Page 72 of Pity Parade

That can’t be comfortable. “How’s it going with Bridget?”

She whispers into the phone, “Hold on, I’m going to walk outside.” When she gets there, she says, “She’s not at all what I expected.”

“How so?”

“I thought she’d be some gorgeous sex vixen with perky boobs and pouty lips.”

“And she’s not?”

Shelby grunts. “Not even a little. There’s nothing special about her.”

“That’s a harsh assessment, don’t you think? I mean, she’s probably a very nice person.”

“Whose side are you on here?” Shel demands hotly.

“Always yours,” I tell her.

“What does Allan see in her?”

I feel the need to remind her, “It might just be friendship.”

“It’s not. The two of them are acting like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.”

“You think they’ve been having an affair then?”

“Oddly, no. But I know that would have changed during this trip. Honestly, I’m not sure I still have a chance to keep my marriage, even if I wanted to.”

“There’s always a chance, Shel. You just have to realign your priorities.” I take a deep breath before adding, “Which is part of the reason I’m calling.”

She groans into the phone. “Honest to God, Heath, I have a lot on my plate. I’m not sure I’m up for anything more.”

“I know,” I tell her. “Which is why I propose we take something off your plate.”

“The skyscraper?”

“I say we scrap it.”

“I thought you already did.” She sounds less mad than she did the other day.

“I have but I think you need to do the same.” Before she replies, I explain, “I’m in the city now and I can go ahead and put the word out if you’re game.”

“You come back to Chicago the day after I leave?”

“Mitigating circumstances,” I tell her. I’m not going to go into the whole Jess thing. Instead, I offer, “I can call Engle and let him know we share his concerns—that we want to put a halt to the current plan.”

My idea is met with silence.

“Shel, you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“What do you say? Should I do it?”

“I have no idea what I’ll do if we let that deal go. We’ve already spent two years on it.”

“When we started, we thought the world would bounce back to what it used to be. But more and more commercial properties are being abandoned and it doesn’t make sense to create more without knowing we can fill them.”

“Are we going to look for another project together?” she asks.

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