Page 109 of DadBod

ROME

My girls are home.The car just pulled up, and Ryann stepped out. Holding my breath, I’m crossing my fingers that Elizabeth appears too. I know what she said––that she needed to get a few things, but I hope I can get her to stay. We can talk, and I can apologize.

No. That’s not a good enough word.

Grovel. I can grovel on my hands and fucking knees because I was wrong. About many things.

Opening the front door, I stand silently as the two women ascend. Ryann looks up at me but quickly looks away.

Okay. Silent treatment. I get it. It doesn’t mean I’m going to let it continue. “Ryann?” She walks past me without a word. I could force the issue, but I’ve got the other one to deal with. “Elizabeth.”

“Rome.” She stops on the top step. “I came to pick up my things. If you’d like to watch to be sure I don’t steal anything, I’m fine with that.”

“Elizabeth—”

“Don’t ‘Elizabeth’ me,” she snaps. “You don’t get to say my name like that anymore. Those days are over.”

“Like what?”

“With emphasis.”

Emphasis? What the hell is she talking about?

The other woman in my life steps around me and turns left into the living room. I follow her, hoping to get a chance to talk.

After Ryann, Calvin and Jeriann let me have it yesterday. She, Jeri, pointed out that I took the word of a “sneaky snake.” In other words, Monica––a person whose sole purpose was to save her own job and get back at Elizabeth at the same time. What Jeriann wouldn’t tell me was the real story about Elizabeth’s brother. All she said was “You’re a tool who doesn’t deserve Elizabeth Duncan.” She may have also said, “You blew it. You had the best thing in the world, and you took the word of Monica over someone you’ve known almost three years.”

All true.

She wasn’t done. “If you’re lucky, Elizabeth will tell you what really happened with her brother. I sure wouldn’t. You don’t deserve the truth.”

By the end of that statement, I just wanted her to stop. It finally did when I realized that my daughter had left the restaurant. Gianna hadn’t bothered to tell me she’d left until I asked where she was. Note to self, find a new hostess.

“Can we talk?”

“No.” I watch her pick up a book. The one she and Calvin had been reading. The one about the wizard school.

“Please?”

Whipping around to face me, she growls, “Let’s talk at the restaurant in front of everyone. That’s how I prefer to have private conversations. It’s much better to have as many of my friends and coworkers around as possible to witness my humiliation. Thanks for that, by the way.”

Oookay. This isn’t going as well as I’d hoped.

“Will you at least give me the courtesy of hearing the story about your brother?”

“Give you the courtesy?” She laughs, but there was no humor in it. “You don’t deserve any courtesy. You didn’t give me a lick of courtesy yesterday, did you, Mr. James?”

Okay. Now I get how that emphasizing sounds.

Not good.

“Wrong choice of words.”

“You think?”

“The story with my brother is––personal. Private. It’s none of your business, Rome. If I’d wanted you to know, I’d have told you. But people assume the worst about me and about my family, and the whole story is just sad. Yes, he deserved to go to jail, but there’s more to the story, and if you’d been the person I thought you were, you would have asked me, privately, what it was. Instead, you flew off the handle, like always, and now we’re here.” She points at her feet. “I’m sad because I really cared about you. I love your children and honestly thought we had something starting…”

“We do.”

---