Page 12 of I Choose You
“Yup.”
“And everyone else has been good? Your dad? The family?” she asked.
Reid was so still, his entire body holding an odd tension. I didn’t know who this woman was, but she was clearly making him uncomfortable.
He glanced at me, and I got the impression he wished he didn’t have an audience for this. “Everyone’s good, Georgie,” he said, offering her the smallest of polite smiles.
She smiled kindly at me and turned back to him. “It’s good to see you with someone. I hope she makes you happy.” Before either of us could tell her that we weren’t together like that, her husband called her from the doorway. He nodded a greeting at Reid, which Reid returned, and then they were gone.
Reid took the plastic table number and led me to the oneopen table. He sat silently across from me. The conversation with that woman seemed to have put him in a bad mood, not that that was hard to do.
I studied the room through the lens of a designer, and I was impressed. The wood-paneled walls were a rustic pine with a dark stain and paired with a pattern tiled floor. The tables had a shiny polyurethane coating over lighter wood tops. Metal-framed wood chairs were intermixed with rattan chairs, giving the room a more eclectic feel.
“Wow, this place is great. I can’t believe I haven’t been here yet. There’s a restaurant like this back home that Will and I would go to a lot, but I always thought it had more of a hipster vibe. This feels more authentic somehow.”
Still nothing.
I held my tongue for as long as possible, but I was never comfortable sitting in awkward silences. “Did you see the story on the news about the elephant that broke out of the zoo and was just roaming the streets? How cool would that be to be driving down the street and you just come up on an elephant!”
“Why would your own mother want you with some scumbag that can’t keep his dick in his pants?” Reid’s question caught me off guard. I didn’t realize he had heard so much of the conversation.
My eyes blinked a few times while I stalled to answer. I could gloss over it, tell him that she didn’t understand the whole story, but that would be a lie.
“Her priorities are different than mine. She’s been a politician’s wife her entire adult life, married to a senator and all. The fact that I’m thirty-two and unmarried is scandalous enough. Add to that Will’s political aspirations and hisconnection with my dad, and it’s like the answer to all her prayers,” I told him.
Sometimes I wondered if she’d had her own experiences with infidelity, but thinking too much about that just made me sad. I hoped for her sake that she hadn’t, and if she had and it was something that she and my father could work through or manage, then it wasn’t any of my business. I may be their daughter, but I wasn’t in their marriage. I knew it wasn’t the marriage I would want though.
“Will and I had been together for three years. It wasn’t all bad. He could be a decent guy sometimes, until he wasn’t. Really, it came down to being selfish. He saw something, or someone, he wanted, and he wouldn’t think twice about going for it.” I shrugged. “It’s funny when I think about it. Like, I don’t know if he was ever in love with me but rather in love with what we looked like in a photograph,” I laughed. “And now, he’s been trying to convince me to get back together with him, and honestly, I think it’s mostly my parents’ doing.” Shaking my head, I sat back when the young woman from the counter came to our table to deliver the pizzas, along with the glass of white wine for me and a can of local IPA for Reid.
“None of that is funny, Claire.”
Reid’s brows were drawn in, creating the cutest line between them. His scowl was so sincere I couldn’t help but laugh again.
“Well, I shared. Now, it’s your turn. What’s your story?”
Reid took a big bite of his pizza. I figured he was going to ignore my question—he didn’t strike me as a sharing stories kind of guy—so I was surprised when he swallowed his bite and answered me.
“I was with someone for a long time. It ended a few monthsago.” He took a pull from his beer, and I waited to see if he was going to say more.
“Is that all you’ve got for me?” I poked at him playfully, nudging his foot with mine under the table.
He rolled his eyes, but he kept his gaze firmly on his pizza when he spoke again. “She didn’t cheat on me, but after she ended things, I started to question whether she ever really loved me at all.” He nodded in the direction of the door. “Those people from before, that was her parents.”
Heartbreak. I could certainly relate to that.
“I’m sorry she hurt you.” I reached out and touched his hand. His gaze bounced to mine briefly before he pulled his hand back and grabbed his beer.
“I’m not looking for your pity. Just eat your pizza,” he said. Although he shut down the conversation, his eyes looked a little brighter. A little less gloomy.
“What do we have here?”
Reid and I both turned our heads to the newcomer. He was in his mid- or maybe late fifties. His kind face looked amused as he glanced between me and Reid.
“What are you doing here?” Reid asked.
“Is that any way to talk to your father?” He reached his hand out to me. “I guess I’ll introduce myself. Charlie Wilder.”
He had a strong, firm handshake that I appreciated. My smile was entirely genuine as I shook his hand. “Claire DeLuca. Reid and I are working on a project together.”
