Chapter 30
As I drive Teddy home from his karate lesson, he munches happily on a chocolate chip cookie in the back seat. The crumbs are getting all over his white uniform and the back of my car, but it’s fine. The cookie is making him happy, and since I’m the one who gave it to him, I consider it a win.
The elephant incident seems long forgotten. At least by Teddy.
“So, Teddy,” I say, “what would you like to do for your birthday?”
Teddy will be turning six in another week, and with all the divorce mediation drama, his birthday seems to have fallen by the wayside a little bit. But we’ve still got a week left. We can make it special.
But then he surprises me by saying, “Daddy and Ronnie are making me a party.”
“Oh?” I nearly sail right through a red light and only manage to slam my foot on the brake at the last second. “They are?”
“Yeah. They said six is a really special birthday, so we need to have a big party.”
“Did they?” My stomach churns at the idea of Teddy planning a birthday party with Jeremy and his mistress. Like they’re some kind of family unit. “How nice.”
“And Ronnie said she’s getting me an extra special present because my elephant got wrecked.”
Great. “And when is this party?”
“It’s Sunday morning.”
Fabulous. “And who’s coming?”
“My whole class!”
So everybody in Teddy’s class will be showing up for this party to schmooze with Jeremy and Veronica while I am left out in the cold. Like I don’t even exist. Like I’m not Teddy’s mother.
“Are you coming, Mommy?” Teddy asks.
“Well,” I say carefully, “Daddy didn’t invite me.”
“He said that you wouldn’t want to come.”
I crane my neck to look back at him, and his face is screwed up.
“But you want to come to my party, right, Mommy?”
“I absolutely do.”
The idea of missing my son’s sixth birthday party makes my heart hurt. But at the same time, a morning spent with Jeremy and Veronica getting handsy together and acting “so in love,” as Veronica would say…well, that makes my stomach hurt.
Either way, the fact of the matter is that Jeremy didn’t invite me. He doesn’t want me at this party.
“I do want to come to the party,” I say, “but Daddy didn’t invite me.”
“I’ll tell him to invite you! It’s my party, so I get to invite whoever I want, right?”
“That’s very true.”
As much as I don’t want to spend the morning with Jeremy and Veronica, I don’t want to miss out on Teddy’s birthday party. I will suck it up and go to the party. Maybe it won’t be so bad.