A smile flickered over Brian’s face, but it was more bittersweet than happy.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “It feels like a different life, sometimes.”
She frowned. That wasnotthe effect she’d been seeking.
Still, she gave it effort. She pasted a cheerful smile on her face, as she’d done so many times in their marriage, through so many of Brian’s moods.
“We used to be wild, huh?” she said. “You know, I told Jeremy recently that we went bungee jumping, and he didn’t even believe me? I had to show him the pictures!”
“Ha, well.” His tone was humorless. “Who can blame him? We’re hardly those people anymore.”
She sighed. “I know you might not be in the mood, but it’s our anniversary. Can you try to lighten up just a little?”
He gave her the same look he’d given her when she’d come down the stairs in her finery. “Anniversary?”
This time, however, Eleanor couldn’t push her concern down.
“Yes, Brian,” she said shortly. She was starting to get a very bad feeling about this. “Today is our twentieth wedding anniversary.” His eyebrows shot up, and though he quickly masked his expression, she didn’t miss the clear message. This dinner wasnotabout their anniversary.
“Right, of course,” he said.
She set down her fork. “Brian. What’s going on?”
He still wasn’t meeting her eye. “Ellie, let’s not do this tonight,” he said. “Let’s have a nice dinner.”
All chances ofthathad gone out the window.
“No,” she insisted. “What’s going on? Tell me.”
He sighed and gave her a long-suffering look, as if all of this was something Eleanor was doingtohim.
“Listen, I didn’t want to do this on our anniversary, but…”
It took all her willpower to point out that he hadn’t even known itwastheir anniversary until about a minute ago. And yet somehow he was making her out to be the bad guy?
He sighed again. “All the things you’ve mentioned tonight really just make the point that I’ve been dwelling on for some time. We’re… we just aren’t the people we used to be.”
“That’s not bad,” she said cautiously. “Seasons change. Things move. We raised a whole baby to adulthood!”
“Yeah, things change,” he said. “And things need to move—moveon.”
“Brian, what are you saying?”
He took a deep breath, and the gesture caused dread to course through Eleanor.
“I want a divorce,” he said.
For a moment, all Eleanor could hear was the ringing in her own ears. The words felt like they didn’t even make sense.
But Brian was looking at her expectantly, like she was supposed to say something,dosomething.
“I… what?” she stammered.
“Eleanor,” he said with a sigh, and, through the numbness, she felt a flicker of anger that he was acting impatient with hernow, of all the times in their lives. “Come on. You heard me.”
“Yeah, I… butwhat?” she repeated. “Why—this is coming out of nowhere!”
He frowned. She felt that tension behind her eyes that always came before tears, but she fought to hold them back. She didn’t want to make a scene.
