“There’s no rush.”
“I know. And I really appreciate your generosity. But I can’t stay here forever. I have to go home sometime.”
“Aiden was here last night,” Maggie tells her.
“What?”
Maggie relates the scene that unfolded on her front stoop.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe I slept through that.”
“You were exhausted.”
“Still…I’m so sorry.”
“Do you have any idea what you’re going to do?”
“I know what I’dliketo do.” Heidi looks toward the freezer.
Maggie smiles.
“What doyouthink I should do?” Heidi asks her, the same question Aiden asked last night.
“I can’t answer that.”
“What wouldyoudo?” Heidi immediately amends.
“I don’t know,” Maggie says honestly. “I’m hardly an expert on marital bliss. But I remember that there was this advice columnist when I was a kid, and she always used to say that, in the end, what it all boiled down to was: Will you be happier with him or without him?”
Heidi nods. “I guess that’s what I have to figure out.”
—
It’s just after eight o’clock when Heidi leaves Maggie’s house for her own. The door opens as she’s heading up her front walk. Aiden fills the doorway.
“I’m glad you’re back,” he whispers, stepping aside to let her enter.
“I’m not staying.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just came back to get a few things.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I think you do.” Heidi walks up the stairs.
Aiden is right behind her. “Look. I’m sorry about last night,” he says, following her into the bedroom.
Heidi grabs a small suitcase from the closet and starts throwing handfuls of clothes inside it.
“I promise it won’t ever happen again.”
Heidi spins toward him. “What won’t happen again, Aiden? You won’t get jealous over nothing? You won’t attack some poor kid whose only crime was helping me make a nice dinner for your mother? You won’t question who’s the father of this baby? You won’t believe your mother’s ridiculous insinuations and outright lies? Whatexactlywon’t happen again?”
“All of it.”
Heidi looks toward the window, then back at her husband. “Prove it.”