“June twenty-second.” Please don’t say no to this, Caleb, I plead silently. Please. You can’t imagine how much it matters.
He nods, but his smile is slightly forced. “I’ll put it on the calendar.”
He still doesn’t want us to count on him, but maybe these are just growing pains. Maybe this is how he’ll learn it’s not as hard as it seems to balance work and family.
I really, really hope that’s what it is.
OVER MY LUNCH BREAK, I meet Molly at the BMW dealership, where she’s left her car to get the mirror fixed. I’ve somehow refrained from pointing out this was the perfect chance to ask her boss for a ride.
“We need to make a pit stop on the way to my office,” she says. “This lingerie store has a going-out-of-business sale. I need something for my first date with Michael.”
She has enough lingerie for the entire state to go on a first date with Michael at this point.
“You’ve got to make this fast,” I say, turning toward the store she pointed out. “Unlike you, I’m not such a valued member of my organization that I can leave for as long as I want.”
“Unlike me, however, you are fucking your boss. I bet that gives you all the long lunches you want.”
I laugh. Yeah, I suppose.
“So if you’re buying lingerie for your first date, that must mean your plan to have him save you from an intruder actually worked out?”
She sighs, holding the store’s door open behind her. “You ruined it with all your logic. And I guess it would suck to have the police show up instead, especially if I was standing there naked. Anyway, I’ve got a much better plan.”
I guarantee it doesn’t involve anything rational, like perhaps telling him how she feels.
She shoves a thong and bra at me. “Get these. It’ll make Caleb forget all about how tardy you’ve been.”
I take a look at the price tag and hand them back to her. “It probably would, but I’m not really in the market for a hundred-and-ten-dollar thong at present, plus that bra offers no support whatsoever.”
“Everything is half off,” she argues. “And a bra like this isn’t supposed to offer support. Your aim should only be its removal.”
I picture Caleb seeing me in it and I’m tempted, but this isn’t the time to splash out on things I don’t need. “I’m broke and I don’t know when Caleb and I will be alone again. The twins are home next weekend and I can’t count on Jeremy even when he’s supposed to take them.”
“Let me watch the twins. I need some parenting practice before little Damien arrives anyway.” She pats her stomach as if his arrival is imminent and starts telling me about her latest plan to woo Michael. “Okay, so hear me out. When you and Caleb get married—”
“Married?” I laugh. “Molly, we just started dating.”
“I told you to hear me out. When you and Caleb get married, I’ll ask Michael to be my fake date and he’ll grow surprisingly protective of me when my ex, who happens to be there, either professes his love or behaves aggressively.”
There are so many things wrong with this plan I’m not sure where to begin, but—
“You’re okay if there’s a fistfight over me on the dance floor, yes?” she continues, walking to the register. “It won’t be during the first dance, obviously. Just later when everyone’s drunk.”
“Wasn’t your last boyfriend in grad school? Why would he be invited to my wedding?”
“You’re ruining this with logic again, Lucie. Doesn’t Caleb have a friend who’ll pretend to be in love with me?”
I raise a brow. “And get punched while he’s at it?”
“I think men have a higher pain tolerance. He’d barely notice.”
“Sure, Molly. At my wedding to a guy I just started seeing and who’s still married to someone else, I’ll make sure he has a friend willing to get punched on behalf of a stranger.”
She hands me a bag. “I bought you the bra and thong, by the way. Go have all the sex I’m not having with them on. Plus a vibrator for when he’s gone.”
I stare at the contents. “Oh, Molly, you shouldn’t have.”
“It just gets me that much closer to the fight at your wedding you’ve agreed to help me orchestrate,” she replies, “so we both benefit.”
I unlock the car and we climb in. “I’m not even sure his wife knows about the divorce yet. You might be waiting a long time.”