Chapter 19
When I arrive at my old house on Saturday to pick up Teddy to spend the day together, Jeremy looks furious.
“Naomi.” His voice is tense and angry as he pulls open the door to let me inside.
He’s wearing one of his expensive business suits because my husband literally never stops working, and unlike my attorney, his tie is cinched into a perfect Windsor knot.
He looks achingly handsome. “You were supposed to be here over an hour ago!”
I look down at my watch, which reads ten o’clock in the morning. “You said ten.”
“Seriously? I said nine!”
I step into the living room and catch sight of Teddy, sitting on the sectional sofa, wearing a light jacket with his backpack already on his back. The thought that he’s been waiting for me like that for the last hour tugs at me.
“You definitely said ten,” I say again.
“I definitely said nine.” He frowns at me. “Why am I even surprised? You do this every time. Every time. I forgot that we’re dealing with Naomi Time.”
I chew on my lower lip. He told me to come at ten o’clock. I’m sure of it. But of course, I don’t have any record of what he said. We discussed it only briefly when he was picking up Teddy from the apartment last night. Our conversations are always exceedingly brief these days.
“Why didn’t you text me when I was late?” I ask.
“I did.”
He did? I dig into my purse to pull out my phone, and I can see right away that there’s a string of missed text messages on the screen asking where I am. I have a tendency to forget I’ve put my phone on silent.
“Next time I’ll get Rosita to come,” he grumbles. “So I’m not stuck here waiting for you to eventually show up whenever you feel like it.”
Again, I feel a stab of guilt. Is it possible that I got it wrong?
Did he tell me nine o’clock, and somehow I thought he said ten?
He seems so sure of himself. Maybe I’m the one who screwed up.
When we were talking, I was in the middle of cooking dinner, and I had two pots going at once, so it does seem possible I might have misheard him.
I feel terrible that I kept Teddy waiting. He looks so forlorn sitting there on the couch. But then he lifts his eyes and spots me, and his face lights up. When he leaps off the couch to greet me, I see that he is clutching an elephant toy. He holds it up excitedly. “Look, Mommy! Look what I got!”
“Very nice!” I say, trying to muster up an appropriate amount of enthusiasm to make up for being late.
“Ronnie bought it for me!”
It feels like I just got sucker punched in the gut. “Oh…”
“She’s really nice, Mommy,” he continues. “And she’s also really pretty.”
I want more than anything for him to stop talking. I turn to Jeremy, who is sifting through his briefcase. “Jeremy?”
He doesn’t look up. “Uh-huh?”
“Did you introduce Teddy to Veronica?”
He pauses his search for whatever papers he was trying to find and looks up at me. “I did.”
Up until now, I was thinking that whatever was between Veronica and Jeremy couldn’t possibly be that serious, since he didn’t introduce her to our son. But apparently, they have now reached that milestone.
I want to burst into tears.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” I say to Jeremy.
“Fine.” He’s back to looking through his briefcase, as if I’m barely in the room. “What’s wrong?”
I glance over at Teddy, still clutching that stupid elephant. “In private, please?”
He inspects his Rolex. “Yes, okay. But please, let’s make it quick. I’m already running late.”
I can’t imagine what important meeting he has on a Saturday morning, but Jeremy is always working. His clients are very needy, and they pay him enough that he has to make himself available. That’s why I need to get a decent apartment so Teddy can start living with me again.
Jeremy leads me into his downstairs office, and when we get inside, he closes the door behind us, and I have a flashback to the night we got married.
Teddy spent the night with Jeremy’s parents so we could have the house to ourselves, and Jeremy insisted on carrying me through the house and upstairs to our bedroom.
Even though he was straining by the time he deposited me in our bed, it was so romantic.
I still remember the thrill that went through me as he eagerly climbed on top of me and consummated our marriage. I finally had everything I ever wanted.
Jeremy doesn’t make a move to sit on the sofa. He simply crosses his arms and arches an eyebrow at me. “Everything okay?”
His tie is slightly crooked. I reach out to straighten it, like I used to, and he jerks back from me like I scalded him.
“Naomi…” He looks almost guilty, which seems ridiculous. “Please don’t…”
“I’m your wife,” I point out. “I’m allowed to touch you.”
He doesn’t say anything to that. There’s a look on his face that I can’t quite identify.
“Why did you introduce Teddy to Veronica?” I challenge him. “I thought you were going to wait.”
“I did wait.” His answer makes me wonder how long he’s been seeing that woman behind my back. “And actually, I wanted to talk to you about that too. Please stop bad-mouthing Ronnie to Teddy behind her back. It’s not right.”
“I wouldn’t do that!”
“Come on, Naomi…”
“Fine, I’ll act like the woman who split up our family is my favorite person in the whole world. Happy?”
Jeremy frowns, and now I can identify the expression on his face. He looks sad. “I have to get to work.”
“Look,” I say. “It’s just confusing for Teddy to meet another woman like that if it’s not going to last.”
“It’s not a fling, Naomi.”
There’s no hesitation in his voice, which makes me feel even worse. I open my mouth, contemplating what other protests I can launch, but before I can say a word, I break.
Big sloppy tears are suddenly running down my cheeks. I am letting it all out, my shoulders heaving, my face turning bright red. It’s mortifying, but on the other hand, it feels kind of good. Like a release. I’m sick of pretending to hold it together.
I’ve cried in front of my husband before. Of course I have. In the past, he has held me and stroked my hair. But when I raise my eyes to look at him, he’s gaping at me like I’ve grown another head.
“You’re crying now?” he groans. “Naomi, I just told you that I have a meeting I’m late for. Please don’t do this right now.”
“I’m sorry,” I gulp, dabbing at my eyes.
“Look,” he says, “I probably should have told Teddy to leave the toy in his room, but he just wanted to bring it with him. It wasn’t a big deal that he met her. They got along well, and everyone had a good time.”
I take a deep breath, trying to get control over my emotions. It helps—a little. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“Well, yes,” he says. “Don’t you want Teddy to like her if he’s going to be spending time with her? I mean, if you ever date someone again, you’ll want to eventually introduce him to Teddy, right?”
If I ever date someone? “I just thought it was soon.”
“I disagree.”
Then he surprises me by reaching for my left hand. It’s the first time he has touched me since I moved out, and the gesture is very comforting. But then I realize that he is not attempting to hold my hand. He only grabbed it to get a closer look at the morganite ring on my fourth finger.
“Are you still wearing your wedding ring?” he gasps.
I yank my hand away from him protectively. “Why not?”
“Naomi,” he says in a low voice, “we’re getting divorced. You shouldn’t…”
Jeremy isn’t wearing his wedding band. He took it off right after he broke the news to me.
But our marriage aside, I love this ring—it’s unique and beautiful.
Even if we’re not married anymore, it would be weird not to have it on my finger anymore.
And frankly, it’s not his choice to make. It’s my finger.
“Okay, okay.” He throws up his hands. “Look, I really need to go. This client is going to skin me alive if I’m late.”
“Please, Jeremy,” I whimper. “You have to listen to me. Veronica is… She doesn’t love you. She’s just using you.”
“Naomi…”
“It’s true. You have to believe me…”
“Veronica is really great,” he says with total conviction in his voice. “She’s nice and she’s smart and she’s great with Teddy. She’s great.”
“And she’s fourteen years younger than I am.”
He ignores that last comment. “Also…look, I don’t want to get into a whole thing about it, but could you please refrain from following her around a supermarket and then threatening her?”
I gasp. I cannot believe she told him that. “I never threatened her! She threatened me!”
The skepticism is plain on his face. He believes her over me.
“I have to go,” he says. And then without another word, he pushes past me, yanks open the door to his office, and leaves me standing here all alone.
It’s very clear that as far as Jeremy is concerned, Veronica walks on water. And he believes that she feels the same way about him. There’s no way he’s going to believe her intentions are anything less than pure.
Not unless I’ve got proof.