her.
Landing around noon tomorrow. Would like to have you and Thomas over for dinner tomorrow night. I’ve missed you both very much. Six at my house? Please?
Frowning, Terri wondered how to respond. It had been hard work getting to a place where she and Harold could be friendly with one another again after the divorce, but their new friendship hadn’t extended to things like having dinner together. Still, she knew that Thomas would enjoy an evening with both of his parents. As her next class of students began to trickle in, she still hadn’t decided how to reply.
I may be busy. Ask again once you’re back, she typed quickly before she put her phone away and went back to work.
Thomas was quiet over dinner that evening.
“What’s wrong?” she finally asked after he’d given her nothing but monosyllabic replies to every conversation she tried to start.
“Dad will be home tomorrow. He said he wants to have dinner with both of us tomorrow night, but you wouldn’t agree,” Thomas told her.
“I didn’t say no, either. I’m not sure what’s happening with Lucas’s mother. If she’s feeling up to visitors, I need to go and see her tomorrow night,” Terri explained.
“Why? It isn’t like you and Lucas are a real couple.”
Terri sighed. “We need to appear to be a real couple for Lucas’s mother’s sake, though. And if we were actually engaged, I’d be going to visit his mother as soon as I possibly could.”
“But you aren’t actually engaged. You should be spending time with your only son.”
“Sure, because he wants to be with me so much that he spent the entire weekend with his best friend,” she shot back. “Let’s not worry about it for tonight. If Lucas’s mother isn’t well enough for visitors, we’ll go and have dinner with your father tomorrow, okay?”
Thomas nodded. “I need to do some homework,” he said as he got up from the table. “Did you mind that I was away all weekend?”
“I missed you, but I want you to have fun with your friends, too. Remember, when your father is here, you spend every other week with him. I’ve grown used to being alone since the divorce.”
“Except you weren’t alone this weekend. You were with Lucas. Someone told me that he spent the night here, as well.”
Ah, and that’s what’s bothering you, she thought. “He slept in the spare bedroom. We both thought it would help make things seem more realistic if he stayed with me for the night.”
“He slept in the spare bedroom?”
“He did.”
“Homework calls,” Thomas muttered before he walked out of the room.
Sighing, Terri sat back down at the kitchen table and put her head in her hands. Getting mixed up in Lucas’s lies had been a terrible idea. The sooner she could end things with him, the better.
She was both relieved and disappointed when he texted the next day to tell her that his mother still wasn’t ready for visitors.
Come after school on Wednesday. She’ll see you then, he promised.
Sounds good, she’d replied before texting Harold to let him know that she and Thomas would be at his house at six.
“I wonder if he’s tan now,” Thomas said as they drove the short distance to Harold’s small house in a nearby neighborhood.
“I doubt it. Knowing your father, he didn’t spend much time in the sun.”
Thomas knocked eagerly when they arrived. When Harold opened the door, Terri smiled to herself. He was just as pale as ever. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have never guessed that he’d just spent two weeks in Florida.
Harold pulled Thomas into a hug and then smiled at Terri. “Surely, even if you are engaged to another man, I still get a hug?” he asked.
She gave him a quick embrace, pulling back when he seemed to be tightening his grip.
“Something smells good,” Terri said as they walked into the small living room.
“I made a chicken,” Harold told her. “With all the trimmings, of course.”
“Just like the old days,” Thomas said happily.
When they’d been married, Terri had been responsible for making their meals after school each evening. Weekend meals had been Harold’s job, though, and his roast chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and vegetables had been a staple Sunday dinner for all of Thomas’s life. Terri swallowed a lump in her throat as Harold began to serve the familiar favorites.
“Delicious,” Thomas said after they were all sitting together around the kitchen table.
“It’s very good,” Terri agreed.
“Tell me about the new man in your life, then,” Harold said. “I was