Must Love Cats by Brown Tara

Author:Brown, Tara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tara Brown
Published: 2020-12-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

March 28

Downtown Halifax

I leave the apartment building to walk to the store with my mask on and hand sanitizer at the ready. A man in a mask waits outside in the courtyard.

“Hey, Lilly!” he shouts and jogs over to me.

“Brent?” I ask.

“Yeah, you probably didn’t recognize me with the mask. So crazy we all wear these now.” We move like we might hug or something but the Covid and the social distancing stops us. The news has worsened over the last ten days.

“How’s it with the lawyers? You haven’t texted in a few days. I thought maybe you were taking some time.” I offer him my foot to shake awkwardly which brings us both more joy than it should.

“It’s all right, ya know. Our legal separation has been sent to her. Now that she realizes she’s getting next to nothing out of me financially, she is hitting with low blows. Had no trouble confessing they were having an affair for fifteen years, and she fucked him on our wedding night. I can’t even fathom that.” He stares at me, exhausted and older than I’ve seen him look. “They were having an affair at our weddings. Like who does that?”

“I don’t know,” I say but the news stabs me in the heart. The whole fifteen years? “Why marry us if they were carrying on?”

“I don’t know.” He walks over to the concrete bench in the courtyard and sits. I stay standing, preferring the distance between us for health safety. “So many things are clicking in though. I’ve caught them both in lies. He would say something offhand about being with me as an alibi, and I wouldn’t know what the hell he was talking about. I would just back him up, ya know? Bros before hos. Like in college.” He offers a sorrowful grimace. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” And it’s not the first time I’ve heard that saying.

“He was using me as a fucking alibi while it was my wife he was with. That piece of shit.” He runs his hand through his thick dark hair. “She’s living in your house—Elaine is. I had to send the separation papers there. Thought it was a joke when I saw the address for her, but I guess not.”

“Really?” I can’t believe they didn’t even wait two weeks before moving in together.

“Yeah, I drove past there last night. They were at the dinner table, eating and laughing and I wanted to—” He pauses and smirks. “I shouldn’t say what I was thinking.”

“Brent, I’m terribly sorry this happened. But they don’t deserve one more minute of our time. The only thing they deserve is each other. Eventually, they’ll have an affair on each other. It’s who they are. They’re terrible people who lie and sneak and thrive off the excitement,” I say all the things Shawnee and Liz have been saying to me. “And this will bore them. And when it does, they’ll stray. And break each other’s hearts.”

He lifts his stare to mine. “You’re right.” He takes a deep breath of the frigid spring air.

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