The Husband Hour(86)

She braced herself for the guilt; so far, it hadn’t come. Instead, she felt an odd relief, a sense that somehow a former version of herself had been restored. But since there had never been a sexual version of herself that didn’t involve Rory, it couldn’t be a return to anything. It was something new.

She reached for her top and shorts and put them on under the sheet.

“Don’t go,” Matt said.

“Just need the bathroom.”

She didn’t plan on staying, but still, it was nice to hear him ask her to. On the way to the bathroom, she passed his desk and the map of index cards taped above it. She told herself not to look, not to think about Rory and the film. She wanted Matt and Rory to be separate, not only in that moment, but forever in her mind. But one card caught her eye: Stephanie reveal.

She turned to Matt.

“What’s this mean?”

Matt jumped up, looking at the board as if wondering how it got there. Or maybe wondering how he had left it there.

“It’s nothing,” he said, moving next to her, taking a few sheets of printer paper, and tacking them over the index cards.

Was he serious? “You’re not letting me look at the storyboard?”

“Lauren, I don’t want to talk about the film right now. I don’t want to think about the film right now. I just want to be you and me—a man and a woman. I think we both deserve that for just an hour. I know you sure as hell do.”

He put his arms around her, and she forced herself to look into his green eyes, not at the words hanging on the wall. He kissed her.

“I’m going to make a run down to the kitchen for coffee. How do you take yours?”

“Um, milk and sugar.”

He hesitated.

“What is it?” she said.

“I’m hoping you’ll come see me in New York.”

She looked at him blankly, the words not quite registering. “You want me to…come to New York?”

“Well, yeah. Don’t look so surprised. Some people find it an interesting place to visit.”

She smiled. “So I’ve heard. But seriously. This is…I have to process this.”

He kissed her cheek. “Okay, process. I’ll be back with coffee.”

When he was gone, Lauren used the bathroom, then looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her cheeks were flushed; her face appeared different to her own eyes. For the first time in a very long while, she felt pretty.

She ran her hands under the water and stared at her wedding band. A sob rose in her chest, but she held it back. It’s okay, she told herself.

The ring should come off. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

In the bedroom, the maze of index cards called to her. Stephanie reveal.

What did it mean? Was Matt hiding something from her?

Lauren walked to the desk. She didn’t know exactly what she was looking for, but the flip book was still there—the place where he kept hard copies of his interviews. All the discs were in chronological order, and she quickly found the one labeled with Stephanie’s name and a date. But she’d seen it already. There was no “reveal,” nothing much of interest at all. She kept looking, not sure what she expected to find. And then she saw it: Stephanie #2.

Heart pounding, she slipped both files in her pocket. And she left.



Beth placed the hot-dog buns facedown on the grill for just a few seconds before dropping them onto the serving tray. Stephanie had set up her iPhone on a dock to play a monotonous female pop album—Lady Gaga or Katy Perry or some such. But it was the sound of happiness, because it had been the backdrop to telling Ethan the news that he would be living at the beach from now on, and his little face had lit up in a way that Beth would remember for the rest of her life. She only wished Howard had been there to see it. A shared smile between them over Ethan’s joy might have been a bridge back to each other.

“Aunt Lauren!”

Beth turned around. Ethan ran up to Lauren and jumped into her arms.

“Hey, kiddo. Easy there,” Lauren said.

“I thought you were working today,” Beth said.

“Yeah, long story.”

“Aunt Lauren, I’m going to live here! With you! Forever!” Ethan said.

Lauren eyed Beth. “Forever, huh? Well, I don’t know about that. We might have to ship you off to Hogwarts at some point.”

“Sit and have lunch with us,” Beth said.

“I can’t, Mom. I have stuff to do. I need to be alone.”

Okay.





Chapter Forty-Six



Lauren emptied every drawer in her bedroom hunting for her computer charger, mentally combing over the past week in her mind. When had Matt interviewed Stephanie a second time? Was there any way he’d just forgotten to mention it to her? Had she seen him the day it happened?

She finally found the charger under her bed. She didn’t even bother moving to a chair. She plugged in her laptop and slipped the HD card into the port.

The clips filled her screen, and before she pressed Play, she could see that Stephanie was in Matt’s room. This bothered her in ways she couldn’t fully deal with in the moment.

Stephanie wore jeans and a T-shirt with a black and pink floral design. Her face was tight with tension.

Lauren watched impatiently, waiting for whatever it was she’d thought she’d find. Five minutes in, she paused, backed up a few seconds, and hit Play again.