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I shove open the door and motion for Sydney to head out. Once she’s past me, I turn back to Busy and Junie. “See you two later.” Then I head home.
When I pull up in front of Ugly Mug, I spot Sarah immediately, sitting at a table outside, talking on her phone. I can tell just by the way she’s moving her hands, the stern focus on her face, that it’s something related to work. She was always that way about her business. Extremely focused, nose constantly to the grind, something I always admired about her.
Sarah waves as I step out of the cab of my truck, but when Syd jumps down to the asphalt, even behind the fancy sunglasses, I can tell she’s displeased. She holds up a finger, letting me know she’s almost done with her call, and by the time I’ve approached the table, she pulls it away from her ear and presses a button.
“I didn’t realize you were bringing her,” she says, standing to give me a hug. “Now we can’t sit inside.”
I shrug. “The weather’s not too bad this morning. We can sit out here, right? It’s shaded.”
Sarah is easy to read, and I know finding a solutionotherthan taking my dog back to hang out in my office isn’t what she wanted.
“I’ll grab our drinks and be right back,” I say, before I look at Sydney. “Be good for Sarah.”
I turn and head inside, walking right up to the counter to put in our orders—a black coffee and a croissant for me, an iced americano for Sarah.
Almost the first thing I did after we got divorced was get a dog. I had dogs growing up and always wanted one of my own, but Sarah’s allergic, and no amount of discussing allergy meds or air filters or grooming schedules could convince her to get one. I even tried offering to get one of those frou-frou hypoallergenic dogs, but she didn’t budge.
I guess you could say Sydney was my divorce present to myself.
Once I return outside with our drinks, I rip off a piece of my croissant and feed it to Sydney, then take a piece for myself.
“So, how have you been?” I ask, settling into my chair, resting my ankle on my knee and holding my coffee with both hands. “It’s been a few weeks. You went out of town right?”
“I’ve been good. I went with Alton on that work trip to Texas.”
I nod.
Alton. Her new boyfriend.
I have a few feelings about the guy, mostly because I think he’s self-absorbed. But that’s Sarah’s problem, not mine, and I have no plans to turn our friendship—which is already complicated enough—into one where I offer critique about her new choice of partner.
“Have a good time?”
There’s a beat that passes where I wonder if she’s going to say something other than yes. It’s a particular way her mouth opens, like she’s considering her words before she says them.
“We did,” she finally says. “But I’m glad to be back in town and back to work. You know I love my work.”
“That I do.”
Soon before we got married, Sarah got her real estate license. Over the years, she has created quite a reputation for herself as the go-to person if you’re trying to buy in several of the small mountain communities around here, including Cedar Point.
After the divorce, I think she got sort of lost in her work, trying to distract herself from the end of what we had. As much as I might not be a huge fan of the guy she’s dating now, I’m glad she has someone. The last thing I would want is for her to be alone. We might not be together anymore, but I still care about her, still want the best for her.
“So, what’s new with you?” Sarah reaches her hand out and very lightly taps my knee with two fingers. “Howarethings?”
I know what she’s really asking, but I don’t want to talk about it. Ineverwant to talk about it. So I play dumb.
“I started working on a new custom project for Ellis Darrow, for the new buildout at Dock 7,” I offer. “A dozen leather chairs like the ones I made for Cedar Cider.”
Sarah nods. “I love those chairs.”
Everyone does. They’re gorgeous chairs. I had planned to make two additional ones for us to have in the living room of our apartment, but we ended up getting divorced instead. So I used the remaining wood to create the frame of a dog bed for Sydney.
It wasn’t supposed to sound as vindictive as it does.
“How’s Marie and the kids?”
At that I smile wide. “They’re doing really good. Leo’s picking up all kinds of things right now, so I have to be careful what I say around him.”
