Page 53 of This Time Around
Eighteen
Rebecca
My girls.They were crazier than bats out of hell and more loyal than the blue heelers we used to have.
After Kelly helped Cooper lug all the boxes into the house, Brooke ran back out to her car, returning with a cloth grocery bag full of champagne and orange juice.
She mixed mimosas in glasses three times the size socially acceptable for day drinking, ushered us upstairs, and before I could tell her where the clothes were — the messy pile obvious — she crouched down and got straight to work.
I opened and taped the boxes and left the packing to Kelly and Brooke.It was harder to throw Joseph’s belongings inside them.
Kelly chatted to me about nothing and everything, mindless conversation done only to keep my mind off the task at hand, and it worked for awhile.
At least through the first four boxes where we managed to get most of Joseph’s clothes loaded and some of his shoes.At some point, Brooke took a couple boxes over to the dresser and started filling those as well.
Every toss of his clean, folded clothes, flying through the air sent a dagger of pain to my chest.The mimosas barely dulled the sharp edge slicing through me.
A stack of plaid pajama pants sailed through the air and the flash of green and blue made me jump off the bed and grab them.
Joseph’s pajama pants.
The ones Cooper had worn.
I gripped them in my hand and stared at them.I’d let another man wear my husband’s clothes.I’d liked seeing another man wear my husband’s clothes.I’d kissed another man, a man I was attracted to, and this morning when I woke up with that memory, regardless of how hard I tried to tell myself it wasn’t right, I couldn’t find it in me to wish I wouldn’t have done it.
Perhaps Cooper was that good of a kisser where he could kiss away my regret.
“Rebecca?”
That came from Kelly.Without looking up, I felt both of my friends staring at me.
“I asked him out on a date for tonight.”My voice was barely louder than a mumble.The green and blue pants burned my palm and I dropped them, wiping off the stinging sensation on my bare thigh.“I invited him over for dinner.”
“Dinner sounds nice,” Brooke said.She was using her soft tone.Her placating one she rarely pulled out.“Do you know what you’re thinking of cooking him?”
“You should make your enchiladas.They’re amazing.”
I shook my head, stood from the bed and went to the bathroom.My friends.They were nutty.
I grabbed Joseph’s toothbrush from the counter and walked out waving it in the air.“I haven’t been able to throw away my husband’s toothbrush, and last night, in this very room, I kissed Cooper and now he’s coming over for dinner.”
Brooke plucked the toothbrush from my hand and tossed it into the box behind her.“Joseph’s gone, Rebecca.He’s not your husband anymore.”
Her hands wrapped around my shoulders as she spoke.She was speaking kindly.
Every word still felt like an ice pick straight to my skull.
I blinked away tears.“I didn’t hate the kiss.I liked it.”
She grinned softly.“That’s okay.Kissing is good.”
She was no help.I turned to Kelly.“I think I like him.”
Her grin was sassy and said everything she was thinking.“There’s a lot to like.”
“You’re such an ass,” I said, laughing through tears.Freaking Kelly.“I didn’t mean his body.I meant him.”
Her grin faded.“I know.But I also know that if you liked him enough to kiss him, there has to be a lot to like about him other than the fact his jeans make his ass look oh-so-utterly amazeballs.”
