With our youngest away at college, I thought Russell and I finally had time for each other. Then his evenings out became a nightly routine. At the pool hall, I heard him telling a story I recognized, until the woman beside him answered.
I’ll tell you right now that I’m not a woman who checks up on her husband.
Twenty-two years of marriage, and I had never once looked at his phone.
So when I tell you I drove across town on a Sunday night with my heart knocking around like a loose bolt, understand that it cost me something.
I’m not a woman who checks up on her husband.
***
Our youngest left for college in August.
The house went quiet, and I thought, finally.
I had a dinner reservation half planned at that Thai place Russell and I kept saying we’d try. I pictured the two of us at a table with no one to drive anywhere.
Then Keith got divorced, and Russell started “supporting” him.
The house went quiet
“Keith’s having a rough time,” he said that first Monday, jingling his keys.
I thought it was kind. I put off mentioning the restaurant.
You don’t ask a man to pick between his friend and pad thai.
***
But by Saturday, the answers had gotten short.
“Keith’s not ready for company,” he said when I mentioned tagging along.
“Keith’s having a rough time,”
Funny how a week can teach you a new language, and all of it is evasion.
***
So there I was in the pool hall doorway, smelling chalk and old beer.
Green tables glowed under low lamps.
An older woman stood at the counter, reading glasses on a chain.
“I’m looking for Russell. He comes in with his friend Keith.”
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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