Chapter 24
About two hours later, there’s a knock at my door.
I run to answer in my bare feet, and Ezra is standing at my door, his giant briefcase in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other. “Got dinner.”
“Thank you so much.”
Ezra steps into the apartment, looking around with approval. “Nice place.”
“Thanks. It belonged to my dead mother-in-law.”
He cocks his head to the side. “So is she haunting you or…”
“Probably. She told Jeremy that he shouldn’t marry me. That he was making a mistake.”
“Wow. Nice.”
He sets the takeout bag on my coffee table, then lays his gigantic briefcase down on the floor. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Haven’t eaten all day. Mind if we eat before we get to work?”
“Sure,” I say. “I’ll get you something to drink. I’ve got water and juice boxes.”
He laughs. “What kind of juice boxes?”
“Fruit punch.” I pause. “And I’ve also got homemade kombucha.”
“Kombucha?” he repeats. “What’s that?”
“It’s sweetened black tea that’s been fermented,” I say. When he gives me a funny look, I add, “It’s got loads of health benefits.”
“Uh, maybe another time,” he says. “Actually, water would be great.”
We end up eating our meals while sitting on my sofa.
I ordered a Golden Buddha bowl with extra beets, and Ezra got a teriyaki bowl.
Ezra demolishes the whole thing in about five minutes while I take measured bites.
Ladylike bites, as my mother would call them.
By the end of our meal, Ezra is full of energy and excited to get to work.
“Your ex is playing dirty,” he says. “He tricked you into moving out, because he knew that would put him in a better position to get custody. He cleaned out your bank accounts and then pretended he didn’t do it.
He even put retainers on all the best lawyers in town so you couldn’t use them.
” He buffs his fingers on his shirt. “Unfortunately for him, he didn’t know about me. ”
“Ezra.” I take a deep breath. “I just want to say that I appreciate everything you’re doing for me. Honestly, this process is so scary, and you seem so confident that it makes me feel better.”
“Well, like I said, I’ve been through it many times before.”
I cast a glance down at my half-eaten Buddha bowl, deciding if I want another bite. “Was your own divorce really ugly too?”
“Uh…”
My face flushes. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that. Much too personal.”
“No, it’s fine.” He looks down at his empty bowl, as if he’s still hungry for more. I consider offering my own meal, but that might be too familiar. “My divorce was…it was fine. It was pretty mutual, and there were no kids involved, so it was about as easy as it gets.”
I can’t help but be curious about what sort of woman he was married to. “What was your ex like?”
“Well, you met her.”
“I did?”
He nods. “Stefanie is the one who sent you my way.”
He was married to Stefanie Gorman? Wow, I did not see that one coming.
But actually, it makes sense. Both of them are lawyers—really good lawyers.
And it doesn’t seem like their breakup was that acrimonious, considering what she said about him.
And I remember how pleased he was when I mentioned how she recommended him.
“I wanted kids, and she didn’t,” he says.
“We knew it going into the marriage, but I thought I could change her mind, and she thought she could change mine. But we were both too damn stubborn.” He scratches the stubble on his chin.
“The ironic part is that it’s five years later, and she’s remarried and I’m not.
So obviously, things didn’t work out that great for me. ”
“Do you wish you had stayed with her?”
He leans heavily against the sofa, and a little bit of dust plumes out, but he doesn’t seem to notice or care. “I don’t know. I miss her, but she found somebody who wants the same things that she does, and that’s probably better. She’s happy at least.”
“Are you happy?”
He looks up sharply at the question. “What?”
“Sorry,” I say quickly. “I just… We were talking, and somehow I just sort of forgot you were my lawyer. It felt like, you know, a conversation.”
His lips twitch. “It did sort of feel like a conversation.”
“But obviously, you don’t have to answer that.”
“Hey, no…I mean, I think we’ve eaten enough organic food tonight that we can be honest with each other.
” He taps his empty bowl pointedly. “I’m happy.
Like Stefanie, I find my work very fulfilling.
It’s my life. But I guess I was kind of hoping that by my age, my work wouldn’t be my entire life, you know? ”
“Yeah,” I say, “I know what you mean. Before Teddy came along and Jeremy and I got married, my work was my entire life. And I loved it, but I always thought there was something more out there. When I finally found it, it was just so amazing. I finally felt complete.” I take a shaky breath.
“And now, just like that, it’s all gone. ”
“Whoa, don’t say that.” He shakes his head. “You’ve still got Teddy. I am not going to let that asshole take him away from you. And divorce is not the end of your life—I promise. Okay, maybe I’m not a shining example, but look how happy Stef is.”
I don’t want to tell him that I’m sure he’ll get there too, because that would sound patronizing. But it’s clear in the short time that I’ve known him that he’s a good guy, if a little eccentric. Eventually, he’ll find the right woman, and whoever it is will be lucky to have him.
“Anyway,” he says, “let’s get to work.”