Page 126 of The Rom-Commers

“Get back together with—?”

“My ex-wife,” Charlie said, without blinking.

“The mean one?” I said, like there might be other choices.

Charlie nodded, but he said, “She’s not actually mean.”

“The ex-wife who left you on the day you got cancer?”

He gave me a look. “Yes, but—”

“The ex-wife you don’t even like?”

Charlie made a weak protest: “It’s complicated.”

“You hid from her in a kitchen pantry like she was some kind of banshee!”

“That happens in a marriage sometimes,” Charlie said.

“You’re not even married!”

What was happening? What was going on? I was so confused. Ten minutes ago I’d been floating on an afterglow of a kiss for the history books from a guy I was 99 percent sure was exactly as into me as I was into him… and now he wasthinking ofgetting remarried—to a person he couldn’t stand?

Unbelievable! But maybe I just didn’t want to believe it.

Maybe I really had been alone too long.

“Are you dating her?”

“Who?”

“The mean ex-wife.”

“Not yet,” Charlie said. “But we could start. Any day now.”

What?

“I’ve heard a lot of crazy things in my life,” I said then, “but this is the craziest.”

Charlie nodded like he agreed. Like we werebothbaffled.

But I guess the takeaway here was that Charlie had said no. Charlie had said he wasn’t interested. Charlie had said it was abad call.

That wasn’t confusing. That was simple.

I felt things for Charlie, but Charlie—apparently—felt nothing for me.

So that just had to be the end of that.

Twenty-Five

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT—AFTERa famous writer has given you a hard pass in his dining room at the start of your writing day together?

You, uh…

You just, uh…

You just get back to work.

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