Paloma threw her hands up in frustration. “I don’t think that’s going to change anything. You know what we want.”
“Yeah, everything,” Mitch muttered.
It took everything I had not to mutter,You should’ve thought about that before you took up with another woman.
I silently awarded myself the Colossal Restraint Badge.
“What bullshit,” he said under his breath. “None of this is fair.”
“Now, that’s something we can agree on,” I said.
“I don’t get what you’re complaining about. I’ve been paying for your house and food and everything for almost twenty-five years. It should be your turn to get a job and take care of yourself.”
Our lawyers looked at each other.
My anger rose and ebbed into something colder. “You say that like I sat on a cushion and ate bonbons while you did everything. Nope, I gave up employment prospects to take care of you and Dylan, and I don’t regret it for one second with the possible exception of the predicament you have left me in. Know what I think?”
“What?” he asked, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest.
“I think that you are jealous.”
He snorted. “Of what?”
“You thought I would go quietly. I did not. You thought no other man would really want the woman you’d discarded, but Parker did. And Parker is younger than you are. Quite possibly better looking than you are.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
I shrugged. “It was all well and good as long asyouwere the one with a new, exciting sexual partner ten years younger. Then you realized you couldn’t just sell the house and make me live in a cardboard boxsomewhere. Maybe the bloom is off the rose with your new woman. Maybe she’s stopped shaving her legs or cooking special meals or stocking the fridge with your favorite beer. Killian’s Red. See? I remember. Maybe she’s told you to do your own laundry.”
“I will happily do my laundry to get rid of you.”
“Maybe you’re realizing that if Dylan has to choose between you and me for Christmas, he just might choose me. And you can’t do anything about it because he’s legally an adult. Maybe you’re realizing all the newness isn’t as much fun as you thought it was going to be and that you’ve pissed away almost twenty-five years of marriage because you were afraid of turning fifty. Maybe, now everything isn’t as exciting because you aren’t sneaking around behind my back, you’re realizing that Tabitha could just as easily dump you one day, and then what would you do? Come crawling back to me? I don’t think so. Maybe you’re afraid you’ve made a great mistake and you’ll end up living out the rest of your days alone in a sad, beige apartment.”
“Vivian, you’re being ridiculous.”
Oh, if only I had a dollar for every time I’d heard that one. I’d have two dollars from today alone.
“Or maybe,” I said, the words slipping past my tongue even though I wanted to call them back, “maybe you’re afraid that Tabithawon’tdump you and that you’ll be starting over again with a new baby. A newborn after you turn fifty. How can you retire now knowing that you have another kid to put through college? So much for your plans to retire early and travel, huh? You’ll be sixty-eight before you can retire ... if you’re lucky.”
His face could only be described as stricken.
I couldn’t wait to tell Mom about how I’d told his sorry ass off. She’d—
Dammit, now she was mad at me, too. All because she thought I’d broken one of her stupid “rules.”
Mitch muttered a succession of obscenities and stood from the table. He turned to his lawyer. “I’ve heard enough for one day.”
Ashley cast me a strange look but followed him out the door.
“Well,” Paloma said once they’d left. “I think we need to have a little chat about your definition of a ‘thing,’ Ms. Quackenbush.”
Chapter 31
After the draining mediation, I wasn’t ready for a come-to-Jesus meeting with Paloma Carter. She never raised her voice, but she made it as clear as a New York City boutique hotel chandelier that I needed to be open with her in the future. If I were to withhold important information from her again, she would cease to represent me.
Normally, such an upbraiding would’ve had me in tears, but I’d learned that tears didn’t do anything for me. All I could think was,Mom’s going to get a kick out of being right about this.
On the good-news front, I stopped on the way home to talk to my favorite Target manager, Joe, and he seemed to think he would be able to hire me on as a seasonal worker. From there, I could possibly move on to a full-time position. I had an interview scheduled for November 6.
