Merriwether waited until the next day to tell Jeff. He was at the house when she got back. She didn’t want one of their long, drawn-out fights the night she came home. He acted as though nothing had happened when she got there, as though he hadn’t disappeared for several days after their last fight.
“Where were you?” she asked calmly.
“None of your business,” he said with a smug look, and she nodded and didn’t comment. She wasn’t going to fall into the trap of one of the fights he loved to create with her. In the morning before she left for the office, she told him she was going to call an attorney, and he needed to move out.
“You can’t make me leave,” he said, jutting his chin out, standing with his legs wide apart.
“I couldn’t make you stay either, when I left for L.A. I won’t play games with you. I own the house. You have to leave.”
“Then you have to buy me an apartment, and pay me alimony,” he said, and she wondered if that was what he’d been waiting for. “You owe me,” he said angrily, but he didn’t seem sad to lose her, or surprised. She wondered if he had someone else. But she didn’t want to know, or to tell him about Bob. Jeff had tried to make love to her the night before, and she had said no, and he had slammed out of the bedroom and slept in the study, but he didn’t leave the house. She wondered if he’d seen a lawyer to advise him. She had that feeling.
“The lawyers will have to figure it out.” Unlike Bob, she did have a prenup. She had been thirty when she married Jeff, and her father had insisted. Jeff had nothing, and she already had a good salary and some money she’d inherited. They had to sort it all out now. By legal standards, seven years was not a long marriage.
Jeff left the house before she left for work, and she was looking forward to seeing Bob when she got to the office. This was going to be an exciting time, despite any bumps they encountered. Their life together was just beginning, and they had so much to look forward to.
“Did it go okay?” he whispered to her as they walked into a meeting with Allie and several of their agents about the film they’d been to L.A. about.
“It was fine,” she whispered with a smile. “You?”
“Perfect. A little sad. But I think she’s happy, and I gave her the house. There will be lots more,” he said ruefully, and she smiled and they sat down in Allie’s office.
“You two must have made one hell of a great deal,” she commented, looking at them as they sat down. “You’re absolutely glowing.” After she said it, she realized what had happened. She and Merriwether exchanged a smile and Merriwether laughed. Allie was no fool. She knew love when she saw it, even if she had lost it herself. She was happy for them. They deserved it.
Phillip and Hailey had had a lucky weekend before Merriwether and Bob went to L.A. All three of her children had sleepovers with friends from Friday night to Sunday. It was rare that all three left at once, and they decided to seize the opportunity. They thought about going to an inn in Connecticut or somewhere else in New England, but then he asked her if she wanted to stay with him, and they both liked the idea. She didn’t have a bed big enough for the two of them in her apartment. Will and Bentley had bunk beds, and she and Arianna had twins, so her place was out.
They planned it like a robbery or a prison escape, and she showed up at his apartment at seven-thirty on Friday night with a small overnight bag with everything she needed for the weekend. He had filled his apartment with roses for her and had bought wine and groceries. She had her cellphone so her children could reach her. His apartment was a small but elegant bachelor pad with deep hunter greens and dark blue velvet couches, a very masculine pearl-gray bedroom, and his office was full of antique red leather chairs he’d bought in London. It was warm and inviting, but he only had one bedroom, and it was the perfect place for him to write. Everything was set up for his comfort during the long spells of isolation and solitude when he wrote. He had a fabulous sound system and a view of Central Park.
He had bought lobster for dinner. They ate it cold, with white wine, and while they were eating, he shared an idea with her. “I had a crazy thought today, before you look for a new apartment for you and the children. Apartments don’t come up very often in this building. It’s kind of a legend. There’s a family selling theirs two floors down. I looked at it today. It’s a duplex and very well set up. It needs some paint and a new kitchen. It’s big enough for you and the children, with an office for you, and it’s even big enough for me, if that’s how we end up. I could keep this apartment to write. They’re selling it at a very good price, and I’d like to buy it as an investment. If things don’t work out, I can always sell it. But I feel like I should grab it while I can. How does that sound to you? We can look at it tomorrow. It has the same view of the park I do.” She felt as though she was dreaming.
“You would do that, Phillip?” she asked in an awed voice. He didn’t have any idea yet how things would work out with them. They were about to spend their first night together. She had been struggling for so long that she couldn’t imagine anyone doing that for her.
“It’s a good investment,” he said, so he didn’t scare her, but he was sure of what he wanted now, and he was certain it would work. Keeping his bachelor apartment to write in was a comfort for him, and it was familiar. It would give him the space and privacy he needed to work. It was as though the other apartment had just been waiting for them and had fallen into their hands at the right time. The owners had four children, all grown up now, who lived on the West Coast and in Europe with families of their own. “Let’s see how you like it tomorrow. You might hate it. It looked good to me, but I’m a man. I don’t know what you need for the kids.”
She laughed.
“Is it as nice as the one I have now?” she asked with a serious expression, and they both laughed.
“Well, not quite, and Arianna would have to sleep on her own, and she might not like it if I become your roommate and she doesn’t.”
He put music on his sound system after dinner, and they relaxed and talked for a long time. He had put her suitcase in his bedroom. It had been a long time since a woman had stayed there with him, in his totally masculine apartment. It looked like an English gentleman’s club to her, and she loved the smell of the leather in his study, mixed with the cologne he wore. She felt shy being there with him at first, and they sat in his living room talking and kissing for a long time. His dark blue velvet couches reminded her of a sky at midnight, and she loved looking at the park from his windows. She followed him into his bedroom and there was a wall of leather-bound books that made the room cozy, and some handsome paintings. “Welcome to my world,” he said gently, and kissed her. They found their way to his big, comfortable bed with the down comforter, European square pillows, and crisp white sheets, and her shyness fell away as he held her. She suddenly felt she had come home to the place she was meant to be, with the man that she loved.
He was a gentle, skilled lover, and she felt as though she was discovering a world she had forgotten and never really known. She and Jim had never worked perfectly together and they had made do, but being with Phillip was the perfect fit of interests and hearts and bodies, and she lay next to him afterwards, smiling. She looked like a happy child in his bed, and he laughed looking at her.