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TWENTY-NINE
Summer
“You’renothing but a total slut, you realize that, don’t you? All this time, going after Shaw when he was with me. Weaseling your way in between us, always hanging around. You were sleeping with him, weren’t you?” Marie screams from the sidewalk.
I’m standing in front of the bookstore—she pulled her car into a parking space and started walking toward the store twenty minutes ago. I saw her coming and went outside, to not allow her entry or disturb the customers that I have lingering inside. I let one of my staff know to hold the store down and I take whatever she throws at me with my head held high.
I let her yell and say whatever it is that she has to say, without responding. Her accusations are coming at me, one by one. All false.
“And then you whisper shit into his ear about how he needs to take my son away from me, because all you want to do is replace me. I will not let it happen.” She points her finger angrily.
I stand my ground, my expression neutral as more insults are hurled at me.
“You know that you’re just getting my sloppy seconds. You’ll never be the woman that I ever was to him, you know that, right?”
A few onlookers have gathered and are likely now drawing their own conclusions of me being a home wrecker. I still say nothing. There’s nothing that I can say to her. She won’t listen, she has her mind made up about me.
“Marie!” I hear Shaw from behind her yell.
She turns around in surprise.
“What the hell is going on? Why are you here?” he asks.
“Oh, how nice of you to come to her rescue,” Marie sneers.
“Summer has nothing to do with any of the shit between us, and you know it. Why are you causing a scene here?” Shaw asks, coming to stand beside me and crosses his arms over his chest.
“I’m just here to point out all her mistakes.” Marie says.
“Summer had nothing to do with our relationship dissolving, and you damn well know it. Now, if you don’t leave here now, we will get a restraining order and you bet your ass that won’t look good when we go to court.” Shaw reaches for my hand and holds on tight in unity.
She says nothing. She looks between the two of us, then down to our joined hands.
Through gritted teeth she takes one step forward and points again, “you both will regret this.”
She turns on her heel and stomps back to her car.
Unsure of exactly what she means, I shake my head and then look at Shaw.
“How did you know she was here?” I ask.
“Your staff called me and said there was a confrontation happening in front of the store and that my name was mentioned a lot.” He pulls me into him and wraps his arms around me.
“Ah, yeah. I could have handled it on my own, you know.” I tell him.
“I have no doubt that you could, but considering we’re about to go head-to-head in court, I thought she should know to watch her step.”
“Yeah, but you could have used that against her.” I tell him.
“I still will, but I don’t want to jeopardize her relationship with Mason. I don’t want to take him completely away from her. I just want it to be equal.”
“I know you do.”
“I’m sorry that she came here at you like that. I’m sorry that she’s blaming you with these ludicrous things and I’m sorry that you’ve been pulled into this.” Shaw says endearingly.
“You have nothing to apologize for. You have done nothing wrong. You just want what’s fair to you.” I tell him.
“Thank you for understanding that, but again, I don’t want you to be in her firing zone.” He tells me as I squeeze my hold on him.
