Page 7 of Wild in the Woods
He left and Olive slid the basket of pretzels off the table and set them on the seat beside her.
“Thanks,” Lulu said. “I know. I’m annoying sometimes.”
“You have celiac disease. You have to be careful. That’s not being annoying.”
They looked at each other and laughed. Olive bobbled her head a little. “Okay, sometimes your disease is annoying.”
“It really is.”
Having to avoid gluten meant she had a standard list of foods in her head that she relied on to be safe, including drinks. Plus, her father had pre-diabetes, so she limited her sugar and carb intake to avoid having the same one day. People thought she was being pretentious or jumping on the health food bandwagon and she’d gotten so tired of explaining herself over the years that she gave up and let them think she was a food snob.
It took a lot of diligence and dedication to keep herself healthy and if that made her difficult, so be it.
Olive crossed her arms on the table. “So, you never fully explained what happened with Rudd?”
“Ugh, can we wait until I start drinking, please?”
“No. I want to know now.”
The waiter returned.
“Beer for you. And Grey Goose, sugar-free, Mexican limes for you. Enjoy.”
Lulu took a sip, and then another. The sweet, spicy drink went straight to her soul. “I needed this.”
“Are your lips loosened up yet because I want all the deets about the breakup.”
Richard “Rudd” Demarsky turned out to be the literal worst. They’d met in college but hadn’t dated until her senior year. He was graduated by then and working for a small, county newspaper. He’d quickly weaseled his way into a junior reporter position for Men’s Adventure Magazine. She finished her journalism degree, and they began dating. She worked a few small freelance assignments to build her portfolio and applied at every magazine and newspaper in the greater Chicago area. Rudd liked to say that he ultimately got her the job at Men’s Adventure, but that wasn’t true. He’d simply told her about a few job openings there and her charm and solid portfolio had sealed the deal.
The managing editor hired her as a fact-checker, then as a copyeditor. She’d pitched a few story ideas that he loved, so he took a chance on her and gave her a junior reporter position.
Then this story dropped in her lap, and thanks to Olive, she was going to nail it.
“I came home and found him balls deep inside the neighbor whom I thought was my friend,” Lulu scoffed. “There’s not much to tell.”
She drank a little more.
“How’s it been working with him since then? That must be awkward.”
Lulu shrugged. “It is. His office is clear across the building from mine, so we really only see each other during the morning meeting.”
Her upper lip curled as an image of his smug face played in her mind. Rudd was everything her father approved of. Ambitious, successful. The only son of lawyer parents. He put on a good show in front of her parents, always acting the perfect boyfriend. But behind closed doors? That was a different story.
“Listen, I didn’t want to say anything until I knew how you were really doing with all this, but…” Olive took a long swig of her beer. “He’s called me a few times. To talk about you.”
She almost dropped her glass. “What?”
“I’m sorry that I didn’t say anything. I was… I guess I was afraid you might think that I instigated his contact in some way.”
Lulu let out a slow breath and put her hands palm down on the table. A thin rush of panic fluttered in her chest, reminiscent of how she felt when she caught the son of the bitch in the act. It was weaker right now, of course, just a hint of residual emotion. Though she’d done a great job of getting over Rudd quickly without harboring any guilt or second guessing herself, memories of how she felt when she caught him cheating liked to show up now and again.
“Olive, no. I would never, ever think that. Never.”
Putting a hand over her friend’s, she squeezed reassuringly.
“I know it was silly of me. We live states away from each other, but something about the way he made me feel when he called really freaked me out. I don’t know. He was trying to pressure me and made inappropriate comments. I worried he might try and spin our conversation to make it look like I was encouraging him. Look, I’m glad you left him, Lu. He’s a piece of shit. Seriously.”
Lulu finished her drink in one long gulp and waved down the bartender for another. “Tell me everything he said to you.”
