Page 121 of One Night

"Oh yeah? Before I left, she told me he'd asked her to the event but she hadn't agreed to it yet."

"I wish you'd been there. I know you couldn't, but I still missed having you with me. You still heading home next Sunday?"

"Yeah, unless Britt decides she needs me to stay longer."

"How's she doing?"

"About the same. I think she'll feel better once she's back in school with her friends. That'll help take her mind off of things."

"And how are you doing?" He asks because I've avoided talking about the divorce. I change the subject whenever the topic comes up.

"I'm doing okay."

"Amber, you know you can talk to me so why won't you?"

"I'm just not ready to. I never thought I'd feel this way if they broke up. I never thought I'd feel this sad. I always thought I'd be relieved, maybe even happy, because I'd no longer have to listen to them fight. But now it's almost worse because my parents won't even talk to each other. They walk past each other and won't even look at each other."

"I guess that's just their way of dealing with it."

"I guess. It's just weird." I sigh. "I don't want to talk about it. It's depressing. Talk about something else. Any new Grandpa stories?"

"He stole a candy bar at the retirement home. They called my dad. Made him come there and talk to the administrator about Gramps' candy theft problem. My dad said it was like he was being called into the principal's office. He said he got lectured to keep his father in line."

I laugh. "I don't think that's possible. Gramps seems like a free spirit."

"He is. He doesn't listen to anyone. Never has."

Dylan continues to tell me more stories and we stay on the phone for an hour. Afterward, I go to the kitchen to get a drink and find my mom sitting at the table with her laptop.

"What are you doing?" I ask, sitting across from her.

"Just looking some things up." She closes her laptop. "So how are you feeling?"

I shrug. "Not great, but I'm more worried about you. How are you feeling?"

"I'm not feeling much of anything, other than sadness for you girls. I've known this was coming so I've already been through the sadness and anger and loss and everything else you feel when a marriage ends. In some ways I'm relieved it's ending because I'm so tired of fighting with your father."

I look down, then back up at my mom. "Can I ask you something? And I really need an honest answer."

"Go ahead."

"What happened to you and Dad? How did you get to this point?"

"We grew apart. Became different people."

"But you loved each other. Can't love survive those things?"

"Not always. People change and sometimes that means they fall out of love."

"How can you fall out of love? That doesn't even make sense to me. If you're really in love, how does it just go away? How do you just turn your feelings off like that?"

"It doesn't happen all at once. It happens gradually, over time. Sometimes you don't even notice it's happened until it's too late."

I hesitate, my eyes dropping to the table. "Did I help cause it?"

My mom touches my arm. "Honey, how could you possibly cause it?"

"Because of gymnastics." My eyes lift to hers. "When I got really good, it took up all your time. And Dad's. And it was around that time that you guys started fighting."

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