3. Jessica
Jessica
Jessica opened the back door, where Chase sat politely on the seat.
She took the leash and moved her body so he could pass, careful to keep herself out of the way.
But he barreled past anyway, brushing hair all over her gray slacks she was wearing to play at the wedding that night.
She normally would have changed after a drop-off, but the early rehearsal meant she had to adjust her prepping plans.
“Let’s go.”
Chase hopped down onto the parking lot, where he bounced around in a circle, waiting for their next move.
All very un-Chase-like.
Jessica began the dreaded walk down the sidewalk and up to apartment 3C on the ground floor. She knocked on the door, just as she had knocked on a different door earlier that afternoon. Except the conversation she was about to have on the other side of this wouldn’t be nearly as pleasant.
Jessica couldn’t believe she was characterizing her conversation with a private investigator as pleasant, but it was.
She’d been a mess of nerves when she got there, but sitting down to have a chat with Renee had been relatively painless.
Although she was pretty sure her warm feelings had more to do with the appearance of the woman than the subject matter.
Renee had been nothing like what Jessica had expected.
She figured by the name that the person she was hiring would be a woman, but she hadn’t planned on seeing such a gorgeous woman on the other side of that door.
Her curly red bob was almost as striking as her bright green eyes, and her toned arms were on display in that tight, light gray T-shirt.
She was very businesslike, but her jeans and shirt gave off a more casual vibe.
The door in front of her opened, bringing Jessica back to the present and the disappointment of her current situation.
“You’re late. Again.”
Well, hello to you, too.
Claire stood before her, hand against the door, still wearing her business casual attire from her job at the insurance office.
Jessica couldn’t help noticing that her short blonde hair was styled slightly differently than she was used to seeing, and she wondered whose idea it was to change it.
Claire had always been so resistant to change.
Until she wanted a change out of their marriage.
“Sorry, I was practicing for tonight, and I didn’t realize how long it was taking me, and—”
“It’s fine,” Claire said, though the word showed that it was anything but fine. “You look… nice.”
Jessica reflexively touched the end of her hair draped over her shoulder and looked down at her outfit. “Thanks?”
She was never really certain what was a compliment or not coming from Claire.
Her stomach was in a knot. A knot of neediness and regret.
No matter how badly things had gone between them in the end, they’d still spent six years of their lives together.
Six years of tender conversations and affection.
Jessica hadn’t anticipated how much she’d miss Claire’s touch.
Even though her words were sharp these days, her hands had always been so soft and comforting.
“Sorry, it’s been a long day,” Claire said. “You look genuinely… well today.”
Jessica didn’t know if she felt well at all. Her conversation with Renee had put her at ease a bit, like there was some hope of sorting out this situation. But she was still worried about Chase. And no matter how much Jessica missed her, this woman in front of her was the cause of that worry.
“You, too,” Jessica said. And she meant it. Claire looked tense, but there was a lightness in her eyes that Jessica hadn’t seen for a very long time. She had to assume it was because of her new girlfriend. Or her not-so-new one, as Jessica suspected.
Claire held out her hand, palm up. “Same drill?”
With a small nod and a large dose of dread, Jessica handed over the leash and looked down at Chase’s sad face while he sat beside her.
“He needs dinner,” she said. “And a walk. He was in the house a lot today.”
Claire looked down at Chase as he walked over to stand beside her, just inside the doorway. Then she looked up at Jessica, her gaze a little softer now. “Thanks for bringing him. I missed him last night.”
There was a wobbliness to her words that Jessica could very much relate to.
They split their time pretty evenly during the week, but they alternated weekends with him.
Every Saturday and Sunday that he wasn’t with her left a hole in Jessica’s heart that no amount of double chocolate cookies could fill.
Along with that wobbliness was a truth. Claire wasn’t a good actress. It’s how Jessica had known something was wrong a very long time before Claire decided to move out. So if she was saying she missed him, the honesty in her eyes confirmed the truth.
Whatever was or wasn’t going on here, Jessica had to believe that Claire still loved their dog.
It was just a matter of how well she was doing the job of caring for him.
It was clear she wasn’t doing anything malicious, like mistreating him to get back at Jessica for some unknown slight.
But maybe she was so distracted by her new girlfriend that Chase’s care was slipping through the cracks.
“I’ll miss him too this weekend,” she said.
“I’ll have him ready to go tomorrow night. I can drop him off at the apartment.”
The apartment. Never your place. Because it was still their apartment. At least until the lease was up. By then the divorce would be final, too.
She felt sweat building beneath her dark blue blouse that was about to be polka-dotted with dampness for this wedding. “I’d better get going.” She bent down to scratch Chase’s head and look into his eyes while she fought back tears in her own. “I’ll see you soon, buddy.”
As she stood, she caught Claire’s gaze and wondered what she was seeing there. Compassion? Regret?
No. Those couldn’t be right.
Jessica gave an awkward wave and turned to walk toward her car. As the door behind her closed, she heard Chase barking. Well, more yelping and howling.
Yeah. Something was definitely wrong. No matter how much she believed Claire actually cared about their dog, Jessica was confident she’d done the right thing in hiring Renee that afternoon.