Chapter 4
By the time I get to the school the next day for pickup, I miss Teddy so much that my chest hurts.
It should be no surprise that I didn’t sleep very well last night.
I sent Jeremy a text message, asking if I could say good night to Teddy, and he did answer that one.
He said our son was already asleep and that he would see me after school tomorrow.
While I didn’t expect him to wake Teddy up just to tell me good night, it didn’t keep me from crying myself to sleep.
Or maybe my eyes were just tearing up from all the dust. Hard to say.
Either way, I look particularly awful right now.
When you’re twenty years old, you can spend the night crying and then look like a million bucks the next day.
When you’re forty-two and you shed one single tear, your eyes are puffy for the next week.
I read on the internet that tea bags can help, so I put one on each eye, but it didn’t help, and I got tea everywhere.
I spent most of the day making the apartment habitable.
There were cleaning supplies in a closet, so I worked my best to get that layer of dust off all the furniture and the shades.
I changed all the sheets, and I scrubbed down the bathroom, especially an area in the tub that seemed to be growing mold.
And I took all those boxes in the extra bedroom and stuffed them in a closet.
It’s not a permanent solution, but it will do for a couple of weeks.
I was proud of myself that I got it done before it was time to pick up Teddy.
Kindergarten pickup is insanely early. Jeremy wanted Teddy to do full-day kindergarten, so we had to enter a lottery in order to get a spot. But you know what full-day kindergarten is? It’s nine in the morning to two in the afternoon. Five hours. That’s it.
And that’s why I haven’t managed to find the time to relaunch my medical practice.
Teddy’s private school is at the top of a spectacularly large hill, and the parking lot is at the bottom of it.
I don’t get to the gym as much as Jeremy does, but I climb that hill every single day, and it’s actually quite a lot of exercise.
Or I would assume so based on how out of breath I am whenever I get to the entrance to the school.
I’m sure it’s not helping the eye-bag situation.
The parents all congregate in little groups on the lush green lawn outside the school close to the dismissal time.
For the most part, it’s all women, except for one or two dads, who always stand alone.
My two best mom friends—who have also become my two best friends—are Ashlyn and Cheryl, and they have already arrived and are deep in conversation when I join them, still huffing and puffing from that stupid hill.
“Hey, Naomi,” Cheryl says. “Did you do something with your hair?”
I self-consciously touch my auburn hair, which I pulled back into a ponytail that I was hoping was stylishly messy but I suspect now is simply messy.
The water in the shower was only lukewarm—I’ll have to let Jeremy know so we can get it fixed ASAP—and I also suspect my tears interacted negatively with my hair follicles.
“It was a rough day yesterday,” I say. “We’re starting some renovations on the house. It was Jeremy’s idea.”
“Ooh.” Ashlyn perks up because she loves that kind of stuff. “What kind of renovations?”
“Well, for one thing, we’re redoing the kitchen.”
“Lucky.” As Ashlyn scratches her nose with her left hand, I get a glimpse of the diamond on her ring finger, which is gigantic.
Her husband is an ambulance chaser, and he’s really good at it.
Jeremy does well enough that he could have easily afforded a ring like that, but I asked him to buy me a pretty pale pink morganite ring instead of a diamond.
“I keep asking Roger to redo our kitchen, and he keeps putting me off. Jeremy is so thoughtful.”
“And he’s hot,” Cheryl giggles.
I laugh with them like it’s a joke, although I do think my husband is more attractive than most of the others I have met. And many of them are at least a decade older than he is.
I’m lucky.
“Hey, Naomi.” Ashlyn nudges me. “Cheryl and I were trying to figure something out, and we can’t decide. We need your opinion.”
“Sure,” I say. I hope it’s a medical question. It would be nice to feel useful in that way.
Ashlyn grins at me with a mouth full of teeth that I’m pretty sure are caps. Jeremy’s teeth are just as straight and white as hers, but his are real. “Do you think Cora Janzen got her boobs done?”
Cora Janzen is the mother of a little boy named Zack, who is in Teddy’s kindergarten class.
The only thing I know about her is that she got divorced at the beginning of the year, although it had been going on for a long time before that.
According to the rumors, she had a prenup, which her lawyer managed to rip to shreds.
I also heard she made her now ex-husband cry.
And although she’s standing all alone like she’s got the plague, she looks great.
I feel completely frazzled with my hair limp from cleaning all day and the oversize sweater over my yoga pants.
But Cora is wearing a stylish yellow dress that perfectly compliments her chin-length platinum blond hair.
Her skin looks smooth and unlined and practically glowing.
And yes, her breasts do look a little perkier than I remember.
I realize both women are looking at me, waiting to hear my verdict. As if I am the world’s expert on boob jobs. “I’m not sure,” I say.
“She definitely did,” Cheryl insists. “I wish I had a before picture.”
“I saw her flirting with Irene’s husband at softball practice.” Ashlyn crinkles her nose. “Thank God Roger never wants to go to these things.”
As if she heard what we were saying, Cora lifts her eyes and looks over at us.
Simultaneously, all three of us drop our gaze.
Everyone has been talking about Cora the whole year, especially after she had a few too many drinks at that parents’ night.
She must realize she’s the subject of gossip.
I’m glad she came out ahead in her divorce, but I can’t help but feel sorry for her that her marriage fell apart.
I’m glad that I’m married to a sweet, thoughtful man who loves his family and surprised us with an amazing renovation to our home.
A few minutes later, Teddy’s class is released.
Since they are kindergartners, we have to walk over to the door and claim the children individually to make sure they aren’t kidnapped.
I appreciate the caution, but I suspect a kidnapper wouldn’t have much luck here.
A few months ago, the new janitor almost got arrested when five sets of parents didn’t recognize him and simultaneously called the police.
After being away from Teddy last night, I almost burst into tears at the sight of his sweet little round face. He wraps his arms around me like he always does, but I can’t help but compare it with the exuberance with which he greets his father. I suppose I am less of a novelty than Jeremy.
“I missed you last night!” he says.
Cheryl and Ashlyn hear Teddy’s exclamation and look at me curiously.
“We’re staying at a different apartment during the renovation,” I tell them quickly. This is how rumors get started. “I was just getting it ready to move into last night.”
“Move in where?” Teddy pipes up.
“The apartment we’re going to stay at while our house is being fixed up,” I explain to him. Jeremy assured me he was going to fill him in, but it looks like that never happened.
Teddy crinkles his nose. “Our house is being fixed up? Why?”
“To make it nicer. Didn’t Daddy tell you?”
He shakes his head. “We just ate pizza and watched TV.”
I’m frustrated that Jeremy was supposed to tell Teddy what was going on, and clearly he failed to do so. But it’s even worse that Ashlyn and Cheryl are both still giving me that strange look.
And once again, I worry there’s some part of this puzzle that I am missing.