“What do you . . .”
“I’m his lawyer,” she sniffled. “Jenny. I feel just awful.”
“Catarina,” I said.
She took a deep breath and composed herself. “Look, here’s the deal. Dustin and I hooked up a long time ago. I just ... I could never get him out of my head. We stayed friends. And I’ve been having a rough winter romantically. I thought maybe we could rekindle things if I surprised him. And when we met up for coffee earlier this month to go over your immigration situation, he mentioned he was helping you out, and that it was just an ‘arrangement.’ I figured it was just an ‘on paper but not for real’ marriage. God, I’m such an idiot. My mom always said, Jenny, you’re book smart but you’ve got to work on street smarts.”
I felt a sinking feeling grip me. “He said that he was just ‘helping me out?’”
She nodded. “I’m paraphrasing. I think I should just shut up and get out of here.”
I felt foolish all of a sudden. Not fifteen minutes ago I was picturing Dustin as a dad. This was a reality check. We weren’t on that trajectory—far from it. We had a ‘mutual agreement.’ We were helping each other out, that was all.
Jenny walked over to a bag she had in the front room and threw on a hoodie over her French maid outfit. “Again, I’m really sorry. Dustin didnotinvite me over. You should know that.”
“Wait,” I said. “This might sound crazy, but, do you want to go grab a drink?”
“Are you serious? Don’t you hate me?” she asked as she pulled on pants.
“Hate is a strong word. It sounds like you know Dustin decently well.”
“Well, yeah. We went to college together.”
Curiosity nipped at me. In spite of being married to him, and having met his family, I felt like he kept his guard up in certain ways—his past being one of them.
“So, you’re nottotallywrong about our little arrangement,” I admitted. “And ... it seems like you could use a friend right now. No offense.”
She rubbed her shoulder a little awkwardly for a moment, then twisted up a lock of her black hair. “You know what? Let’s do it.”
It was awkward at first, but after a couple of champagne daiquiris at the bar around the corner from Dustin’s house, the conversation started flowing between Jenny and me.
“Yeah, he never dated anyone in college. No one.” She rolled her eyes. “Although heclaimshe got ghosted and his heart broken by some one-night stand senior year. Like anyone would ever ghosthim,though.”
“He got his heartbroken?Yeah, I have a hard time believing that one, too. When did you guys date?”
“A few years ago.”
I exhaled a loud breath.
“I know. I’m clearly not over him. He used to like it when I cleaned his place in a French Maid’s outfit. After my fiancé and I separated and I was cleaning out my things, I saw I still had a key to his place. It was a long shot. God, I’m an idiot.”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it. Have you been texting him or anything?”
“Just stuff about your arrangement. The way he talked about it, he made it seem like you two were, you know, married and friends with benefits. Or something. He was vague.”
I nodded. “To be honest, I don’t really know what we are, if it’s more than that or not.”
“I know I’m crazy. Damnit, I should never have gone out with him. We were just friends for a long time,” she continued. “Until this one girl he was with ...” She took a sip of her drink. “I don’t know what she did to him. Messed him up good, though.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. So Dustin had a ghost from the past who affected him still. I tried not to make a big deal about it, but something about her tone felt alarming. If she knew Dustin in college, she knew more about his past than I did, most likely.
“Who was she?” I asked.
She waved her hand. “Oh, he never talked about the details. Just said he couldn’t believe some people. It wasn’t like him to be so cagey. But when we, uh—stop me if this is too much detail.” She leaned in and whispered. “When wedid it, he was like, incredibly angry. It was passionate, but I could tell there was fire in his eyes. In his ...everything.”
“Okay, you can stop now,” I said, shuddering.
“Sorry,” she said, then leaned back and finished her drink. Her eyes flickered up to me. She really was a beautiful girl. “So if you don’t mind me asking, whatisthe deal with you and Dustin? From your perspective?”
