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Chapter Nine
"All right. Your turn. Larry finally signed those papers, right?" Sawyer asked, snapping out of his trance-like state as he turned his attention from the ocean back to me.
I chuckled at his deliberate mistake. "His name is Logan. And yes, he did."
"I knew it," he replied, picking up his drink and swirling the wine around in his glass.
A frown creased my brow. "You knew he signed the papers?"
"No, I knew his name. But he's forgettable now that you have me." We both smiled and he gulped down his wine like a thirsty man.
"You make all of this sound very permanent between us."
"No point in going after something you think won't work."
"You're very intense. Has anyone ever told you this?"
"Never. I've never felt this passionate about anything before."
"What about the live-in girlfriend?"
"Ex-girlfriend, and yes and no," he remarked and looked out at the ocean again. "James and Charlotte deserve each other. I did love her, cherished her even, but the second she cheated I wanted nothing more from her. She still contacts me from time to time and begs me to take her back. She still calls and texts me to this day."
"Your brother knows this, and he's still with her?"
"I have no idea, but I'd imagine so. She makes no secret of it during charity events."
Sawyer saw my puzzled look. "It's a long story. There is a lot of family history between her family and mine, so we still run into them from time to time. Anyway, as far as James goes, I'm not into tearing him down. I don't like what he did, but he's still my flesh and blood. It gives me no pleasure to know she's with him but still wants me." He paused, looking at me curiously. "Were you a therapist in a previous life?" he asked.
"Me? Why?" I wondered.
"You have an amazing gift for deflecting. We're supposed to be talking about you right now."
"Ah. Okay," I replied before I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything, but we'll start with college, your marriage, and Colby."
Inhaling sharply, I glanced nervously at him, thinking my experience alone made me sound old, and he squeezed my hand. "It's okay. Trust me. Shake off those doubts, Billie. I'm not your ex-husband. This is a new start, remember?"
I sighed. "Okay, let me see. I was born in Bay City, Michigan, but came to New York to attend college. I earned an MS in Business and Finance. I met Logan, who was finishing his post-grad studies, just as I was starting mine. The year I finished, he became an English professor at the School of Professional Studies at NYU."
"You dated your professor?" he chuckled.
I scoffed. "No, we met at a party long before he became one. My roommate was dating his friend. He didn't become a professor until after I graduated, and it was at a different university."
"Right. How long did you date before you got married?"
"Does it matter? We're divorced now."
"Indulge me?"
"Almost two years."
"The divorce was finalized when?"
"Almost six months ago, in early March."
"And you think I helped with that?"
