"Yeah." Carrie picked at her chips, eyes somewhere else. "It's worse now. The house is too quiet."
The waves rolled in. Rolled out.
"Six months," Carrie said. "And I still expect to hear his car in the driveway."
"It gets easier." Lori reached over and squeezed her arm.
"Does it?"
"Easier isn't the right word." Lori thought about it. "You just stop waiting."
Carrie nodded, though she didn't look convinced.
Meredith turned to Olivia, who had been watching Max and Lily in the water—Max trying to catch a wave, Lily floating nearby on her back. "Dan coming down this weekend?"
No answer right away. Her eyes were on the water, or maybe on nothing at all.
"Dan had an affair," she said.
Nobody moved.
"What?" Carrie's voice came out strange.
"Emotional. Not physical. At least that's what he says." Olivia pulled at a thread on her beach towel, not looking at any of them. "A woman at work. They texted. All the time. For months."
"When did you find out?" Meredith asked.
"February. He left his phone on the counter and I saw her name." She lifted one shoulder, let it drop. "I wasn't looking. I just saw it."
No one said anything.
"We're trying. Counseling, date nights, all of it. He says it's over." She finally looked up. "I don't know if I believe him. I don't know if it matters."
"It matters," Jen said.
"Does it? He didn't sleep with her. He just—" She searched for the words. "He talked to her. About things he should have been talking to me about. And now I'm supposed to forgive that because it wasn't physical."
Carrie shook her head slowly. Lori put a hand on Olivia's shoulder.
"The kids don't know," Olivia said. "They know something's wrong. They're not stupid. But they don't know what."
"I'm sorry," Meredith said. "I didn't know."
"I didn't tell anyone." Olivia took a long sip of iced tea, her hand steady. "It's easier to pretend it's fine."
"It's not fine," Carrie said.
"No. It's not."
Carrie turned to Lori, shifting the weight. "And you? Anyone new?"
"No." Lori shook her head. "I'm not ready. I don't know if I'll ever be ready."
"You'll be ready," Jen said.
"Maybe." She didn't sound convinced. "It's been three years, and I still flinch when someone asks me out for coffee."
"Give it time," Olivia said.
