Page 101 of Look on the Bright Side

Gerald took the hint, glanced at the menu. “Want to split the calamari?” he asked. They usually shared an appetizer, but this was not a regular date.

“I’m all set,” she said, handing the menu back to Brianna.

“I’ll have the same thing she’s having, then,” Gerald said. “Thanks, Brianna.”

“You bet.” She walked off, and they looked at each other.

“How have you been?” Gerald asked. She could feel the nervousness rising off him.

“Good,” she said, keeping her tone neutral. “Joy’s house is beautiful, and we’re becoming really close.”

“Great. Good. That’s…that’s great. And the gallery?”

“I don’t know, actually,” she said. “Meeko is running it this summer. I check in, do some painting, whatever. I’m on sabbatical. You know. Since I haven’t had a vacation in ever, really.”

“You deserve it. Definitely. I’m…well…God, this is awkward, isn’t it?”

“I wonder why.” She narrowed her eyes at him, letting him know she wasn’t here for pleasantries. Brianna came back with their drinks, and Ellie sipped hers, not looking away from her husband. “Heard from Camille lately?” she asked.

“No! Not since January, Ellie. I deleted my Facebook account.”

“Are you expecting a trophy for that?”

He took a slow breath. “Look, honey, I will apologize for the rest of my life, if that’s what you need. Whatever it takes, I’ll do.”

“And yet I have no way of trusting you anymore. How will I know you’ll do what it takes? You lied to me, you were sneaking around—”

“I met her once for lunch. It was one sneak.”

Her stomach burned with fury. “You were sneaking around every time you took out your little iPad, hiding in the attic to DM her and tell her about your tepid marriage and bitchy wife. Meanwhile, you said nothing to me. You didn’t tell me our marriage was so lackluster, Gerald. We’ve never gone for more than a few weeks without sex, and that was usually because I’d just pushed a baby out. So that part is a bit confusing.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I lied to her. I wanted her to think I was more available than I was.”

“So you lied to me, and you lied to her. What a catch you are.”

He swallowed, glancing around in misery. “I’m sorry.”

“That fixes absolutely nothing,” she snapped. “This unhappiness of yours…this loneliness, this busy wife who ignored you…you made all that up because you wanted to reconnect with a high school crush? You risked our marriage for something that insignificant? You’d break up our family for that?” She was leaning forward, hissing like a snake, and forced herself to sit back up. They knew far too many people in this town.

Brianna brought their dinners, told them to enjoy and left again.

Gerald didn’t say anything.

“Speak,” she growled. “Explain yourself.”

He took a long, slow breath. “Okay. Okay. Ellie, I’ve obviously been thinking a lot about how this happened, and why. All I can tell you is how I was feeling last year. How I was feeling, not how you were making me feel or anything like that. I’m not that stupid. I know this is all my fault.”

“Go on.” She stabbed at her risotto.

“So…I’d hurt my back, remember? Lifting that guy off the floor at the hospital?”

“Yes, I remember.” Gerald hurting his back meant he was in agony, unable to move without breaking into a sweat, his face reddening, breath coming in short gasps. It happened every couple of years, despite the exercises he did, despite the physical therapy he’d had. And when his back was out, it meant she had to do everything for a solid two weeks, from grocery shopping to helping him shower. She never minded, not until right now. Sickness and health, good times and bad. Forsaking all others, goddamn it.

“And that was pretty much that, career-wise. I mean, I’d been cutting back my hours, but all of a sudden, it was decided for me. That part of my life was over, just like that. It surprised me, how much I missed it.”

“And yet, here you are, picking up shifts again.”

“Because you wanted me to. Because you needed me to.”

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