The Wednesday Group by Sylvia True

Author:Sylvia True
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466850040
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Lizzy

Lizzy gets back on the highway. She’s not settling. She doesn’t have to stay with Greg. She makes enough money—just—to live on her own. Her life would be full without him. It’s not as if she needs a man. She happens to like Greg. Love him, actually. Really, she does. She wouldn’t stay if she didn’t. Right? Of course not. The question is, does he love her?

By the time she pulls into her driveway and gets out of the car, she fully intends to wake Greg and get an answer.

In the bedroom, she switches on the overhead light. Greg groans, pulls the comforter over his head, and turns toward the wall.

Lizzy sits on her side of the bed. “Can we talk?” she asks.

He rolls on his back and covers his eyes with his forearm. “What’s up?” He sounds resigned, as if he’s doing her some huge favor.

“Why do you stay with me?”

“Aw, Liz. Not now.”

“It’s important to me,” she says.

He exhales. “You always come back from your group like this. Get some sleep; we can talk tomorrow.”

Blue veins streak the underside of his arm. “I always come back like what?”

“Like … wound sort of tight.”

“You’re right, I do. Isn’t that the point of the groups? To listen to others? To learn? Isn’t that why you go to yours?”

He yawns. “Yeah. I learn. I like to listen. But I don’t leave with questions.”

“Why not? I mean, I would think when you listen to other people and what’s going on in their relationships, it would bring up questions about ours.”

“Well, it doesn’t,” he tells her, irritated.

“I don’t get that.”

“Look, Liz, we’re different. That’s all. I get different things from my groups.” He rubs his eyes. “Can we talk about this some other time?”

“I just have one question,” she says.

“Fine. One.”

“Why do you stay with me?” She tosses her earrings from one hand to the other. He’s right, she’s tense, very tense, and he could make it better. All he’d have to do is reach over, touch her, tell her he stays because he loves her.

“We work well together.” His voice is weary.

“What does that mean exactly?” she asks.

He moves his arm away from his face and slaps the mattress. “Liz, come on. It’s past midnight. I answered your one question.”

“Just tell me what it means. That we work well together.”

“We enjoy each other’s company.”

“Like you’re enjoying mine now?”

He sighs. “Look, we go out to dinner and have fun sometimes. That’s all I’m saying. Now can I please go to sleep?”

The hook snaps off her earring and little black beads race along the floor. It’s a cheap piece of jewelry, easily replaceable, yet she begins to cry. Greg doesn’t seem to notice that she’s broken her earring, that she’s in tears, that his answer was woefully inadequate. She can’t have lived eighteen years with this man and settled for a few fun dinners.

“Are the women you watch prettier than me?” It’s a childish question, but she doesn’t retract it. Instead she bends down, grinding a bead with her thumb into the floor.

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