A smile drifts onto my face as I cross the parking lot toward my car, the phone tucked against my shoulder. “Yeah,” I say slowly. “I’d like that, Mom.”
“Great! Tonight work?”
I laugh. “You really want to drive all the way here tonight?” It’s at least two hours, if she manages to leave before rush hour, which I’m pretty sure at this rate, she’ll get stuck in.
“Of course! It’s been too long since we’ve had mother-daughter time. I’m on the way now, honey.”
“Okay. If you’re sure. Then let’s do it.” We talk for a few more minutes, making plans for where to meet in a few hours’ time. By the time I hang up, I have a genuine smile on my face. After a moment’s consideration, I shut my phone off. I’m feeling good right now, and I don’t want that bubble to burst if I get more work emails or something else flooding in.
Tonight, it’s all about me and Mom. And that’s all I need for right now. Something simple and good.
23
Lark
Her phone goes straight to voicemail. Again. I stare at it for a moment, wait all the way until the beep before I finally disconnect. What I have to tell Cassidy can’t be done over a goddamn answering machine.
I need to speak to her, face-to-face. I need to see her. I’ve waited to do this for long enough. Left her hanging in uncertainty for too long already.
I grit my teeth, staring at my useless phone for a solid minute before I come to a decision. If I can’t reach Cassidy right now, that’s all right. There’s still one more confrontation I need to get out of the way before I really lay everything bare to Cassidy anyway. And it’s a fight I should have finished a long time ago now, if I’m honest. Cassidy is just the push in the right direction that I’ve needed all along. A reason—the ultimate reason—to tie up my loose ends once and for all.
Unlike Cassidy, Sheryl answers on the first ring. “Darling,” she says, her voice a low purr, the same way she always says that, even though I’ve been asking her to stop it for months now.
My jaw tightens reflexively. I can’t believe I used to find that endearing. Her tone sounds so fake to me now, so transparent. “We need to talk,” I say.
“About what?” Still that lighthearted, innocent tone. As if she doesn’t know exactly what I’m about to say.
“I want to finalize it.”
There’s a long, weighty pause on the other end of the line. At least she doesn’t ask me what I mean. Part of me expected her to stay in denial right up until the bitter end. “We’ve talked about this, Lark.” When Sheryl speaks again, her cutesy tone is gone. She’s all business now. “It’s not in either of our best interests.”
“Actually, I think it would be in both of our best interests. Don’t you want to start fresh, Sheryl? Find someone who can actually give you what you’re looking for?” I glare at myself in the reflective glass of my apartment building.
“The last thing I want is to start over at my age, Lark,” she snaps. “And I can’t believe you’re still talking about doing this, after all the work we’ve done in therapy.”
“You know the only reason I signed up for those sessions,” I bite out, my voice dropping. “I’m done doing this. I’m done pretending. Sign the goddamn papers.”
She laughs. Actually laughs. “Fat chance. I know what you want, darling. And unless you’re okay with giving it up, then face it. I’m going to get what I want eventually.”
“What you’re asking is unfair,” I reply, trying to keep my voice as even as possible. Calm and collected. Even though my pulse is beating hard, and I swear a vein at my temple is about to pop.
“Not according to our pre-nup, it isn’t,” she says in a sing-song voice.
I clench my fist around my phone. “This isn’t the situation we were anticipating at all, and you know it.”
“Too bad. It’s the situation we’ve wound up in, darling. So if you want to end it, fine by me. You already know my price. Otherwise? Well, just think about it. What I’m asking for isn’t so bad, darling. We’ve been there before. We made it work, once.”
“That was before I knew who you really were,” I reply, unable to help rising to her bait.
All it earns me is another long, low laugh. “Please. You liked my ambition when we first started dating, Lark. You should have known this is what it entailed. You should have known I wouldn’t give up on us without a hell of a fight.”
“There is no us anymore, Sheryl. There hasn’t been for a long, long time.”
There’s a pause on the other end. A faint intake of breath. I think maybe I’ve finally hit a nerve. But then her voice drops again, dangerously low. “It’s that new investment isn’t it? The Marks bitch. She’s exactly your type. Doe-eyed and dumb.”