“Yeah, Ed popped his head into my office and asked if I wanted to go with him to his tailor. When the managing partner asks you something like that, you say yes.”
One of the last conversations we had before I left for the summer drove home how inconsequential I had become in his life.
“Lori, try to understand the pressure I’m under. If I win, I’ll get a huge bonus and be the go-to person for these lucrative cases. I need to focus on my future right now.”
“Don’t you meanourfuture?”
He looked up from his work. “What? Oh, yes, sure, right, our future.” And then turned right back to his notes.
At 8:45, my phone finally buzzed.
“Hi, Lori, please don’t be upset, but I’m still with the client. He made dinner plans for me with a couple of his associates.”
I gripped the fragile stem of the wine glass so tightly I was afraid it would snap. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I won’t be able to meet you tonight. After the dinner I need to head straight to the office to pull an all-nighter to implement the issues we discussed.”
“Can’t one of your many lackies take care of it?”
“No, this is really important . . .”
“More important than me?”
“Lori, you’re being unfair . . .”
“I’mbeing unfair?! You have no idea how difficult it was for me to get this time off. I always rearrange my life to accommodate you, and I always end up disappointed. You have absolutely no respect for me.”
“Lori, I can’t argue with you right now, I have people waiting for me and—”
I cut him off with a terse, “Goodbye, Ronald.”
I shook with fury. I really wanted to tell him to go to hell—but—Zelda and Hazel.
I still had no idea why he’d even suggested our getting together. It would have been enlightening to find out which one of the many open-ended conversations he wanted to finish.
At least when I drove back to camp, there would be a gin & tonic and a much-needed smoke with Teddy.
Teddy lit our cigarettes. “I didn’t think I’d see you tonight. Abby told me you had a date with your husband.”
“Yeah, well, the evening didn’t go as planned.” I took a drag.
“You’ve been married for how long?”
“Fifteen years.”
“Impressive. Me and the ex barely eked out five.”
“Well, right now you wouldn’t consider ours a marriage goals situation. If you like a good pun—here’s one—the trialattorneyis on a trialseparationfrom his wife. When he made plans to meet me, well, I stupidly thought things would be different.” I turned to wipe the tears welling up.
We stood side by side, quietly smoking, caught up in our own thoughts. Teddy looked up and blew a smoke ring. “A separation, a break, like from that American sitcom,Friends?”
I scoffed. “I hadn’t thought about that, but sure, like Ross and Rachel but with two children and a mortgage.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, who initiated the estrangement?”
I didn’t answer right away. I took another drag of the cigarette and watched as the smoke dissipated into the night. “I’m tired of constantly being disappointed by him. So, yeah, it was me.”
“If it helps, me and the ex were always at odds. Sadly, it became the usual state of our marriage. For what it’s worth, I understand your frustration. Did you at least take yourself out for dinner?” he asked.
