“Sorry!” I yelled and then backed out and shut the door. My heart was in my throat. I tried to calm myself and prevent any more water from gathering in my eyes. I clenched my jaw and stood paralyzed in the hall. When I heard them shuffling around, I turned and abruptly headed for the kitchen.
The bathroom door opened as I walked away. “Mia?” he said in a low voice behind me.
Don’t turn around, don’t cry!
I reached the kitchen counter just as the lead singer of the Black Keys began chanting something about a psychotic girl. For some reason that song reminded me of the movie Deliverance. I promised myself there would be no murder in the apartment that night. I was too crushed to do anything and… I had no right. I greeted him with a huge smile. “Hi, Will! I’ve had a f**ked up day!” I said cheerily as a rogue tear spilt from my eye. I looked away and concentrated on putting Jackson’s food in a bag.
Will put his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face him. I kept my head down, defeated. “I’m sorry, Mia. I’m sorry you had to walk in on that. I thought you were… going…” He couldn’t finish his thought; he just lifted my chin and searched my eyes until I was sure he saw the hurt in them.
I swallowed the lump back and held my head up. “Yes… I am going… to the Hamptons. I just decided that I wanted to take Jackson, so here I am… picking up Jackson… and there you are… in a towel… postcoital… interestingly enough… time to go… it’s time to go.” I stumbled over every ridiculous word with watery eyes and a smile.
When I turned to walk out he grabbed my arm and stepped toward me with a pitying look on his face. We were mere inches apart. I fixed my gaze on the Soul Captain tattoo over his heart. I couldn’t look up at him. He hesitated and then in a low voice said, “I want you to meet Audrey.”
I took a deep, cleansing breath. “How long have you been dating her?” I whispered.
“Two weeks, but I’ve known her a while.”
I nodded and smiled. He was so sweet, so easily in love, and he wanted to share it with me.
“Please, Mia, I like her and I care what you think.”
“Okay,” I said. And then, as if on cue, Audrey came into my peripheral vision. She was gorgeous, a couple of inches taller than me with long, golden-brown hair. She had an all-American girl look about her with her cutoff jean shorts and long, tan legs. She was wearing one of Will’s old Ramones T-shirts. I appraised her, hoping to find a flaw, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t find one blemish; she even had perfect feet and pretty toes. So then I hoped that she would be really dumb or shallow or conceited or mean. Any of those would do.
“Hi, Mia. It’s nice meet you, Will has told me so much about you and I’ve seen your pictures all over. You’re even prettier in real life; I didn’t think that would be possible.” She reached out to hug me and I hugged her back awkwardly. Damn, she was nice! I couldn’t hate her or I’d for sure have the karma police on me. You know when someone just seems so put-together and kind, even their speaking voice has a nice sound to it, and you want to hate them or find a flaw but you can’t, so you have to like them, as painful as it is? That’s how I felt about Audrey.
“It’s nice to meet you, too. You’re very pretty yourself and Will is a good guy and great friend. Have a happy weekend,” I said. “I’ll see you Sunday, Will.” I gave him a curt nod; he was leaning back against the counter with his arms and feet crossed.
He flashed me a tiny, sympathetic smile and mouthed the word “bye.”
I ran dangerously fast down the stairs with Jackson in tow. When I got out to Jenny, she was giving me a dirty look. I opened the Jeep door and motioned for Jackson to jump in. “What the hell took so long?” she said. I held my finger up and said, “One more minute?” I slammed the door and ran across the street to the corner market.
Benton was still working. I set three tiny bottles of tequila on the counter. This time he smirked and said, “No chocolate?” I got out to the sidewalk and drank each bottle over a trashcan while I stared directly at Jenny, sitting in the Jeep. When I finally got in the passenger side, she didn’t say a word; she patted my leg and then blasted Cat Stevens. I cried all the way to South Hampton.
By the time Jenny and I arrived at her uncle’s cottage, it was late and we were both exhausted, so we called it a night. The next day, I woke up and decided that I wouldn’t talk about my terrible Friday while I was with Jenny. She was stressed about her wedding and I wanted to be a good friend. Her uncle’s cottage was mostly used for weekend getaways, so it needed a little sprucing up. It sat back from the street on a large piece of property overlooking a storybook pond, complete with a wooden dock and little white rowboat. The grounds around the house were meticulously kept so we were relieved that the brunt of our work that weekend would be just cleaning the inside of the cottage and meeting with the florist and caterer. We were completely consumed with wedding details until Sunday when we headed back home.
“Okay, Mia, talk to me,” Jenny said, her gaze never leaving the road.
I had a feeling Jenny already knew something by her reaction when I got into the car Friday.
“Did you know Will was seeing someone?”
“Yes. He brought her to Tyler’s on Thursday… He asked if he could bring her to the wedding.” She finally glanced over at me, gauging my reaction. I nodded. “I was going to tell you, but I wasn’t sure if you already knew… I mean after all, you live with him. What does it matter anyway?” There was hint of irritation in her tone.