me.”
She sat up, stretching, and said, “Sure. I was just thinking I could use something to eat.”
I could be devious and ask, Didn’t you have enough at the party? Binardi gatherings were feasts. But I couldn’t stand the deception between us for one more second.
“First, talk.” I moved a pile of the papers off the bed and sat down beside her.
She narrowed her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me you broke up with Tyler?”
She sighed, then rolled her eyes. “When did he tell you?”
“I called him earlier to find out where you were.”
She stopped breathing a moment, wheels turning behind her eyes.
“I need you to tell me why you lied to me, babe.”
She didn’t protest. She didn’t say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She knew.
“I’ve always counted on our honesty.” I didn’t sound angry, and I made sure not to have that horrible I’m-so-disappointed-in-you tone. “So, I’m really thrown by this. Mimi called and accused me of not letting you go to your dad’s party.”
Her head snapped up. “I never said that!”
“I didn’t figure you did. But the bottom line is that you didn’t go to the party. What’s worse is that when you came back and I asked you about it directly, you lied to me.”
“I’m sorry.” Her words were swollen with heartfelt regret.
“I’m sorry, too. I’m sorry all this crap is going on and causing all this upheaval in your life, but, babe—we have to be honest with each other or we’ll never survive this. Where’ve you been all this time?”
“I just drove around. I was pretty upset. I ended up walking along the river downtown.”
Oh my God, not exactly the safest choice, but I let that go for now.
Gingersnap jumped on the bed and curled up in Gabby’s lap. Gabby idly stroked her.
“Did you go to your dad’s apartment?”
She nodded. I saw the corner of her mouth twitch.
“Did you two fight or something?”
“No . . .” More twitches in her face as she struggled not to cry. “Zayna lives with him, Mom. I went to his apartment and he acted like everything was fine. Like he’d always lived there and it was no big deal that I had to stop by to see him. I went to the bathroom and there was girl stuff everywhere. Makeup, shampoo, a pink razor in the shower, birth control pills. She lives there! It’s a one-bedroom apartment!”
Gabby’s reaction surprised me. She’d been there at the Thai restaurant, after all. Tears hung on her lower eyelashes. Her voice climbed high. “I tried to talk to him, but while we were sitting there, she came in. She has a key. She just let herself in, she didn’t knock or anything. And she said, ‘Hey, sweetie,’ before she saw me! He left us for Zayna!”
My poor daughter. That she had to see this, that it had to unfold in just this way. The tears spilled over and she gave in to them. “C’mere.” I put an arm around her and pulled her close. She cried into my shoulder. It hurt my arm, but I wasn’t about to suggest we change positions.
“Oh!” she said, jerking away from me, as if she’d just remembered something, “Oh! He had the nerve—before Zayna came back—he had the nerve to ask me if I was pregnant!”
She actually got off the bed, leaving Gingersnap looking miffed, and paced the length of her room. “Can you believe that? Where did that come from?”
My cheeks warmed. So he couldn’t give me any credit to my face, but he’d listened to me.
Gabby’s face was murderous. “I told him I wasn’t the one running around like a whore!”
I choked. “You did not!”
I almost got a smile. “No,” she admitted. “But I thought it. And it’s true. I did say it took a lot of nerve to ask me that right then, and that I thought he was changing the subject. It seemed like awfully weird timing to suddenly want to have the sex talk with me!”
When she was furious like this, she seemed like herself, but as I watched, the energy of the anger left her and she shrank before my eyes. She looked so . . . defeated. She sat back down on the bed and spoke to her own knees. “They have a dog, Mom. They bought a dog together!”
That was a stab to the belly. I actually flinched.
“They bought a puppy! A boxer puppy. It’s their dog, not hers. That’s how Zayna introduced it—‘our puppy,’ she said.”
A puppy. That was