3. She Took a Call
She Took a Call
Gwen
Boiling water pooled on the countertop.
I lowered tired eyes to the kettle in my hand, watching it tip down, the water gushing into the mug and spilling over the sides like a waterfall. I did nothing to stop it. The world sped ahead in front of me, but my thoughts were choked in a thick black fog at the starting line.
Where’s Toby?
“Gwen! Shit!” Marnie’s hip bumped me out of the way, and she pried the kettle from my fingers. “I’ll make the tea. You sit down, okay? I’ve got this.”
I nodded, but my grip stayed firmly clutched around the handle. Marnie’s words blurred with the endless flicker of remembering Kayleigh’s lips on Toby’s cheek.
More than twenty people had liked that photo. Friends—well, not anymore—and people who worked with Toby. I looked like a blind, gullible fool, and everyone knew. Everyone .
A message from a mum in our local parents’ group was time-stamped before Marnie had even told me about the photos.
Eden Rawles
We’re here for you. Reach out if you need us.
She was only trying to help, but humiliation knotted tight in my stomach.
I didn’t want anyone’s sympathy. I’d held my own in a courtroom, staring down mobsters and ignoring death threats hidden behind thinly veiled smiles.
Life couldn’t knock me down. I was strong.
Toby was the only person I’d ever trusted enough to let the defensive walls crumble for even a peek at the imperfect version of me. He’d be the last.
Marnie’s hip bumped me again. “Living room. Now.” She hissed a curse when she spotted the water pooled on the wood and snatched a tea towel to mop up the mess I’d made. “Go, go, go!”
I shuffled to the living room, unhooked the baby monitor from my waistband, and flopped on the couch. The pillows I’d painstakingly chosen to match the modern farmhouse aesthetic I’d seen on too many social media pages only annoyed me. Nothing felt cozy. Everything itched. Even my brain itched.
Who had I pissed off in a past life for my day to turn into this train wreck?
I’d started my morning dreaming of a fancy cappuccino.
That was all. My dreams had gotten simpler since I’d become a stay-at-home mum.
But had I bundled Noah up in his stroller to treat myself to a coffee from the café down the road?
No. I’d stayed home and pureed another batch of peas and carrots for his lunch.
And when I’d snuck a look at my phone and seen the headline about my brother being awarded another banking accolade, I hadn’t let the stab of emptiness stop me from finishing the laundry piled on the nursery floor. I’d kept right on folding.
Surely that maturity had earned me enough brownie points on the universal shit-o-meter to at least have spared me the car accident?
Apparently not.
Marnie darted into the living room, nervous energy sparking off her like a frayed electrical cord. The mugs clutched in her hands wobbled when she slid them onto the coffee table. Tea sloshed over the edges and dripped on the wood.
Flustered, she grabbed the hem of her skirt and swiped away the mess. “Drink up. You’ll feel better.” She nudged the mug closer.
“The world’s problems can’t always be solved by drinking tea, Mar.”
“I think a few probably can.”
“It won’t delete that photo.”
“No, it won’t… But… We could be reading too much into it. Maybe it’s just a dumb photo.”
The look I tossed her was dubious. She’d said that on the drive home, too.
And, yes, on its own, the photo wouldn’t mean much to someone else, but it was hard to switch off the doubt clawing at my chest. In my old line of work, we’d call a photo like that circumstantial evidence.
Pieced together with how much time Toby and Kayleigh spent together, the only logical conclusion was that the doe-eyed sex kitten in the green dress was a lot more than just a dental assistant at his work.
“Gwen, I can hear your mind grinding from over here.” Marnie’s foot tapped against my shin to snap me out of my spiral. “I’m sure there’s a simple explanation.”
There sure was. “Toby hasn’t come home.”
“Yeah…”
“Or called.”
Marnie slumped into the mountain of pillows on the couch. She couldn’t argue with the facts. “But this is Toby we’re talking about. He’s gaga for you. This is the man who trained for having a newborn by carrying a bag of potatoes in a baby sling while he stacked the dishwasher.”
It was impossible to stop my lips from curving up. Marnie had only seen the end result. Toby had tested a lot of other stuffings in his sling before he’d decided the potatoes had the “right amount of wriggle” when he’d moved around. He was an absolute dork.
Marnie continued trying to convince me I was overthinking by saying, “And what about all the mornings he made you a bagel for your drive to work?”
“He hasn’t bothered cooking breakfast since Noah was born.”
“Okay…well… What about when he braved a storm to get you ice cream?”
I couldn’t bat that one away so easily. I’d been curled up in a ball of misery on day two of my period, and my knight in shining armor hadn’t even blinked before hopping in the car to make a dash for the convenience store.
“Gwen, I know this looks bad, but…it’s Toby .”
“I know. But…what if…?” My sigh was so heavy that my chest caved in, and my shoulders slumped forward. Her trip down memory lane should’ve made me nostalgic and gooey, but my stomach churned like I’d skulled last week’s milk. “His parents weren’t happy, Mar.”
“You think Toby’s going to drag you through twenty years of shoving other women in your face? No way, Gwen. No way .”
“People change.”
I’d changed, too. Not into a woman like his mother, who’d blindly turned her cheek and ignored what was happening in her own bed, but someone I didn’t quite recognize yet.
What if Toby didn’t like the new me? I wasn’t the neglected nerd he’d fallen for at sixteen or even the woman on the cusp of becoming an accomplished lawyer he’d married at twenty-two.
My career was in the toilet. Our sex life had gurgled down into the sewers with it.
I loved being a mum and was trying my best to do everything perfectly, but I was learning on the fly, with only examples of the worst possible ways of raising children stored in my memories.
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if I liked the new me yet, either.
Marnie’s foot tapped against my shin again. “Everything’s going to be okay,” she added. “You’ll see.”
My eyes narrowed. I wasn’t buying this Ms. Marnie Positivity crap for another second. Where was the passion and the bawling I was used to? “Why are you acting so…”
“Calm?”
“Weird.”
“Can’t you see I’m channeling my inner Gwen?” Marnie closed her eyes and clasped her hands in front of her chest. “Gwen is patient. She collects all the evidence before she acts. She does sensible things like paying her insurance on time. She does yoga .”
I arched an eyebrow.
“Gwen…is…zen.” Marnie hummed a soft “Om,” but a laugh bubbled over the top. “Namaste.”
“Enough. You’re freaking me out. I prefer your rage tears and ranting compared to whatever”—I waved a hand about in the space between us—“this is.”
“You want me to go full Marnie on your husband’s ass?
Happy to, babe. Say the word, and I’ll get my wire cutter and hack his balls right off.
” She cackled, but I wasn’t sure she was joking anymore.
“And then you can use your super sleuthing skills to figure out where the hussy lives. After I’m done with him, I’ll toss in a freebie.
Her face will be a Picasso by the time I’m finished. ”
I laughed. “Now, that’s more like—”
A buzz rattled the coffee table.
My heart racing, I launched off the couch, and with a trembling hand, I grabbed my phone. The name flashing on the screen wasn’t the one I expected, but I accepted the call.
“Hey, Ian,” I said.
“Gwenny, thank God.” The worried edge to Ian’s voice caught me off guard. “I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. Is it too late now? God, it is, isn’t it? Please tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. The car’s a write-off, though.”
“Jesus… Gwen… When I heard…” A muttered curse. “What about the little guy?”
“Noah’s safe and sound in bed.”
“Little trooper. He’s tough, just like his mama.”
I picked up my mug and sank back on the couch. “Did you see Toby tonight?”
“Uh…”
“At the party you guys went to?”
“I, um…” Ian cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
The cup of tea hovering at my lips, I cocked my head, listening closer. His tone had shifted. Not from worry, but…something else. “When’s the last time you saw Toby?”
“Oh, uh… Just now.” Ian’s laugh was strained. “He’s…you know…here.”
“At your place?”
“He’s… Yeah… At my place.”
Bullcrap . Teenagers caught with a bag of pot lied more convincingly than this pathetic attempt. “Toby’s phone’s going straight to voicemail. Can you put him on so I can talk to him?” Here’s betting the answer’s no…
“I would, but… He’s out cold. He drank a few too many tonight and needs to sleep it off.” Another awkward laugh echoed. “You know Tobes.”
I huffed an incredulous laugh, muttered, “I sure do,” and casually sipped my tea like I wasn’t listening to the biggest pile of crap I’d ever heard.
When Toby had “too many,” he trotted out the jokes or—to the horror of anyone within hugging distance—declared how much he loved them.
More energy, never less. He was the life of the party.
“But as soon as I see— shit .” Ian sighed. “I mean, as soon as he wakes up… I’ll tell him to call you.”
“I’m sure you will.”
Ian heaved another sigh. “Gwen… I… I’m glad you and the little guy are okay.”
“I appreciate the call.” Lying bastard . “Don’t forget to tell Toby, okay?”
“Yeah… Night.”
Shaking my head, almost laughing, I hung up.
Marnie’s eyebrows lifted.
I fixed a blank stare on the family photos under the TV, the mug steady in my hand, every slow sip masking the rage simmering in my veins.
“So, uh…” Marnie cleared her throat. “Toby’s at Ian’s place?”
“Nope.”
“You think he’s covering?”
“One hundred percent.”
And why?
When I lined up the facts, what was the logical conclusion?
Toby had stayed at the party after his best friend had left. He was alone with Kayleigh.
The only question now was what I planned to do about it.