So right now, outside was quiet, but only because the revelers weren’t spilling out into the streets, headed for their beds just yet.
They were in a window between times. Heading home early. She had never been a big partier. That was one reason it was funny that they had run a bar for a while.
She wasn’t the type to keep those sorts of hours. There was nothing stopping her from walking into a bar now, though.
She could do whatever she wanted.
She could grab a random man and drag him to bed if she wanted to. She could engage in whatever kind of reckless behavior she wanted to.
She wasn’t married anymore. Not in any way that mattered. Sure, they were going to have to eventually file the legal paperwork to get rid of the marriage, but the minute that he had betrayed her like this, the minute that he had touched another woman, their marriage vows hadn’t meant anything.
She had been tied to him since high school. And yes, they took a break in college. She had always assumed that it meant that he had dated other women, but she had never asked. She had never wanted to know. And as for her… She had never wanted anybody else. She had wanted to create a love story, a life that was so different than the one that she had lived, and that meant that she had cut herself off from all kinds of experiences.
“Maybe I should go into that bar and hook up with somebody.”
“You’re drunk,” Cara said, wrapping her arm aroundMarlowe’s shoulder. “And we have wine and cake, so let’s just go have that.”
“I’m not drunk,” she said, even though her head was a little bit dizzy.
“I am all for you going out and getting your freak on. Whatever you need to do to deal with this, but I just don’t want you to do it while you’re impaired. Who knows what kind of weird decision you might make?”
The real trouble was that the only man she actually wanted was Cody. And when she’d had that momentary thought that she might just swan into that bar, the man that she had imagined grabbing hold of… Well, it was her boss.
And that was its own whole problem.
“Well. Raincheck on hooking up with a stranger then.”
“Sure.” They wandered up one of the narrow side streets, which was much darker than the main street, lit up only by porch lights, rather than the jaunty street lights that were positioned every few feet on the main drag.
Cara’s house was little and perfect. Painted white with green shutters and little flower boxes underneath the windows, very similar to her bakery.
“I just planted those,” she said. “To go with Juniper & Sage.”
“Well, it’s perfect,” she said.
They walked up the little stone path to the front door, and Cara unlocked the door, letting them both inside.
It felt so much more settled than her apartment, but then, Cara hadn’t had very many belongings that she brought with her. Her place had come furnished, because it had been owned by an older woman who had gone into a nursing home, and had left most of her furniture behind. It was perfect for Cara, who was grandmacore in the extreme, so the lace, old-fashioned furniture and garlands over the doorway were perfectly suited to her taste.
“I love it,” Marlowe said.
“So do I,” Cara said happily. “Now, we are in the safe bubble of my home, so go ahead and rant away.”
Well, now that Marlowe had permission.
That was how they spent the next hour. Drinking wine, eating chocolate cake, and talking smack about Aiden.
“You should call him,” Cara said.
“I don’t have anything to say to him.”
“I get that. Except, you can’t let him get away with all of this.”
“I’m trying to go with dignity.”
“Dignity? Who cares about dignity? You don’t owe him dignity.”
Maybe she didn’t. But explosions of emotion felt powerlessly close to the kind of drunken behavior her parents had engaged in before her mother had left. The kinds of volatile relationships her dad had with all of the women who had come after. Drunken fights were part of Marlowe’s least happy memories.
