Page 43 of Tanner's Forever

“Hey there, JoJo,” she says in her sweeter than sweet tea accent.

JoJo? Are you kidding me? Who does this woman think she is?

As they get closer, the woman sees Chris sitting by me and puts two and two together on who I am.

“You must be Erin!” She croons. “I’ve been itching to meet you for a while now.”

“Hi,” is all I can manage to get out.

She puts her hand over her chest, showing off her long, fake nails. “I’m Mary Louise.”

Judd can clearly see the befuddled look on my face and says, “Hey, honey, why don’t we go sit up top?”

She playfully smacks his shoulder. “Oh, no way! We aren’t going to leave Erin down here all by herself.”

Please don’t.

Before I can say a word, she’s taken a seat next to me and said, “This way, Erin and I can get to know each other better.”

So, not only did Judd break our deal about not seeing other people, but he’s clearly brought her around our kids before. And now, he’s bringing her to soccer games and letting her sit next to me.

What is happening?

Thankfully, Joey does most of the talking and keeps Miss Pageant Queen amused. I try to turn my focus back to the game, but it’s hard. All of my shock has been replaced with pure rage. I’ve been so worried about breaking this stupid pact with Judd to try to do what was best for our kids. Meanwhile, he didn’t give a crap about any of it.

I practically told Tanner to get lost because I thought I was doing what I wassupposedto. And for what? For Judd to show up to our kid’s soccer game with his new woman in tow.

When Joey finally comes up for air, Mary Louise turns toward me and says, “So, Erin Judd tells me you work at some sort of doctors office?”

Without looking at her, I respond with, “A dentist office actually.”

Like Judd doesn’t know that. My job is too insignificant for him to even accurately describe it to others.

She says, “Oh, well that sounds exciting!”

She doesn’t say it with an ounce of condescension but more like she’s actually interested. I can’t tell if she’s just super nice or if she’s putting on the best front I’ve ever seen.

I really want to respond with some sarcastic answer, but with my kids right here, I decide to be the bigger person.

“What do you do for work, Mary Louise?”

“Oh, I don’t work anymore.” She turns toward Judd. “Not since I moved in with this guy.”

Okay, I’m going to be sick. Physically ill.

Thankfully, the whistle blows, signaling halftime. I turn toward Judd, “Can I talk to you for a second?”

He rolls his eyes and gives a heavy sigh, making his annoyance known, but he still follows me.

When we are out of earshot of everyone else, I say, “When did you start dating?”

The crease in his forehead appears—the crease he gets every time he has to interact with me. “I started dating Mary Louise a couple months ago, but I guess I’ve been dating in general since about a month or so after the divorce was finalized.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I ask. “What happened to you and I not dating anyone to make things easier on our kids? We weren’t going to just bring around a bunch of randoms.”

“And I haven’t.” He says the words as though I’m stupid. “Mary Louise isn’t a random. We live together now, so the kids were bound to meet her. It’s pretty serious. Before that, I didn’t bring home every woman that I took to bed.”

It completely blows my mind that I have been worried about the ONE guy I was with for ONE weekend, yet apparently, Judd has had a parade of women over the past year.

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