Page 48 of August
Myra stopped with the coffee and looked up.
“Are you okay? Did he–”
“He’s not physically abusive. He never has been. He just has this way with words that manages to break me every time, and today was no exception.”
“What did he say?”
“Just that the kids want to live with him when they’re not in school because they’re unhappy here. They want to come get their stuff here and go home to be with their friends until they have to say goodbye, and then, they’ll spend their breaks there, too, because their friends will be home on breaks. He made me feel like I had ruined everything because I moved them here and then offered me the guest house again.”
“The guest house?”
“He told me I could move back in or, at least, stay there during breaks when the kids are there. And, to some, maybe that would sound okay, but he asked me to park in the back and told me I wasn’t allowed to have any women there. He doesn’t want the kids exposed to that.”
“He saidwhat?” Myra asked, dropping whatever she was doing to walk around the counter and stand in front of her. “Where the fuck is he right now? At some hotel? I–”
Elisa smiled at her and replied, “He drove back already. He spent about five minutes with me, driving for hours just to do it. He thinks he’s the good guy because he could have called, but he told me in person.”
“Your ex-husband is a real piece of work,” Myra said.
“He’s gotten worse since the separation. I think he liked it when we both knew that he was cheating without talking about it. The divorce pissed him off even more, but I was still in the guest house and acting like everything was normal for the kids. Now, I’m here, and I’m on my own, makingdecisions that don’t involve him, and I think it’s something he’s struggling with.”
“Who gives a shit whatheis struggling with?” Myra argued. “Heis the problem.”
“Ididmislead him for almost twenty years.”
“True, but that doesn’t give him the right–”
“Hey,” Elisa began and reached out for Myra’s hands, taking both of them in her own and staring down at them. Then, she entwined their fingers and smiled. “I didn’t mean to make this whole conversation about him. I just wanted you to know what happened tonight, and I wanted to apologize. I should have postponed our date, but I thought I’d be okay, and I was rude to you, Myra. I like cigars.” She laughed a little. “I didn’t mean that comment in a bad way. And I like your truck. I think you were worried that I thought it was beneath me or something.”
“Your carispretty nice,” Myra replied.
“I didn’t buy it myself. Technically, it was in his name, but I got him to sign it over to me when I moved here. The kids both have their own cars, and he didn’t need one more thing to worry about, but I don’t need a fancy car, Myra.”
“What about food? You didn’t seem to like the whole food truck thing.”
“I did,” she replied, squeezing Myra’s hands. “I meant what I said: I’d just never been to a food truck. I haven’t told you much about where we lived, but you can probably guess that it’s about ninety-nine percent White and Christian. It’s a small, upper-middle-class to straight-up wealthy community, and there are only nice restaurants within the town itself. Outside of the town, there are fast food chains and maybe some food trucks, but we never really ate there. Archie Senior loves fancy restaurants, and I tried to keep the kids away from fast food whenever I could. I liked the food tonight. I even liked the fact that it came from a truck. I really liked being there with you. I just couldn’t shake his words earlier out of my mind, and I should’ve called you and asked to postpone because I’m worried that I ruined my chance.”
Myra let go of one of her hands and cupped her cheek. Elisa met her eyes and did everything she could to stop herself from shaking because she didn’t want to freeze up now. She didn’t want to be nervous. She wanted to be strong. She wanted to show Myra that she was ready for this, whateveritwas.
“Do you want to try again?”
“Huh? Try…”
“Elisa, do you want to have a do-over first date? We can go to another food truck, or I can pick a restaurant that doesn’t have wheels, and we can do something after, like go for that walk by the water or see a movie or something.”
“Yeah?” she asked.
Myra smiled at her and said, “Yeah, of course. I’ll admit, I was pretty pissed off before, but I was mostly just confused, really. I thought this was something we’d both wanted, but you seemed anywhere but on our date tonight, and I worried it was because you’d never been out with a woman, so you might not have been ready for all of that. If you are, though, and you still want to go out, we can try again.”
“Yes, I want that,” Elisa said quickly, probably a littletooquickly. “Sorry, I’m not desperate or anything. Actually, no, Iamdesperate, but it’s like desperate in a good way.”
“How’s that, exactly?” Myra asked with a little laugh as she caressed Elisa’s skin.
“I’m desperate for a shot with you. I don’t want to mess this up.”
“You didn’t. Your asshole of an ex did. And if he stops by uninvited again, feel free to call me. I know members of NOLA PD.”
“What? Youdo?”
