Disney World was not at all what he’d envisioned when he’d told Kimmy he wanted them to get away, but for a family vacation it was a great call. Sasha was the perfect age to enjoy the parks, and they suspected she liked the resort’s swimming pool even more than she did the rides.
Josh splurged on a suite when he booked the trip so that he and Kimmy could at least try and have some privacy. They even had their own secluded balcony. It might not have been the romantic reset he’d envisioned, but they could make it work. They were on vacation, after all, and it had been a while since they’d taken a break from their jobs to enjoy their daughter.
On their second night, Josh called room service while Kimmy supervised Sasha’s bath. He ordered a couple of fancy mocktails. Added an appetizer sampler and a piece of cheesecake.
“I ordered a few things from room service. I thought we could sit out on the balcony for a while, just the two of us.”
“Sure. I’ll read Sasha her books and put her to bed.”
“I can do it. You did the bath.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”
Josh kept his expression blank. Maybe she’d prove him wrong. They were on vacation, after all. “Okay.”
But he wasn’t wrong.
Because after the room-service waiter arrived with their drinks and the food and Josh waited patiently on the balcony for Kimmy to join him, he already knew what he’d see when he went inside and poked his head into Sasha’s room. It was just as he’d suspected: Both of his girls were fast asleep. One because she was exhausted and the other because she’d rather do anything than spend time with her husband alone.
He returned to the balcony and took a big gulp from one of the mocktails, wishing he’d ordered a beer instead. The appetizers and dessert no longer held any allure. He spent a lot of time on the balcony that night, lost in his own thoughts, before finally going to bed alone.
He’d promised himself that he wouldn’t say anything in the morning, but he did. With a flick of her eyes, Kimmy noticed the room-service tray with its congealing food and didn’t acknowledge it, which hurt more than her failure to appear the night before.
“I thought you were going to join me,” he said.
“We walked a lot and I was tired. Weren’t you?”
“I’ll never be too tired to spend time with you.”
“I thought this was a family vacation.”
“It is. I’m on vacation with my daughter and my wife. Or maybe ‘roommate’ is a better word.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means exactly what it sounds like. If there’s another word that describes literally turning your back on your spouse every night and wrapping yourself in seven layers of blankets because God forbid, he tries to touch you, then it means whatever that word is.”
“I don’t turn my back on you every night.”
“Okay, Kimmy.”
“Is this really what you want to do right now?”
“Discuss our lack of intimacy with my wife? Yeah, maybe. Because who knows if you’ll ever hear what I’m saying?”
“Stop fighting,” Sasha cried from the doorway. She was wearing her swimsuit and her Mickey ears. At that moment, Disney World was not the happiest place on earth for any of them.
They stopped immediately, ashamed because they were usually so much better at hiding their marital discord.
Or so they thought.
chapter 44
Layla
Layla slept in the morning of her day off. The sun had already risen, but that was a bit of a misnomer, because when she padded out to the kitchen in her robe and slippers, there was no sunlight to be seen. The day was starting out dark and dreary, but she didn’t really mind. She brewed a pot of coffee and settled on the couch with a steaming mug and her journal.
She’d started adding things she was grateful for when she wrote in her journal. That morning, she wrote down that she was grateful for a rare day off during the week. She was grateful for Tonya, who had helped her get through the last year. She was grateful for the downloads of “Thankful” which had passed two hundred thousand, a number that blew her mind and was generating a measurable income. She was grateful that she and Josh had found each other and for the common ground they shared.
And last, but certainly not least, she was grateful to her parents for giving her those yearly gifts and the ability to land on her feet after walking out the door the night she left Liam.
* * *
A month after Layla and Liam moved into their new house, a flyer appeared in their mailbox inviting them to a mixer for new residents interested in learning more about the development’s members-only country club.
“Where did that flyer go?” Liam asked a few days later.
“I threw it out,” Layla said. “You already have golfing privileges. Why would we join the club?”
“Because a social membership would give us more amenities. There’s a pool and a restaurant. It’s a great way to get to know people.”
“I thought you always said you weren’t interested in joining a country club. You didn’t want to be tied down.”
“I mean, we’re pretty tied down already. We live on a golf course now.”
“I know,” Layla said. “A ball hit the living room window the other day and scared the crap out of me.” It had only happened once since they’d moved in, but she was shocked that the ball hadn’t broken the glass. “You should have seen me jump. No wonder the Realtor didn’t answer my question about that.”
“I think it might be something we’ll just have to get used to. So, what do you think? Should we go to the mixer? Just pop in for a few minutes and if we hate it, we can bail?”
Layla had no desire to join the country club. The swimming pool wasn’t a huge draw, because her skin burned so easily, and she always found herself alone in the shade wearing a huge hat while everyone else splashed in the water or sprawled out on their chaise longues. But even if she did want to join, the social membership and its high monthly fee were simply out of their reach.
“We can’t afford it,” she said. As she’d predicted, the new house had strained their budget. There were times their checking account balance had dropped below a comfortable threshold, but the house payment—and their other bills—never went unpaid. Every few months, Liam would swoop in with a big commission and build their bank balances back up again. But there was always something new that he wanted, and what if there was a day in their future when he couldn’t swoop in? Layla couldn’t sleep sometimes when she thought about how they were one medical disaster or long stretch of unemployment away from total financial ruin. None of this bothered Liam. His philosophy was that you had to have the biggest, the best, of everything. He wanted to enjoy life in the present with little regard for what might be coming down the line. They were living the dream. Beautiful home, nice cars, and a country club membership if Layla would just get on board.