She was getting dressed so he headed into the bathroom.
He walked in and leaned against the doorway, watching her look at herself in the mirror. She’d put on a dress—so uncharacteristic of Jenna. It was black and very pretty, with fancy boots and dark tights that made her look so sexy he wanted to undress her on the spot.
She was busy fussing with the long silver chain she wore around her neck.
She saw him and turned. “Do I look okay?”
He pushed off the doorway and went into the bathroom. “You look more than okay.” He kissed the side of her neck. “You’re beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
“Come here. I need to talk to you.” He took her hand and led her into the bedroom and sat her on the bed.
“Uh-oh. This doesn’t sound good.”
He took a seat in the chair across from the bed, delaying the inevitable by glancing out the window at the city below. It was a cloudy day today. It might snow.
He felt a touch on his knee and turned to Jenna.
“Ty. What’s wrong?”
“Your parents have this amazing marriage. You’re part of a really happy family.”
She didn’t say anything. He was grateful for that.
“I thought I was part of a happy family. Me, my mom, and dad. It was all great until I turned ten. Then the fighting started. They’d try to keep it down low, or wait until after I went to bed at night, but sound travels, and you can’t hide shit from kids. Kids are smart. They know when the balance is upset in their universe. Anyway, I heard them fighting. At first I thought it was just a one-time thing, but then it was the next night, and the next. And then it spilled over into the daytime. They wouldn’t fight in front of me or anything, but they stopped talking to each other. The tension in the house grew until it was choking the life out of me. I started to tiptoe around them, sure if I was on my best behavior they’d stop fighting and everything would go back to the way it was before.
“It affected every part of my life. My friends stopped coming over. My grades started to drop and I didn’t want to be around them anymore. They hated each other so much.”
He saw the tears well up in her eyes and hated that he’d put them there.
“I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you, for a child to have to go through. You realize what happened with them wasn’t your fault.”
“I do now. Back then I didn’t. I was sure that if I just spoke softer or acted better, I could influence their behavior. And after awhile I just didn’t care anymore, because they didn’t seem to care anymore. That’s when my behavior took a downward slide.”
“Did you have any aunts or uncles you could talk to or go to about this?”
“Yeah, but there was nothing they could do about it. They couldn’t stop it any more than I could. And they took sides, too, so it wasn’t any better going to them.”
“When did they finally divorce?”
“When I was fourteen.”
“That’s a lot of years of unhappiness.”
“Yeah. Anyway, we’re going to have dinner with my mom today. She still lives in the house I grew up in. My dad remarried and he lives in a condo near the lake. We’ll meet him and my stepmom later for drinks.”
“Okay.”
“The thing is, I love my parents, but my mom is still in denial over a lot of this, so you need to prepare yourself. She’s bitter about it, but she’s kind of Stepford about the whole thing, if you know what I mean.”
Jenna wondered if Tyler’s mother was the only one bitter about it. She wanted to ask what broke up his parents’ marriage, but the question was too intrusive, and maybe he didn’t even know. She still saw the pain on his face, the rigid tension in his jaw. This wasn’t easy for him.
She couldn’t imagine her parents not being together. The idea of it hurt, which made her hurt for him. But the reality of it was, a lot of parents divorced, and the impact hit the children in ways that lasted for years.
She stood and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For what you had to go through. For the end of your parents’ marriage.”
He laid his head against hers. “It was a long time ago.”
“I’m sure it still hurts.”
He shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair. “The thing is, they just weren’t right for each other. My mom is very quiet and understated, likes to stay home and be with family. My dad is boisterous and loves to entertain, always liked going out. It was a personality clash from the get go. I can see it now. I’m not sure what brought them together in the first place.”
She slipped her hand in his. “Sometimes opposites attract in the beginning. It’s not until later they realize they can’t make it work, that it’s those opposite qualities they found so attractive in each other at the onset of the relationship that start to grate on each other later.”