“Will you sit down?” she said. “Let me buy you a beer? And you can tell me what you’re doing around here.”
He slid into the booth across from her. “I was in court today. Here in San Jose, testifying on behalf of a client.” The waitress approached him and asked him if he wanted beer, and he gave her a nod and thanked her. “I guess you can tell this is a favorite place of mine.”
“Big fan of Chinese cuisine, are you?”
“I like it, yeah. But one of the good things about this place is that at certain times of the day there’s hardly anyone here. If a potential client isn’t too far away, this is one of the places I frequent to meet them. I have a partner, Georgianna, who lives in Santa Rosa. We share an office in San Francisco, but we’re only there a couple of days a week. Now, tell me about you. Will it be a divorce?”
“Absolutely. It’s not what I want, but it has to be.”
“Are you sure? People manage to work out all sorts of things.”
“I thought about it, a lot. I thought about it for the sake of my girls, but in the end I’m not sure what I’d be teaching them by doing that. I look back over almost thirty years with the man, and I’m wondering if this is the first time. I can’t live with a man who lies and cheats. Who could?”
“People have all kinds of arrangements...”
“I think Scott stayed for my income. He likes to buy things like golf clubs, scuba gear, bikes. He’d been talking about buying a sailboat. He would have stayed with me another couple of years for that sailboat.”
“Wasn’t he bored?” Logan asked.
“He’s been very active,” she said with a short, disdainful laugh.
“Is he a good father?”
“He’s a very good father. I think we’re both good parents. That’s my biggest concern. Can we be good parents as divorced parents? Because I didn’t realize how selfish Scott is. He’s the fun guy. If I had to work late, he’d get a neighbor or babysitter to stay with the kids so he could play ball or bowl. He took very good care of the girls, but now I can see he always did the bare minimum. His free time was carefully guarded. And the girls don’t need him like they did. In a year and a half Amber will be in college.”
“Did I mention I’m divorced?” Logan asked. “No kids, though. And I’ve been a divorce spectator a lot. Too much. Here’s what happens—the wronged party is very hurt and angry. There’s no help for it—getting over that takes as long as it takes. Some people move on fairly quickly while others pick at it like a hangnail. I have a buddy who’s been divorced for two years, and his eyes still tear up when he talks about it.”
“Two years?” she asked.
“Over two years, actually. I have another friend who had a new woman in three weeks. That didn’t work out very well, but he wasn’t depressed for two years and sometimes he had trouble remembering which woman he was mad at.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“My situation was unique,” he said.
“Aren’t they all?” she countered.
“Not as unique as this one. We hadn’t been married all that long—just a few years—and we were always fighting. We never fought before we got married. She finally told me she wanted a divorce because she just wasn’t happy. Because she’s not into men. Your mouth is standing open... That’s right—she’s playing on the other team. She really loved me, she said. And she thought she could just make it work since we were such good friends, agreed on so much, et cetera. But I just didn’t do it for her. Quite literally.”
“Ouch.”
“It hurt but we’re back to being friends. In fact, she’s my sister’s best friend. She has a partner now and I am happy for her, even if it’s a little awkward at times.”
In spite of herself, Justine laughed. “Thanksgiving must be a hoot at your