“Hey, buddy, where’s Mama?”
“She’s in New York City!” said Wyatt. “She said she’d bring me a present from New York City!”
She’s probably off on a sexcapade, Owen thought.
And this was the truth: He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.
*
Lucy was climbing out of the subway station on her way to Ben’s apartment when a flurry of texts from him came through all at once.
I have to cancel. I have to go pick up the girls. The soccer game got rained out and Deborah is stuck in surgery.
Are you there? Did you get this?
I’m really sorry.
Please let me know you got this.
Can you do tomorrow afternoon? Or later this week? I know this blows.
Lucy just stood there, leaning against the subway railing, rain dripping down her neck, staring at her phone.
Of course she couldn’t do tomorrow afternoon. Of course she couldn’t! And she was mad that Ben didn’t know that, that he didn’t realize how hard it was for her to get from Beekman to Brooklyn, to extricate herself from the rest of her life to be with him. They had talked on the phone the night before, briefly, after the whole Izzy fiasco, and they’d figured out they could meet up today. Ben’s girls had soccer, then a playdate at a friend’s house, and then Deborah was picking them up, and Lucy figured she could leave Wyatt home with Owen.
She was mad that Ben didn’t realize how much she needed to see him. She was mad at Deborah, a woman she’d never met, for being a very important surgeon and depending too much on her ex-husband to pick up the slack.
And this: I know this blows?
She texted him back: Tomorrow won’t work. Enjoy your girls. Talk soon.
Lucy didn’t know what to do with herself. It was raining. It was too cold to wander for any stretch of time, and she didn’t want to go home, she didn’t want to see Owen.
She was almost to Ben’s building. At least that’s what she told herself. She was six blocks away. She just wanted to take a look. And see what? What exactly did she expect to see?
She wanted to see if he was with another woman, she supposed, although Lucy knew life wasn’t quite that simple. It wasn’t like she was going to see Ben, what, step out of his apartment building holding hands with someone and head off to brunch? That was highly unlikely. If he was with somebody, well, it was raining, and they’d probably spend the morning in bed. Still, she wanted to see if there was something to see, if there was something she should know. Better to find out now. Before she fell any further. Before she ruined her life.
It was strange, really, that he had to cancel their entire day together because of a little rain. What about the girls’ afternoon playdate? Couldn’t he have moved that around, worked a little harder to figure things out? He was a divorced dad, for heaven’s sake. Lucy knew that there were probably a dozen moms who would step in and help him out in a pinch, who would entertain his girls, feed them lunch, drop them off at the next house for him for the rest of the afternoon—women loved that shit, a chance to swoop in and help the hapless man who no longer had the benefits of a wife.
She found a little nook at the end of the street across from Ben’s building. There was some green lattice supporting what turned out to be plastic foliage, hiding some garbage cans. She wedged herself in there, underneath an awning, and pretended to be checking her phone. She broke out in a sweat.
What if she saw something?
Lucy was driving herself more and more crazy with each passing minute. She was soaked to the bone. Leave now, she kept saying to herself. And then: Just five more minutes. Now, Lucy. And then, Just a little bit longer.
She had no idea how long she’d stood there, with her mind racing like a crazy person, before she saw him.
She recognized him by the way he walked. She didn’t even know she knew how Ben walked, but apparently she did, because she spotted him from half a block away.
And he was with his girls.
Eliza was the older one. She was twelve but looked younger to Lucy’s eyes, still a girl, still with a straight-up-and-down figure. When she got a little closer Lucy saw that the girl was covered in freckles, just like her mother. Peggy was ten and built like a young Teddy Kennedy. She already had her buds. They both had their soccer cleats tied together by their laces and dangling over their shoulders. Ben was holding a huge green-and-white umbrella and carrying a brown paper bag splotched with drops of rain. Bagels, probably.
They ducked into the apartment building, and the door closed behind them. Lucy took a few steps back and leaned against the brick building. She was shaking. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe.
“Lucy!”
Lucy’s heart stopped.
“Victoria,” said Lucy. “Wow. Hey. Hi.”
It was Brooklyn Victoria, wife of hipster Thom, mother of the long-haired boy named Flannery. Lucy hadn’t spoken to her since that drunken night on their deck back in July. The night that started everything, really.
“Oh my God, I thought that was you,” said Victoria. “What are you doing here? You look like you’re hiding from someone!”
“No, no. I’m just lost.”
“I’d say,” said Victoria. “What are you doing in this neighborhood?”
“Nothing, really. I had some time to myself and I wanted to see Brooklyn. I feel so out of it these days. I didn’t realize it would be raining.”
“Well, you picked the wrong part,” said Victoria. “It’s nothing but apartment buildings and dry cleaner’s around here. You should have called me. I would have pointed you in the right direction.”
“I should have.”
“Do you have a few minutes for a cup of coffee?” asked Victoria.
Lucy checked the time on her phone to give herself a second to think. “Looks like I do,” she said.
*
Owen was cruising slowly down Beekman’s main street, searching for a parking space. Wyatt was in back, chattering away, happy to have his dad all to himself.
Owen hadn’t wanted to involve Wyatt in this particular mission but he couldn’t figure out a way around it. Lucy had disappeared into the city for the day, and Izzy had stopped responding to his texts and his e-mails. He felt like he should check on her. He wanted to see if she was okay.
He found a parking spot a few streets down from Izzy’s house and was heading toward it when he saw Sunny Bang stepping off Izzy’s front porch. He grabbed Wyatt by the shoulder and tried to spin him in another direction so they could avoid Sunny, but he wasn’t quick enough.
“Sunny Bang!” Wyatt yelled when he spotted her. “Sunny Bang! Sunny Bang! Sunny Bang!”
“Wyatt!” said Sunny. “It’s good to see you!”
Sunny knelt down to Wyatt’s eye level and said, “Guess what? I’ve got an extra apple in my purse. Do you want it?”
“No,” said Wyatt.
“No, thank you,” said Sunny, correcting him.
“I hate apples.”
“You can just say ‘No, thank you.’”
“Apples are disgusting. They’re completely, completely disgusting. They have worms in them!”