Frayed Silk(27)

“You agreed to being friends? I told you to delete his number, you idiot,” she hisses quietly at me. Not having a retort for that, I simply stare down at the ground, wondering what the hell I should do now. She’s right. I’m being so stupid. But as much as I’m grateful to have a friend by my side who isn’t afraid to call me out on my shit, it’s all so much easier said than done.

She sighs loudly then leans next to me against my car. “Lia, can’t you just end it?”

“End what?” I mumble. “I don’t even know what it is.”

She angles herself to face me. “You do. It’s obvious the guy is either enjoying playing with you a little too much, or he’s really into you.”

Playing with me? I frown. Sure, maybe at first he was, but now … I remember the sad look he gave me in the hallway on Friday and the lack of text messages since then. I even caved and sent him one last night, checking that he was okay before I went to bed. He didn’t reply, which kind of stung.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to hurt him, but he makes me feel …” I blow out a breath, stirring some of my hair from my face as I glance up at the sky. “Good.”

“I get that, I do. I’m just worried about the fallout, that’s all,” Lola says.

“Me too. I think it’s just gone too far, too fast, and now I’m not so sure how to leave it alone. He’s fun. And being with him, I don’t feel like a wounded wife or a busy mother. I’m just me for a little while.”

“Until you come back to your real life, Lia.” She pats my shoulder and tears start to gather in my eyes.

“It’s addictive, feeling that freedom,” I whisper. “Even if you know it’s fleeting.”

Tires suddenly screech into the parking lot, and we look over to find Fiona’s Escalade jumping the curb then flattening a flowerbed as it speeds down to the front gate entry to the school. The groundskeeper is walking over to close it as Fiona jumps out of the car, shouting orders to her boys. “Move it, let’s go.” She opens their doors and passes them their bags as they move unhurriedly toward the gate.

“Ma’am, you’re gonna have to pay for replanting that flowerbed,” Harold, the groundskeeper, says. He’s around eighty years old, and from what Taylor and Leo have told me, he’s worked here as long as they can remember. Even when Leo attended as a child.

“Yeah, yeah,” she huffs, slamming doors and waving her arms around for the boys to hurry up and get to class. “Put it on the huge tab you assholes make us pay every semester.”

Lola and I glance at each other, brows rising, before looking back at Fiona. She may be a little dramatic at times, but she’s clearly more than pissed off about something today.

“Get your idiot of a father to call me, boys! Apparently, he’s picking you up,” Fiona hollers. Rupert just keeps walking while Henry waves meekly at her in response as they disappear inside the school.

Then she finally turns to us, eyes widening with her hands on her hips.

“Shit, ladies, I’m sorry.” She moves her sunglasses to the top of her head, wiping underneath her eye. “I didn’t even see you there.” She laughs, but it lacks humor as she walks over to us.

“All good,” Lola says. “One of those mornings?”

I watch Fiona, the way her chest slowly heaves and then gets faster and faster. “Oh, fuck it. Everyone’s going to know sooner or later,” Fiona blurts. “Dylan is leaving me. This weekend, he told me he wants a … a divorce.” The word divorce is whispered as if she can’t believe it’s a word she needs to use.

Holy shit. I rush over to her, wrapping my arms around her as she bursts into tears with her head on my shoulder. Lola comes over and rubs her back. We stand here for a while, letting her cry in the middle of the school parking lot until she finally straightens, sniffling and wiping underneath her eyes. I run to my car, digging out my pack of wet wipes that I keep in there and pass her some for her to mop up the black streaks of mascara running down her face.

“Thank you,” she mumbles, dabbing at her cheeks.

“Don’t mention it. What happened?” I ask.

She takes a deep breath. “I don’t know. He’s been a miserable ass to live with these past few weeks.” She sniffles again, folding up the black stained wet wipes in her French manicured fingers. “I suspect he’s met someone. Probably one of the floozies at his office who work for him.” She rolls her eyes. “Asshole.”

Lola and I nod, agreeing. “What a dick,” Lola says. “What are you going to do?”

Fiona shrugs. “I don’t know. He thinks he’s keeping the house and the kids.” Scoffing, she says, “Over my dead body. But he’s supposedly staying at a hotel in the city until I leave.”

“He just left you there? With the boys?” Lola asks, her eyes bulging and her tone sharpening.

Fiona laughs then stops as she hiccups and starts to cry again. “Yep, he sure did.”

“Jesus Christ,” I mutter. “What do you need? What can we do to help?”

She gives me a watery smile. “You’re so nice, but I don’t even know myself at this stage.”

If only she knew, I think to myself.

Lola chews on her bottom lip as she watches Fiona with clear pity in her eyes.