Was it normal to lose your mind like this after a relationship dissolved?
Was it normal to suddenly have wild fantasies about the first hot man you came across?
That would be more convincing if you weren’t already having fantasies about his voice even before your husband ruined your life.
“Morning,” she said.
She clutched her notebook tightly, as if giving her hands something to do would make everything better.
“Yeah, basically late afternoon for me. I’ve been up since four.”
“Oh. Well. I guess… Cattle ranching.”
“Yes. Cattle ranching.”
Awkward silence. Lovely. Her brain wanted to take that silence and turn it into a moment of fantasy. Which she would not allow.
“My things are going to be here at around three o’clock. Do you think that the meeting will be over by then?”
“Definitely,” he said. “I didn’t realize that you didn’t have your things. But I guess I didn’t see any with you.”
“My sister-in-law brought some things, but I had a moving service arranged. Because you know, I thought I was going to have twice the amount of stuff.”
She sounded pathetic.
“Weren’t you guys together for a long time?”
She frowned. “How did you know that?”
“I just got that vibe when we spoke. You seemed like a couple that was really familiar with each other. Not newlyweds or anything like that.”
Not newlyweds.
She was going to marinate on that for a long time. But not right now.
“Yeah. We’ve been married for five years. But togetherfor fifteen. Mostly. We had a little bit of a break in college. But we were high school sweethearts.”
“I see.”
“So, my lesson of the week is that you can’t trust anybody, and people are liars. Very glad that you got to meet me under these circumstances. I’m not usually…”
What was she? She was weird, she supposed. Cagey and stressed out about whether she was going to get the job, and oh yeah, lusting after him in a way that was completely inappropriate. But hopefully he hadn’t picked up on that. And if she could blame all the weirdness on the sudden loss of her marriage, that suited her just fine.
“You haven’t always been cynical?” he asked.
“No. Guarded,” she said, a strange metallic tang filling her mouth. She really didn’t want to get into all that. “But I haven’t always been cynical. Obviously, or I wouldn’t have married my first boyfriend. I wouldn’t have fallen in love at all.”
“Take it from me. Cynicism doesn’t kill you. It doesn’t make you stronger, either, but it doesn’t kill you. “
“You’re cynical?” she asked, her tone reflecting her lack of surprise. The only surprise was that he was telling her about himself.
“Did you not hear the story about my dad yesterday?”
“I did.”
“I like to tell everybody. Because that’s how much I hate him. Even though he’s dead and in the ground. And I take great pride in having my mother’s last name and not his. Also, in changing the name of the ranch. It used to have his name. Kind of. Triple R. His last name was Reynolds. But I changed it to Painted Ridge because I liked it better. It represents the area, instead of his name. And now it’s mine. To do with as I please. “
“I kind of get the deadbeat dad thing.”
