“So, it’s my fault you got a divorce?” Claire suddenly had a vision of her and Sadie having this same conversation twenty years in the future. She buried her face in her hands.
“Oh my goodness, no!” her mom quickly said. “Don’t you ever think that.” She took Claire by the shoulders and gave her a steely look. “It was my fault, it was your dad’s fault, but it was definitely not yours. All I’m saying is that if I could do things differently, I’d have made more of an effort. Gavin’s just going to a strip club, not having an affair. You still have time to turn things around. You can change things.”
Claire took a deep breath and rested her head on the back of the couch. Maybe her mom was right. Maybe she could be making a better effort. If she was being honest, she hadn’t tried all that hard to lose the baby weight. And, though Sadie was her heart, she knew she spent more time thinking about her daughter than she did thinking about her husband. Suddenly, the events of the last twenty-four hours felt exhausting.
“Is it okay if I stay here for just a little while longer?” Her eyes fluttered closed. Claire felt her mom’s gentle kiss on her forehead, heard her trail of footsteps heading toward the kitchen, and let herself drift, feeling at peace for the first time in days.
The next thing she knew, she was woken up by the sound of her cell phone vibrating on the table by her head. She reached for it groggily. Somehow, it was seven already, and Gavin was calling.
“Hello?” she said wearily.
“Where are you?” He sounded panicked.
Claire sat up halfway and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “My mom’s.”
Gavin sighed in relief. “I was so worried about you—I thought you said you’d be home at five.” His voice wasn’t accusing but filled with genuine concern.
Claire smiled. A man who worried this much about his wife couldn’t be cheating on her. Was it possible that she had misunderstood Gavin’s actions? Could there be some explanation for what she saw?
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, of course. Just came over to say hi and ended up falling asleep on the sofa. We’ll come home right now.”
“Drive carefully,” he said. “I love you.”
“I . . . okay,” she said. “Me, too.” She ended the call and stood up too fast, her head going dizzy.
“Mama!” she yelled.
Her mom walked in from the kitchen, carrying Sadie. “Yes?”
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Claire grabbed her bag and her keys. “We gotta go.”
Jillian followed her to the front door, handing off the baby. “Good luck, my love.” She kissed Claire on her cheek.
Claire put Sadie in her car seat and drove home in the dark. When she’d driven to her mom’s house earlier, she was furious with Gavin, but now she couldn’t help feeling a little guilty. Maybe her mom was right. There were two people in this marriage and it was up to her to make it work.
16
laura
NO MATTER HOW hard she tried, Laura couldn’t stop smelling boiled crawfish as she drove home from work Sunday night. Granted, she loved crawfish, but after an eight-hour shift of working at the Sea Shack’s first annual Bowl and Boil, Laura never wanted to eat another in her life.
She was proud of her idea, though. When she was a kid, she and her neighbors would fill soda bottles with water and line them up in the middle of the street like bowling pins. Then they’d take turns trying to knock them over with a soccer ball. She’d suggested hosting a similar event at the bar to bring in new business, hoping Ricky would recognize her managerial potential.
He’d been skeptical at first. “No one’s gonna order crawfish just ’cuz you arranged two-liters filled with colored water in the middle of the restaurant,” he said. “But I’ma let you try it out.” Thanks to Claire posting the event on the church bulletin board, everyone and their mama came to the Sea Shack after church that day to “bowl” and eat crawfish.
“Told ya it’d be a success,” Ricky said at closing time, counting the cash at the register as Laura picked up crawfish heads from the floor.
She rolled her eyes and laughed. Then with her heart racing and palms sweating, Laura walked over to Ricky. “Can I ask you something?” She put her dirty rag on the counter.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, closing the machine.
“I’ve been working here for a while now. . . .” Laura fiddled with a piece of receipt paper. “And you know how much I love it,” she lied.
Ricky nodded and leaned his elbows on the counter.
“I’ve been taking on a lot of extra hours and responsibility lately, and I think I’ve gone above and beyond the duties of a waitress. I’d really like to be promoted to manager.” She’d looked up from the receipt, trying to gauge his reaction.
He scratched his dimpled chin. “You’re one-a my best employees. I just ain’t got an open position right now for that.” He nudged her arm. “But the second anything opens up, you my go-to girl.”
She stifled a sigh and cracked a smile. “Thank you for considering me,” she said, standing up and taking off her apron. “I’m gonna go home now.”
“Good job today,” he yelled to her as she opened the door. “You’re a bright one.”
As she drove down Main Street, sadness rooted in her chest. She’d really needed that promotion—not just for the money for Brian’s surgery but also for herself. She felt like she needed to prove to herself that she could do more than just serve food and drinks. Hell, she was smart—even strangers like Vince could see it. But lately, she had been feeling like she was destined for something more, and this time it was up to her—not Brian—to make that happen. Granted, it was a tough balance. All that schoolwork she was juggling . . . like the science paper on climate change due tomorrow (even though Mr. Myers insisted under his breath that global warming wasn’t actually a thing) . . . and the French participles exam on Wednesday . . . and the limits test in math on Thursday. . . . It gave her the sweats just thinking about it.
Brian often asked her why she worked so hard at school. “You have me. You know I’ll take care of you,” he’d say. And she didn’t really have an answer. But tonight as the stress of school and work pressed down on her, she tried to let all of that worry go and instead fantasized about the future he’d promised her.