I walk next door after showering and changing my clothes. Not to impress Tessa but because I spent at least nine hours in a damn vehicle today, and I am tired but really want to see her tonight.
When I walk in, she and Jade are sitting in the living room.
“Ryan around?”
“Out back at the grill. Did you see Logan?”
“Yeah. Thanks for hanging out with him today.”
“I don’t know how we got through it. He’s a dreadful boy,” Jade jokes, and Tessa elbows her. “He knows I’m joking. I love Loggie.”
“How was Ava?”
“Ava is perfect.” I grab my phone out of my pocket, remembering I forgot to call her like I promised when I got home and send her a text, letting her know.
My phone immediately rings, and there she is on the screen at seven years old, smiling a big toothless grin, looking as cute as a button.
“Hey, Ava.”
“Did you see Mom?”
“Yes, I saw her.”
“And …?”
“Everything is all right.” I cover the receiver so she can’t hear me. “Excuse me a moment.” Then I walk into the kitchen where I tell Ava that we signed the papers to get the ball rolling.
She’s livid and wants to know how this happened so soon. Then, a split-second later, she asks when the divorce would take place.
I tell her I’m not really sure.
She then tells me she’s happy that I can move on with my life, and she starts to cry.
I turn around to see Jade and Tessa standing there. I walk around them to go outside and have the what I assume will be a twenty-minute conversation of trying to calm Ava down.
When she’s calm, I tell her that I know she can handle this and ask that she not tell Logan yet. I want to be the one to tell him.
After the call ends, I walk back in and look at Tessa and Jade, who are both a bit tipsy and looking at me like I’m a poor little puppy dog who’s lost.
I raise an eyebrow. “Still don’t like it when people look like they pity me.”
“You’re separated?” Tessa gasps. “That was fast.”
“Not really.” I’m uncomfortable as hell having this conversation with her. “Beer?”
“Fuck that.” Jade laughs. “It’s a champagne kind of night.”
I excuse myself and run home to grab four bottles from the case that’s left over from my wedding that I planned on drinking when this day finally came. And drink, we do. We laugh and talk about the old days, about football, field hockey, and epic fuck-ups that aren’t funny, but after all that champagne, they seem fucking hysterical.
Somewhere around midnight, I stumble into the bathroom and find Tessa sitting on the ground next to the toilet.
“You okay?”
“Just waiting.”
“For what, Tessa?”
“To puke. It’s gonna happen. Always does. First, the room spins. Then the stomach turns. And then it’s all over but the crying.”