TROY
As soon as Marion returns home I’m off the couch. Her eyes flicker as they land on me, and she tosses Jack’s keys onto his side table by the front door.
“Where did you go?”
“I haven’t had the test yet if that’s what you’re asking.” Pulling her hair back to knot it, she changes her mind and shakes it out instead. “Did you think that I had?”
Shoving my hands into the back pockets of my jeans, I shrug, “I kind a hope that you had, yeah.”
“You wouldn’t have gone with me? Don’t you think I would’ve wanted you there? Don’t you think I want you here still?”
Walking to her I free my hands and say, “Hold on. Of course I want to go with you. But I know how you are, so it’s possible you’d go and do it without both of us.”
“Not this, Troy.”
“You didn’t give any explanation!”
She grabs my face. “Why does this have to be everything?”
I cover her hands with my own, drag them down and hold them. “I’m right here. I will go with you for the test. I want to be there.” She’s staring at me, seeing every possibility of how this could play out.
I know the feeling.
Tugging free, Mar walks to the kitchen, swings open the refrigerator, and sticks her head in. “I feel so hot.”
“You’re always hot.”
Her voice is muffled from inside the box. “Not the time for joking!”
Suddenly worried, I rush over. “Do you have a fever?”
“No,” Marion sighs, standing upright. “I’m just frustrated. And angry. Confused. And you are not helping! Do you understand how much this is changing my life?”
“It’s changing all of our lives.”
Shaking her head, she grabs orange juice from the fridge, closing the door and heading for a glass. I beat her to it and offer her an elegant wine glass since I know it’s really pissing her off that she can’t drink alcohol anymore. This will make it feel more like she’s not missing out on luxury.
A small smile of appreciation is my reward and honestly that’s enough. She hasn’t smiled at me for the three days we’ve been back. Guess I haven’t either, now that I think about it.
“What you are not seeing is that your career, and Jack’s business, is not at all impacted by this. Mine is, Troy. It’s not just my personal life that’s affected — it’s my entire existence and everything that I’ve worked for. Can you see the difference? And yet here you are, pressing me to find out who it belongs to so that I can what, say goodbye to you forever? That is insanity. And it is completely against what we decided when we all committed to this relationship — to love each other, the three of us.” She pours the juice while I watch her profile. I hadn’t thought about her dance career. She’s right.
Taking the carton as soon as she’s done, I run my hand down her back. “I’m sorry.”
She melts into my embrace. Over her shoulder I’m looking at the living room I’ve called home. It made sense that she and I moved in with Jack. And it made sense to give this threesome a try, then, too.
But now I feel differently.
As I breathe in the scent of her, so familiar and good, I close my eyes and kiss her hair. “If this baby is mine, I want us to move somewhere else.”
Marion pulls back like I bit her. “Just the two of us?”
Taken aback by her expression, I put the juice carton in the fridge, taking a second to think. “I meant the three of us find our own place. But with that reaction I have to ask, would it be so awful if it were just you and me?” She stares at me with a look that doesn’t make me feel good. “Never mind,” I grunt, heading for the bedroom.
“Troy!”
“Jack’s at a meeting, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
She screams, “Troy!”
I shout, “What? What do you want from me? Besides everything? Do you want me to be your little beck and call boy? Ha! I have a lot more to offer than that. You’re not the only one here who has needs.”
She chases me into the bedroom, my long strides eclipsed by her sprint. Jumping with the grace she’s trained for, Marion presses her hand onto my chest. “What if it’s yours? Do you want to keep acting like this if you are the father of this child? How are we supposed to proceed if this is how you act?!”
“You take the test and we’ll find out.”
She glares at me, drops her hand and marches back to the kitchen. Over my shoulder I watch and when she’s gone I almost put my fist through the wall.
But I can’t.
It’s not my wall.
Chapter Thirty-Six
JACK
Test results are back soon. I walked outside for some air. Mar saw the look on my face and suggested I go for a walk. It was an insightful impulse for which I was grateful.
Glancing to my phone I see her mother’s name and pick up immediately, eyebrows furrowed. “I’m guessing this isn’t a coincidence.”
“Hello Jack.”
Staring at the small and sunny parking lot where faceless people disembark their cars, I grunt, “Lorraine.”
“I just got done talking to Rabbit Dick.”
I correct her, “We haven’t talked in a while but I’m pretty sure he wants to be called David. He stopped calling you The Whore long ago.”
“Don’t tell me what to call my ex-husband. Especially after what you’ve done. What’s this about you dating our daughter? I can’t believe David hasn’t put his foot down. Yes I can. I take that back. But you have some nerve...”
Blah blah blah she drones.
Sighing, I look toward the clinic. Does Lorraine know where I am right now? I assumed she must have, but this litany of boring makes me think otherwise.
At the first breath she takes I tell her, “Believe me, I resisted being with her for as long as I could. I already told David I’m not just dating her so stop calling it that. I’m very much in love with Mar. And yeah, it’s not easy to tell you this. But I’ve already come to terms with it and she has assured me that—”
“—You are in love with a girl nearly half your age like most men in midlife crisis.”
My jaw tightens with impatience as I wait for her to stop which takes another five or six minutes. The speech is an annoyance I’m not in the mood for today.
Or any other day.
As soon as I get the chance I interject, “Since you’ve finally come up for air from cursing my entire gender, let me tell you something, Lorraine. David was my friend. You came with the package. I liked you well enough but David is where my loyalty was, and when it was revealed you’d been cheating on him for years and left with the guy, on a holiday in front of the daughter you’re self-righteously defending no less, I wrote you off entirely. The only reason I just heard you out is because I love Marion more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life, and she loves you. But today is an important day with no room for your sanctimonious bullshit.”
The phone is quiet. Finally she says, “You done?”