
“More than a few months? How long were you together?”
“Two years,” he said, and the silence on the other end of the phone was deafening.
“No way,” Abi said. “Two years.”
“Yep, on and off a bit in the beginning,” he hated saying this out loud. He felt like the world’s biggest tool. “Go ahead, get your jokes out, I can take it.”
“You really cared about her, huh?” Abi said quietly.
“Yep,” Ilan’s throat felt thick. No one had picked up on that so quickly before. He coughed. Then coughed again. Then poured himself some water and sucked it down fast. “She kept saying she was working on convincing him. And I won’t lie, itwasconvenient. We got together when Micah was little. Eighteen months or something.”
