Cora
Present Day
WhenIgethome,George is meowing at me, telling me about her day and the horrors she clearly faced and circling my feet in the kitchen as I snack on some leftovers. The guys are still out and should be home soon.
Ha. Look at me. Calling this their home. We’re not even officially living together, but it feels like it. It feels right.
My doorbell rings and I look down at George. “You expecting someone?” Maybe Jay or Marco forgot their key?
I walk through the front sitting room and open the first set of doors and step into the foyer before swinging open the heavy wooden exterior door.
The person standing before me is not Jay. Not Marco.
It’s the last person I expect.
“What are you doing here, Theo?”
He stands there wearing a hopeful expression and a Patagonia puffer jacket. His short, dark blonde hair lays flat, like it always did after a long day.
He shoves his hands in his pockets and bounces on his heels once. “Can I come in?”
“No,” I say flatly.
“Please? You’ve blocked my phone number and email. Short of showing up at your office, I didn’t know how else to contact you.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you, Theo.”
“But I do. I need to talk to you. Please.” His eyes say he’s sincere, and even though my heart is pounding with alarm, I step aside and let him in, closing the doors behind him.
He walks into the front sitting room and looks around, starting to unzip his coat. “I like what you’ve done with your parents’ house.”
Crossing my arms, I glare at him. “It’smyhouse now, and keep your coat on. You’re not staying long.”
He takes a deep breath. “Okay,” he mumbles and then sits in one of the armchairs. “Can you sit down, Cora? You’re making me nervous.”
“My ex-husband just showed up unannounced at my home. You wanna talk about who’s nervous?”
“Fair enough.” His Adam’s apple bobs and he shifts himself in the chair, legs spread, and puts his elbows on his knees. “I’ve been going to therapy.”
Well, aren’t we two fucking peas in a pod.
He clears his throat and continues. “And I’ve realized what I did to you was hurtful and irresponsible. And me asking you to end the pregnancy was… just about the shittiest thing I could have ever done to you. I acted like we could just… go back to normal after losing her. I tried pretending it didn’t happen.”
My jaw locks as my hands clench my arms. My whole body is stiff.
“And I’m sorry, Cora. I look back and Ihatemyself for doing that. It’s because of me that we fell apart. I tried to blame it on Violet for a long time. Thatshewas the reason we broke up. Thatyoucouldn’t handle it. I couldn’t see thatIwas the root cause.
“If I could do it all over, I would. I would have been excited with you. I would’ve never said—” he chokes, and a tear rolls down his cheek as his leg shakes up and down. “—I would have never suggested we end the pregnancy. I would have been there for you, like the supportive husband I was supposed to be when we lost her.” He stands up and steps close to me, his arms reaching, but I take a step back. He stops and rubs his five o’clock shadow, then drags his hand over his whole face. “We were good before, weren’t we? We were in love, Cora. Deeply, remember?”
I look down at my bare feet and toe the rug. “Yes, we were.”
“We could be again.”
Before I can speak, the front door opens and the sound of Marco's deep laugh fills the space. “It just kept coming! He was snoring and farting for like twenty minutes.”
They’re engrossed in their own conversation and don’t see us standing there. Jay snorts through his own peel of laughter. “Did you tell him after he woke up?”
“No! I’m not gonna tell a client they gassed me out. They’d be—” Marco stops his story short when he finally looks over at our unexpected guest. His expression shifts, confusion and concern written all over his face. Jay stops, too, mirroring Marco.
