“Perry came home one day from work and told me he had exciting news.”
“What was it?” she asks.
“He got a new job . . . in Australia.”
“In Australia?” she asks, eyes wide.
“Yeah, and he thought that was exciting. Sorry, but I beg to differ. I mean, sure Australia is amazing and beautiful, and I’d love to go there one day really for the kangaroos and backward flushing toilets—”
“You realize that’s such a generalization. I mean, Australians probably think we’re all really loud, turkey chasers, and only drive pickups.”
“Either way . . .” I say, continuing, “I don’t want to live there. My life is here. My job that I’ve worked so hard to land is here, and I love it. I love my job so freaking much. He just assumed that I wanted to go wherever he wanted to go.”
“He never talked to you about it?”
I shake my head. This is what surprised me most of all. He didn’t ask. He hadn’t even talked about the new job. At. All. “And that’s where the miscommunication is. He didn’t think I cared, and he wanted something new and different. I’m all for spontaneity, but I also like to be grounded with familiarity. I don’t want to leave you and the baby and my other friends and the job. I like it here. Anyway.” I pick at my ice cream with my spoon. “We got into a big fight. He said if I truly loved him, I’d go anywhere to be with him, and I told him if he truly loved me, he wouldn’t make assumptions about our life. That he would have talked about the possibility and asked me what I thought rather than searching for something else. It was a big blowup, and he left that night.”
“To Australia?”
I shake my head. “To a hotel. When he came back the next morning, he apologized for what he said. He’d thought about it and couldn’t let this opportunity pass him by. I told him I couldn’t let my career take a back seat to what he wanted, so . . . we decided to break up.” I shove a spoonful of ice cream in my mouth, very unsatisfied with the mint chocolate chip. What’s baffled me has been the fact that I haven’t felt absolutely ruined and devastated by this. We’ve been together for so many years.Why am I not a mess? Was I not passionately in love with Perry?
“I’m so sorry.”
I shrug. “It is what it is. He left to go to Australia. I said bye and gave him a hug. He asked me if I was sure, and I nodded. I had to move out of our apartment because even though I loved it, I couldn’t afford it on my own and the lease was up.”
“Wait, so you moved too?”
I nod. “Yeah, to a new place, not far from here, but yesterday, I noticed water leaking down the wall. Apparently, it was from a clog in the dishwasher upstairs. Flooded my apartment, so now, I have to wait for them to fix it, which will take a couple of weeks.”
“So where are you staying? Here?” she asks with excitement.
I shake my head. “There is no way I’d stay here, not with Holden. It might be fun for a second, but after a few nights of hearing him cry, you might have to start nursing me too.”
She cringes. “Ew, don’t say that.”
I chuckle. “It’s true. And before you say it, I also won’t be staying with Ollie or Winnie. I know the kind of sex lives they have. I refuse to be a witness to that, especially when I’m nursing my wounds over here.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Well, I’m staying in a hotel tonight, but tomorrow . . .” I pause because I’m still kind of stunned I took him up on his offer. “I, uh . . . I’ll be moving into Halsey’s place.”
Penny pauses, her spoon halfway to her mouth, and stares at me, confusion in her expression. “Halsey? As in . . . Halsey Holmes?”
“Yeah,” I say, eating a scoop of ice cream while I watch her process what I’m saying.
“What? How? Why?”
“It all happened kind of fast, but I was attempting to grab Pacey for a VIP family, and it came up that I broke up with Perry and needed a place to stay. Posey said Halsey had an extra room, and I don’t know, desperation hit me hard, so I asked him if he was okay with that.”
“Was he?” Penny asks, leaning forward in disbelief.
“Apparently, because he said I could stay there as long as I watered his bonsai tree.”
“What’s a bonsai tree?”
“Uh, some fancy little tree that lives in a pot. I looked it up during the game. They’re kind of cute. Halsey named his Sherman. From what I could tell, he seems quite attached to it.”
“Wait, I’m so confused. We’re talking about the same guy, right? Halsey Holmes, center for the Agitators?”
