Page 6 of Crashing Without Justice

“No, of course,” she quickly rushed out. “Of course.”

I ran my hands over the placemat again. “I am just going to look for spiritual guidance through this, and with enough prayer, things will work out.”

“Well, in the meantime, you know that Butler and I are here for you, Paige,” she went on. “Yeah, I’m usually busy with the kids, but they can provide a great distraction for you if you just need the noise or something.”

“I appreciate the offer,” I said honestly. “I know you mean it sincerely, and it really warms my heart that you’re willing to drop everything to be therefor me.” I let out a tired sigh. “Honestly though, I’m still trying to process everything that Harding told me last night. I mean, it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours, so I really am still trying to wrap my mind around where we’ve found ourselves.”

“I can understand that,” she replied quietly. “Just remember, you have the right to feel whatever you’re feeling. Just like there are stages to grief, there are stages to heartache. You’re going to feel a million different things, and none of them will be wrong.”

I slid her a look. “I’ve been through this before, remember? I don’t need to be treated like an idiot in her freshman year of life.”

“I didn’t mean to sound condescending, Paige,” she bristled. “All I’m trying to do is be supportive.”

Since she wasn’t saying anything that I wanted to hear, I said, “I’m feeling like I could use a nap. I didn’t get any sleep last night, and I think it’s catching up with me.”

Heady gave me a tight nod. “Of course.”

“I’ll call you later tonight,” I assured her. “For now, I’m going to take a Prozac, eat something, then get some rest.”

“Yes, of course,” she repeated. “Just…please be careful with your medications. This kind of thing can be distracting enough to be dangerous, Paige.”

“I’ll be fine,” I promised. “I just really need some rest.”

“Okay,” she replied as she stood up from her chair. “Call me later, and maybe you can even come over for dinner.”

I gave her a passive nod. “Yeah, maybe.”

Nothing more was said as Heady showed herself out the front door, but what else was there to say? Never having been divorced, she had no idea what I was going through. All she knew was how to live her perfect life with her perfect husband and her perfect children.

Chapter 5

Harding~

Iwasn’t sure if I was a glutton for punishment or what, but instead of ignoring social media, I’d made the grave mistake of checking one of Paige’s accounts to gauge how bad the damage was, and she must have stayed up all night to post as many Bible quotes and inspirational memes as she’d had. She still hadn’t mentioned specifics, but you didn’t have to be a genius to read between the social media lines. It was obvious to anyone that could read that I had betrayed my wife.

Nonetheless, nothing was making sense. At the same time that Paige was posting all these memes on social media, she had also sent me texts about repairing our marriage, and I didn’t understand how she thought that airing our private business on the internet was going to improve the situation. By making all those posts, she was inviting people to comment on something that was already hard enough. Yeah, I was aware of how she craved attention, but this was not the way that I would have chosen to navigate this thing between us.

At any rate, I was still game to have dinner with my parents and Jeremy, so maybe we could come up with a plan together. However, before I could give it any more thought, my phone began to ring, and I was surprised to see that it was my boss. Normally, we were off on the weekends, and Carter Electric was very big on not violating any union agreements. Still, I answered it because it had to be important for Brett to be calling me.

“Hey, Brett,” I greeted as soon as I answered the phone. “What’s up?”

“Hey, Harding,” he replied hesitantly. “Uhm…I’m calling because…well, man I really don’t know how to say this.”

The hairs on the back of my neck immediately stood up. “Just say it.”

“I got a call from your wife a few minutes ago, and she…dude, she just…just started rambling on about things that are none of my business,” he said, making my stomach turn upside down.

“What?”

“She…she started going off about how you’re cheating on her, and then asked me how I felt about a dishonest man with no integrity working for me,” he went on, and I just closed my eyes in disbelief. “She said that you weremessing with…honestly, her choice of wording doesn’t bear repeating, but…but it sounded like she was hoping that I was going to fire you.”

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered embarrassingly. “I’m so sorry, Brett.”

“I’m also not the only one that she called,” he said, causing my lungs to actually freeze up a bit. “She’s been calling a lot of the guys, including Henry.”

“Fuck,” I hissed, running my free hand through my hair. “Are you serious?”

“I’m surprised you haven’t been getting some texts or calls from the guys,” he replied, ignoring my rhetorical question.

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