Summerlong by Bakopoulos Dean

Author:Bakopoulos, Dean [Bakopoulos, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-05-11T23:00:00+00:00

8.

Perhaps the most profound crack in a shattering marriage is how often one spouse ignores the calls of another spouse. That Saturday, as he works on the stack of neglected paperwork—tax documents, state regulation forms, MLS listings—Don Lowry ignores three calls from his wife as well as two text messages that say Hello???!!!????

Why does he do this?

One explanation, which is the one he gives himself, is that he is simply busy—no, not simply busy, but awfully busy, and whatever dramatic thought has popped up in Claire’s head, whatever possible misdeed or trespass she is so eager to talk about, would simply distract him from what he’s really trying to do: get shit done. Since his friendship with ABC began, along with its attendant recreational weed smoking, he’s been about as productive as a pill-popping starlet at the Chateau Marmont, at a time when he needs nothing more than to work and work hard.

It’s time to get shit done.

Another possible and perhaps more plausible explanation for his refusal to answer his phone, or even listen to the message she left on her third call, is harder to admit. He is hoping ABC will call. She had mentioned to him something about a day off, and how she usually spent Saturdays getting stoned and wandering around Rock Creek State Park or some other outpost, and she wondered if he wanted to come along.

He is working on an Excel file that is itemizing his expenses for the year, so that he might somehow estimate the quarterly taxes he will certainly not be able to pay, when his phone rings again.

This time, he answers, because it is not Claire. It is exactly whom he wanted it to be.

“Yo,” ABC says.

“Yo,” Don says back, though he probably hasn’t said yo in decades.

“I was hanging out with Charlie,” ABC says. “But he ditched me. Come by the pool and hang out.”

Don Lowry’s heart floats up to the drop ceiling and explodes in the fluorescent light. Pieces of his heart fall down on his head when he says, “Sure. Cool.”

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