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“If you don’t mind,” she said. “Since I... I didn’t get to pack it.”
“Did youwantto pack it?” he asked.
“No. I—that would take too long.”
He thought about broaching the subject of the car. They needed to talk about it, but he felt such hostility coming from Jessica—as if she’d expected a fight so she’d come ready to have one—that he just stepped back to clear a path.
Ashleigh walked through every room and, after conferring with Jessica, asked if she could take more of their pots and pans. He thought he’d been generous in what he’d given her, but if she wanted more, he wasn’t going to fight over it. What was the point? He’d already lost everything he cared about. “Take whatever you want,” he said.
She blinked at him, surprised by his answer. Obviously, she was expecting anger, resistance. She’d brought Jessica with her just in case, hadn’t she? But he was too hurt for that. Had she come alone, he would’ve carried it all out for her, too.
As he watched the pile in the middle of the floor grow smaller, he couldn’t help thinking of Jessica’s kids. She was six years older than they were, so the oldest two were in school. But what about her four-year-old? Was she at preschool or with Jessica’s parents? Or with Jessica’s husband?
And if the situation were different, would Jessica have brought them for this? How weretheyfeeling about what was going on?
The oldest was probably seven, old enough to understand that something terrible had happened to her family, even if she didn’t understand what it all meant and how it was going to change her life.
Donny, Jessica’s husband, wasn’t only losing his wife, he was losing 24/7 access to his kids. That had to be worse than what Jack was experiencing, and yet Jack couldn’t imagineanythingbeing worse.
Ashleigh approached him with their popcorn maker. “Can I have this?”
He remembered when they’d gone to Walmart to buy it. They couldn’t afford to go out to a lot of movies, so he’d told her he’d make popcorn at home whenever they watched a series on Netflix. He typically used coconut oil. She liked that best...
“Jack?” she prompted.
He nodded.
“And it was my mother who gave us the drapes.” She pointed to the frilly pink curtains at the kitchen window. “Do you mind if I take those?”
What didhewant with pink curtains? “That’s fine.” Normally, he would’ve taken them down for her. She wasn’t handy with a screwdriver. But Jessica said she’d brought a tool kit and went out to the car to retrieve it, so he shoved his hands in his pockets and stayed out of the way as Ashleigh’s new lover removed the drapeshe’dput up and then carried them out of the house.
“Your dad doesn’t mind that you’re not at work today?” Ashleigh asked.
She’d told him she’d come get her stuff when he wasn’t there if he preferred it, but he’d said he wanted to be around. Apparently, some masochistic part of him was hanging on to every last second with her, no matter how terrible the experience was. “He didn’t say anything about it,” he said.
She frowned. “I’m surprised. He works you like a slave.”
“He works just as hard,” he pointed out but was suddenly tempted to blame how hard his father worked him for the split. Problem was the hours he worked had nothing to do with Ashleigh’s sexual orientation, and that was what this came down to.
“I bet he’ll have plenty to say about me,” she grumbled.
Buzz didn’t say much about anyone. He didn’t want to be guilty of gossip. But if someone disappointed him, that person typically didn’t get a second chance.
“How areyourparents taking the news?” He’d thought he’d hear from his in-laws. They’d welcomed him into the family with open arms. But they hadn’t called, and he hadn’t known what to say to them, so he hadn’t, either.
“They’re upset, of course. They’re what got us into this mess. They think sexuality is a choice and that I’m going to hell for being my authentic self.”
“They’ll come around,” he said. “And your sister?” Leila was three years younger and still single. She worked at the only gym in town as a CrossFit instructor.
“Won’t speak to me.”
“This...this came as a shock to all of us,” he said.
Jessica walked back in. “Is that everything?” she asked Ashleigh.
Ashleigh sent him an apologetic look. “Yeah. Except my half of the furniture, but I don’t want to talk about that today. There’s no way I could fit anything else in the car, anyway.”
“You can have whatever you want,” he reiterated, which seemed to totally disarm her.
