Chapter Twenty-Six
The Talk
Ella
After putting away all the food and cleaning the dishes, I felt more like myself. There was so much that I still needed to do, but talking with my mother and the girls today has truly opened my eyes to what I wanted.
I toss the dish-drying towel down on the counter and head out of the kitchen.
“Mama, I’m going to head over to—”
She holds up her hand to stop me from talking. “You’re going to sit down, because your sons and their father are outside.”
“What?” I nervously wipe my hands down my summer dress.
“Yes. It’s time y’all talked. I called Andrew and told him to bring the boys over.”
I’m completely at a loss. For the last two days, I’ve been trying to do the same thing, and Andrew has been telling me it's too soon.
“How did you do it? I’ve been asking him for this meeting for two days.”
She smiles gently, as if I were a small child who has asked an off the wall question. “Well, that’s the problem. You asked, I didn’t.”
Just then, a soft knock alerts me that our company is here. Since I’m closer to the door, I go over and open it. AJ is in the front, followed by Cameron and then Andrew.
“You didn’t have to knock, AJ. You have a key and you live here.”
“I told him he should knock. Don’t want him to walk in on anything else,” Andrew says, causing the shame of the memory to ease down my spine.
“The boy is fifteen. He knows what happens when two grown adults come together.” Mama folds her arms across her chest.
“Grams,” Cameron shouts, running past his brother into the house to wrap his arms around his grandmother.
“How’s my baby boy?”
“Good, I’m glad you’re here. Everyone is acting weird.” He whispers the last sentence.
My mom chuckles. “How about you and I go into your room and you show me that new video game you and Jacob have been talking about. Let your brother and the adults talk.”
Mama looks directly at me when she says the words adults. I know it’s her way of reminding me of our conversation with the girls.
Cameron takes his grandma’s hand and ushers her down the hall.
It isn’t until they are out of sight that AJ and Andrew walk into the house.
Andrew looks around my home as if he’s searching for signs of Mitch on the walls.
We walked over to the living room. AJ goes to sit down on the loveseat, but Andrew grabs him and directs him to the couch.
“We can’t both sit on that love seat, and there is no way in hell I’m sitting on that couch,” Andrew says mockingly.
I roll my eyes at his theatrics. AJ sits down on the couch on the edge of the seat cushion, and I take my seat beside him.
“I’m glad you came,” I say, starting the conversation. “I just want to—”
Andrew held up a hand, cutting me off. “Actually, I think I should talk. What I have to say will fix all of this.”
I look at AJ, who looks just as confused as me, before turning back to Andrew. Dipping my chin, I give him the signal to continue.
Andrew takes a breath and scoots to the edge of his seat. “Let me start by saying some of this is my fault.”
You could have told me it was raining hundred-dollar bills and gold bricks outside, and I would’ve believed it before I would’ve believed Andrew would take accountability for anything.
“AJ, your mother and I were together for a long time, and when you’ve been with someone so long you forget to appreciate the things that made you fall in love with that person in the first place.” Those hazel eyes that had me so weak in the knees at fifteen gaze at me with adoration.
“I lost that appreciation, and instead of working to get it back, I put my energy in other places. I’d mentally checked out, leaving your mother to fix a marriage by herself.
“And when I looked back up, you boys were older and your mother had aged, and I wasn’t the same man as I was when I was younger. So I asked for a divorce. I broke our home.”
Once again I’m shocked by the accountability Andrew is taking in his involvement in our marriage dissolving.
Those first six months after his announcement, I prayed to hear this speech.
I hoped he would come back to his senses.
This was the man I fell in love with when I was younger.
The one not afraid to admit when he was wrong. The man who was kind and compassionate.
He continues. “Because of my actions, your mother was left vulnerable. She allowed her fear of loneliness and need for companionship to push her into the hands of a man who was a predator.”
I knew it was too good to be true. My hackles immediately go up. What the hell is he saying?
Andrew looks down in his lap before gazing back up to us.
“I knew my best friend was like this. I’d watched him for years find the most vulnerable women at the bar or club and lure them to his bed.
It’s a game for single men. However, I never thought he would’ve done it to my wife. But you live and you learn.”
There was no way in hell I was going to sit here and let him paint Mitch to be some creepy dude who used and abused desperate women.
“Andrew. Mitch isn’t—”
Once again that hand comes up to cut me off. “It’s okay, Ella. I don’t blame you for falling for it. It’s why I have the solution to our problem.” He pauses as if he’s about to make a big announcement. “AJ, your mom and I are getting back together.”
When I say my flabbers were gasted. You could knock me over with a feather. Never in all my years would I have thought this would come out of his mouth.
“Wait, you are?” AJ asks, confused.
“Yes.”
“Hell no.”
Andrew’s head swings in my direction so quickly I know his neck hurts.
“This is the best solution. We can sell your house and move into the condo until we can find a bigger place. I already have Jessica looking for something for us.”
“What about Ms. Kiely?” AJ asks.
Andrew glances down at his watch and fiddles with the band. “Kiely and I are ummm...over. We broke up a few weeks ago.”
At this, I laughed. I spent my morning laughing and kicking it with my girls, but I swear nothing has made me laugh as hard as I’m laughing right now.
You would think Andrew was a stand-up comedian.
I laughed so hard that I grabbed my sides.
When I finally stop, I have to wipe the tears from my eyes.
“Let me get this straight. Kiely left you, and now you think you can just come back to me.”
“Kiely didn’t leave me,” Andrew shouts his face turning red. “I put her out.”
I cock my head to the side and stare at him. This man acts as if I don’t know him. Twenty-three years will teach you a lot about a person. It will teach you to know when he’s lying, nervous, and when he’s embarrassed. All of which he’s showing signs of right now.
“I was wondering why the last few times I saw you, you looked disheveled. Now it all makes sense.”
“It doesn’t matter what happened between me and Kiely. This is about you and me getting back together. You begged me to stay with you when I asked for the divorce.”
“Yes, because I was stupid and didn’t know the gift you were giving me.” I scoff. “You were right.” I let those words sit for a moment as realization dawns on me.
“For the first time since that divorce, I finally saw what you saw. You were miserable, Andrew.” He nods his head in agreement, a smirk slipping onto his lips. “But so was I.” That smirk immediately falls.
“You thought you were the only one suffering in our marriage?
You thought you were the only one just getting by?
I was drowning in that loveless, stationary marriage.
And it took you disrespecting me in front of my family and friends and leaving us like we were trash for me to finally come to the realization of how miserable I was.
“But I have to thank you. I really do, because you leaving me forced me to come to reality and see that I had lost myself. I’d given so much love, time, and energy to you and the boys that I had nothing left for myself.
In the past year, I’ve found my voice again.
I found my confidence, my freedom. I’ve built my own community of friends who love and nurture me.
I found my passion for life and baking, and I was reminded of the woman who had dreams. Dreams she put aside for everyone else. ”
I take a moment to take in my own words. Yes, the divorce broke me. I don’t think I’d ever felt that low in my life, but thank God for it. Because it gave me the strength to rebuild and to come back stronger. It reminded me of the woman I forgot was buried inside me.
Placing my attention back on Andrew, I say with my full chest. “I don’t want you. Even if there were no Mitch, I still wouldn’t want you. I love myself entirely too much to go back to you.”
“I know that’s right, Baby!” my mom shouts from the hallway, letting me know she overheard the entire exchange.
Andrew leaps to his feet. His face is beet-red. “So that’s it, you’re going to run back to Mitch even though you were my ex-wife? Even though our son doesn’t want this and—”
I hold up a hand, cutting off his tangent just like he was doing me. I meant it to be as disrespectful as it had felt to me.
Turning to my son, I give him my full attention.
“AJ, I love you with all my heart. You are my baby boy, and I will do everything I can to protect you. But you are my child. I’m not yours.
You don’t get to dictate my life. I understand this is a lot of change for you.
First your dad and I getting a divorce, and then him being engaged. And now me and Mitch.
“It’s not the most ideal situation, but I love Mitchell. I love him on a level that I never thought I’d experience.” Grabbing my son’s hand in mine, I squeeze for assurance.