Chapter 5
Harding~
I wasn’t sure if I was a glutton for punishment or what, but instead of ignoring social media, I’d made the grave mistake of checking one of Paige’s accounts to gauge how bad the damage was, and she must have stayed up all night to post as many Bible quotes and inspirational memes as she’d had. She still hadn’t mentioned specifics, but you didn’t have to be a genius to read between the social media lines. It was obvious to anyone that could read that I had betrayed my wife.
Nonetheless, nothing was making sense. At the same time that Paige was posting all these memes on social media, she had also sent me texts about repairing our marriage, and I didn’t understand how she thought that airing our private business on the internet was going to improve the situation. By making all those posts, she was inviting people to comment on something that was already hard enough. Yeah, I was aware of how she craved attention, but this was not the way that I would have chosen to navigate this thing between us.
At any rate, I was still game to have dinner with my parents and Jeremy, so maybe we could come up with a plan together. However, before I could give it any more thought, my phone began to ring, and I was surprised to see that it was my boss. Normally, we were off on the weekends, and Carter Electric was very big on not violating any union agreements. Still, I answered it because it had to be important for Brett to be calling me.
“Hey, Brett,” I greeted as soon as I answered the phone. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Harding,” he replied hesitantly. “Uhm…I’m calling because…well, man I really don’t know how to say this.”
The hairs on the back of my neck immediately stood up. “Just say it.”
“I got a call from your wife a few minutes ago, and she…dude, she just…just started rambling on about things that are none of my business,” he said, making my stomach turn upside down.
“What?”
“She…she started going off about how you’re cheating on her, and then asked me how I felt about a dishonest man with no integrity working for me,” he went on, and I just closed my eyes in disbelief. “She said that you were messing with…honestly, her choice of wording doesn’t bear repeating, but…but it sounded like she was hoping that I was going to fire you.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered embarrassingly. “I’m so sorry, Brett.”
“I’m also not the only one that she called,” he said, causing my lungs to actually freeze up a bit. “She’s been calling a lot of the guys, including Henry.”
“Fuck,” I hissed, running my free hand through my hair. “Are you serious?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t been getting some texts or calls from the guys,” he replied, ignoring my rhetorical question.
“They’re probably feeling too embarrassed for me,” I grumbled, truly embarrassed.
“Probably,” he agreed, this conversation one that shouldn’t be happening. “Look, you’re not going to be fired, but I suggest that you get this shit under control, Harding. While Henry Carter appreciates your talents and experience, I seriously doubt that he’s down for being harassed by a jilted wife.”
“No, no…yeah,” I rushed out. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Good.” After a moment of silence, he added. “I’m really sorry, Harding.”
“Yeah, so am I,” I muttered before hanging up.
I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Paige would do something so…so unreal. What would getting me fired accomplish? As of right now, we still needed to split the household bills since there was no plan in place yet, so why would she want to jeopardize my income? What would such a thing accomplish?
Before I could even begin to figure it out, my phone chimed with an incoming text, and when I swiped the screen, my stomach dipped again.
Frances: Dude…not sure what’s going on, but ur wife called 2 tell me that ur cheating on her
My fingers shook slightly as I fired off a quick text.
Me: Sorry about that. Just ignore it. I’ll take care of it.
Frances: No problem
Frances was my goddamn barber, and while his number wasn’t exactly a private one, there was only one way that Paige could have gotten all these phone numbers. Her name was on our cellphone account as an authorized user, so it’d be easy enough for her to call and get a list of my contacts with any number of lies that she could concoct. That being said, I was going to have to get a new phone number, but I wasn’t sure if that would limit the damage that she could do in the meantime.
Thinking back on my first marriage, I couldn’t believe how grateful I felt that our divorce had been a fairly civil one. I’d met Leslie in high school, and we’d both been all in as only teenagers could be. We had vowed to be each other’s forever, but life quickly swooped in, stealing that dream away from the both of us. At thirty-two, with twelve years of marriage and one child under our belts, we had pulled the plug on our dreams of forever, but it’d been mutual. Our respect for one another and our love for our children had kept things civil. Yeah, I’d been heartbroken, and it’d been hard to see Leslie move on with Carlson, but things hadn’t become ugly, and I’d been proud of that.
However, now was a different story.
Just then, my phone rang, and as soon as I saw Jeremy’s name pop up, I answered it. “Hey.”
“Fuck waiting for dinner,” he said in lieu of a greeting. “Paige just sent out a massive family group text.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope,” he bit out. “I’ll send it to you now.”
Two seconds later, I was staring at my phone in complete awe.
Bro: Paige: Harding is cheating on me with sum whore from work. Just thought that u all should know what kind of man you raised.
I put the phone back up to my ear, this Pandora’s Box busted wide open. “Jesus Christ.”
“What the fuck, Harding?” Jeremy hissed. “What is wrong with that fucking woman?”
As my big brother, I knew where this was coming from, but I also needed to remind him that Paige hadn’t done anything wrong. Yeah, she was crossing some lines right now, but she wouldn’t be doing any of this if it hadn’t been for what I’d done to her.
“She’s hurt,” I reminded him. “Now, while she shouldn’t be lashing out at everyone else, she’s hurt and trying to deal with her pain in whichever way can help her, Jer.”
“By turning this thing into a fucking circus?” he squawked. “Whether right or wrong, your family doesn’t want to hear someone talking shit about you, Harding.”
“She’s not talking shit about me,” I pointed out. “She’s telling you guys what I did to her.”
My brother let out a heavy sigh. “Look, I get that you’re trying to take responsibility for what you got yourself into, but that doesn’t give her free reign to begin harassing everyone.”
“No, I know,” I assured him. “I’ll talk to her. I’ll…I’ll try to calm her down.”
Another beat of silence before he said, “The only reason I’m standing down is because she didn’t include any of the kids in the text, but you’re going to need to speak with Brendan and Leslie now.”
“Yeah, I know,” I sighed, still wondering how it’d gotten to this stage so quickly.
“I’ll see you tonight,” he said evenly right before he hung up, leaving me to work on damage control.
After a few moments of absolute nothingness, I picked up the phone, then dialed my ex-wife. I needed to speak to her before speaking with our son, and all I could do was pray that she had some substantial advice that could actually help.
“Hey, Harding,” she greeted after the third ring.
“Hey, Les,” I sighed.
“If you’re calling me to warn me about Paige, then you’re too late,” she said, and of course I was. “She sent me a text late last night, wanting to know if I was up to having lunch with her.”
“What did you say?”
“C’mon, Harding,” she whispered quietly. “I’m always going to do what’s best for Brendan and Raylee, and that does not include badmouthing you. Besides, I stopped caring for her back when she mentioned how I could have named Brendan something less common.”
Yeah, I’d forgotten about that.