Carolina’s heart tugged for the woman. “I found out at a party where all our friends were.” She blinked. “Now looking back on it, they all knew. But didn’t tell me.”
“Then they don’t sound like very good friends.”
Carolina nodded. “You’re right. I need to be more selective. In friends as well as husbands.”
“Your husband will regret leaving you. They usually do. Or so my therapist said.” She shook her head.
“I doubt that. He got her pregnant.”
Rebecca’s eyes widened.
“And they are currently on a honeymoon in Paris, where I cannot get in touch with him about the repairs needed on this house.” Her words held a spark of anger.
Rebecca stopped typing and looked at her. “He married her?”
“Yes. So you see, he won’t regret it.”
“How old is the guy?”
“We are both forty.”
“Does he realize he’s going to be attending the kid’s high school graduation when he’s almost sixty?” Rebecca snorted.
Carolina shrugged slightly. “I guess so.”
“He’ll be paying for at least four years of college after that.” Rebecca snorted again. “I’ll stand by my statement. He’ll regret what he did. Eventually. It’s all fun and games until the young wife wants to go clubbing and all he wants is to watch Netflix and grill.”
That brought a smile to Carolina’s face. “I didn’t think about it that way.”
“You should.” Rebecca lifted her chin. “Again, it’s their loss, not ours.”
“Thank you. Regardless of what happens with the loan, I appreciate your encouraging words.” Carolina felt lighter.
Rebecca went back to her typing. “So do you have a job yet?”
“No, but I have alimony. For a while.” She bit her lip. “I know I should be looking but I don’t know what I would be good at. I never went to college. Just married Chris right out of high school.”
Rebecca nodded. “In order to get a home equity line-of-credit we are going to need to see paperwork proving expected alimony. The suits upstairs are kind of wiggy about extending credit when they can’t assure the income is there to pay the loan back. You understand?”
Carolina thought that made sense. In fact, none of what Rebecca said came as a surprise. She nodded. “Okay, sure. I can try and get you whatever you need.”
“In addition, we will need an estimate of how much the roof repairs are going to cost.”
“Oh, I have that already. I had two different guys come out and give me an estimate.” She pulled those papers out of her purse and handed them to Rebecca.
Rebecca nodded at the first estimate and then looked at the scrap of paper. A small grin crossed her lips. “You called Thomas Harding.”
“Yes. Do you know him?”
She grinned and nodded. “Have you decided on who to use?”
“Well, Randy was very polite and even covered the leak with a tarp at no charge to me. Thomas seemed knowledgeable, but he wasn’t all that personable, if you want to know the truth. In fact, he edged on being a little rude.”
“But you didn’t rule him out?”
“Well, no. He gave me the impression he would be a hard worker. And I’m trying to learn to not make decisions based on emotions.”
Rebecca smiled and handed her Thomas’s estimate. “I’ll give you the loan as long as you use Thomas.”
