I stared at her.
“Isn’t he married?”
All of the animation in Mom’s face faded. “Okay. So we’ll tackle the challenging part.”
“Married isn’t a challenge, Mom. It’s a fact.”
“I’m aware of that,” she said, her lips compressing. “It’s not like we planned to fall in love.”
She went there. Oh God. “Or to lie to everyone in your lives?”
Because she’ddefinitelybeen lying to me.
“You can be upset, I respect your right to be angry about my choice to not involve you, but you know better. I don’t involve you in my relationships if I can help it.”
Except to break up with them…
Or to leave me covering the house and the cats while you do whatever…
Or when you want to catch a guy’s eye…
But I didn’t say any of those things.
“Archie’s my friend, Mom. Mr. and Mrs. Standish,” yes, I said both their names. “They’re his parents.”
“You and Archie are almost eighteen. I’m not going to discuss Edward’s relationship, but suffice it to say, it’s not been well in some time. He made the decision to divorce her this week, and he’s asked us to move in. I told him we would.” She clutched at my hand again, which was fine cause I wasn’t using it. If I tried to eat anything, I’d probably be sick. As it was, I had to keep down what I’d already swallowed.
“So, done deal. They’re divorced and we’re moving.”
“Frankie,” she said with a sigh. “Please don’t play dumb on purpose. You have an opinion, say it.”
“You don’t want my opinion.” I pulled my hand out from under hers, and I rose to put up my food in Tupperware. No way I was finishing it.
“Of course, I do, this affects your life.”
“If you wanted my opinion, Mom,” I told her carefully, and I kept my tone even. “You wouldn’t have kept him a secret for months. If you wanted my opinion… you wouldn’t have lied to me.” Sealing the lid, I turned around and met her gaze. “If you’d wanted my opinion, you would have asked before you committed me into leaving the apartment we’ve lived in for most of my life to move in with some guy who may or may not divorce his wife, but will certainly have some complicated legal process to jump through. Oh—and the guy in question just happens to be the father of one of my best friends, who will now have to deal with his parents going through a divorce.”
I hadn’t meant to yell, but there it was.
“If you’dwantedmy opinion, you’d have told me you were having an affair with a married guy. But youdidn’t. Youhidit.”
My breath came out in panting little explosions of air. Did she really think he was going to leave his wife? Maybe he would. But—if a man cheats on one wife…
“Are you done?” She asked, all trace of the joy in her expression gone.
And I’d done that.
I’d rained on her happy parade.
“I guess,” I said. Because I didn’t really have anything else kind or good to say. My mom was the spoiler in a marriage, and she wanted to move in with the guy.
“Marriages,” she said in the closest thing to a lecturing tone I’d ever heard out of her, and I had no idea how I didn’t roll my eyes, “are complicated relationships. More complicated than you know. It takes being willing to compromise on both sides and valuing the happiness of your partner, sometimes above your own. They can also create ruts where you just stay because it’s the only thing you’ve ever known, and it’s scary to put yourself out there. You can be miserable and be married.”
She sighed.
“I wish I could explain it to you. Eddie—he’d been deeply unhappy—”
“I don’t care,” I found myself saying as I held up my hand, and you’d have thought I slapped her. “I don’t care about him or his feelings. I care that he’s married. I care that you’ve been cheating and lying and sneaking around. I care that you’re about to upend our whole life, and the only assurance you have is he told you he would—guess what, Mom? He told her he’d love, honor, and cherish her for the rest of their lives. How is that working out?”