I snort. “Keep dreaming, Jaxi.”
I head back to the kitchen, singing about staring at the blank pages in front of you, and feel my spirits rise.
Hawaii feels like such a stroke of luck. I kind of think it’s the universe’s way of giving me a fresh start, a break from a battle I feel like I’ve had to fight my whole life. First with my parents, then with Shawn and then my landlord when I finally started on my own.
I haven’t let myself think about it too much. There was too much to do, too many things to get rid of, too many plans to make to spend too much brain power on beaches.
But I’m ready for it. Lord, am I ready for it.
Just as I get to the sink, my phone rings.
“Hello?” I say, pressing the speakerphone button.
As soon as I hear the voice on the other side, I freeze.
The sound coming through the line, my eyes go wide.
“Libby? What’s wrong?” I say entirely too loud.
“Jaxi …” The single word is almost indistinguishable through the sobs.
I grip the edge of the counter. “What’s happening? Are you okay?”
“No.”
Her cries ricochet through the phone, landing smack dab in the middle of my heart.
“Are you safe?” I ask. “Where’s Ted?”
While this seems to be the absolute right question to ask, it also seems to absolutely be the wrong one.
Her sobs ease. The next words are clear.
“Fuck. Ted.”
“Libby …” My voice drifts off as I absorb the language my friend is choosing. This isn’t something Libby says—even when she’s super pissed off. “What’s going on?”
It takes her a few moments to get herself together enough to explain things. I pace across the kitchen and try not to rush her.
She’s alive. She seems well physically. And she’s mad at Ted, which seems like a fairly normal thing for a woman to be when it comes to her husband—at least sometimes.
Finally, after what feels like a million minutes, she sucks in a deep breath.
“It turns out,” she says, “that my husband has been having an affair with a woman in our neighborhood, Kimmy Curtis.”
I can’t imagine what Libby’s reaction was to this information because my world—as someone who doesn’t even particularly like Ted and doesn’t know the Curtis woman from a hole in the wall—is rocked.
My feet stop moving. I almost drop the phone as I try to process what she just said.
Ted? An affair?
My poor cousin.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
I roll my eyes. Stupid question. She even knows her name is Kimmy.
“Surely he wouldn’t tell me that if it weren’t true.”
“But I don’t get it. You said he begged you to go to San Diego with him. A mini-second honeymoon. He took you on a fucking romantic date last night, Lib,” I say, frustrated. “What the hell?”
She sighs. “Apparently, it was a last hurrah. Not even a test to see if things were better … than her.” She sniffles. “I guess he wanted a last memory or some shit.”
Fuck. Him.
My jaw clenches. “Okay. What do you need from me? Want me to throw his stuff on the lawn? Have the locks changed? I know this guy Leo now,” I say, surprised that I had the wherewithal to even remember that. “Does Kimmy Curtis have a husband? If so, I need to have a little convo with him—”
“No. I’m not doing that.”
My jaw unclenches and drops to the floor. “Do what?” I shake my head. “Look, Lib, I know you’re a nice person and all. Me too. Mostly. But all is fair in love and liaisons.”
“He did this to me. Not her.” She sniffles. “I honestly don’t care about her. She could live or die, and it doesn’t affect me. Him, on the other hand …”
“So, I need to have a little convo with him then.”
I imagine being face-to-face with Ted’s little pocket-protector-wearing ass. The pleasure I would get from sticking my fingernail into his chest, spitting words that I’ve cooped up through the last five years at his face, and watching him shrivel under the truth of the things I say that I know bother him in the middle of the night—
“This is still new,” she says, cutting off my thoughts, “so I might change my mind. But, right now, I want you to get the trunk out of my master bedroom and … take it somewhere. Maybe Boone will keep it for me.”
“I’m sure he would.”
“Ted is coming home tomorrow, and I’m going to my mom’s house in Vegas.”
I slow blink. “You’re not coming here?”
“How can I? I’m not seeing Kimmy, Jaxi. It’s the same reason you left Columbus. You don’t want to see Shawn, right?”
She has a point.
“But what about your things here? Your life? Your house? You’re not giving up all of this because he couldn’t keep his—well, you know.” I make a face. She doesn’t need reminded about where his dick has been. “I left Columbus because I had nothing to leave. You have all of this, and he doesn’t deserve any of it.”
“I guess … I’ll have to get an attorney. I don’t know. I just know I’m not coming there.”
My synapses stop firing a million times per second and let me think.
Ted is coming home tomorrow.
I cover my face with my hands.
“I know this is a mess for you,” she says, her voice clogged with unshed tears again. “I—”
“Do not apologize to me. Don’t. I’ll be fine. I’ll … I’ll go get a hotel room for a few days. It’s not a big deal.”
“I know you were saving money by staying there. And I know you needed to save that cash too.” Her voice breaks with the weight of everything that has just been placed on her. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry I’m not there with you.” I start pacing again. “Want me to fly to San Diego? It’ll be closer to Hawaii anyway.”
She coughs. “No. I’m getting a flight out of here first thing in the morning. But thank you.”
I bite my lip and make a path against the tile floor. I wish there was something more I could do to help her.
“Is there anything else you want me to get out of here?” I ask her. “Clothes? Jewelry? Books?”
“My brain is so scattered right now that I don’t know. The trunk, for sure. It’s full of my grandmother’s things. Maybe my Bible if you can find it. Um … there are a couple of suitcases under the bed. Just shove some of my clothes in there too if you can.”
Her voice wavers, the tone softening as the shock starts to wear off.
I have so many questions.
How did he tell her? How long was this going on? What’s she going to do when she doesn’t even have a job? Is he going to cut her off so she has no money?
But I don’t ask them. They don’t matter.
“Of course, I can,” I tell her. “Just text me if you think of anything else.”
“Ted will be out of here on the first flight too, I think. I got a different room for tonight. The concierge was all too happy to move me out after the people next door complained about us fighting to the front desk.”