Page 12 of The Me I Left Behind

There was a brief pause, then he said, “We need to talk. Are the kids around?”

She looked at Carol, still standing there watching, listening. “No, the kids are all upstairs.” Hell, Carol knew everything anyway, so why shield her from any of this now? Besides, her ass was making a permanent dent in the stair tread.

“Good. Mags, things have changed in my life, and….”

“Oh, fuck, Max. Spare me the sordid story. I know what you are going to say. You got some chick knocked up in Australia and now you think you want to play house with her. So, go screw yourself and your new pitiful life, too.”

Again, silence from his end.

“Say something.”

“You think you got this all figured out, don’t you?”

“Jesus, Max. I don’t have a damn thing figured out, and I won’t until you stop changing the rules of the game. That’s all this is, right? A fucking game?”

Max snickered.

She was in no mood for his fucking games.“So, tell me. Why call today? Is there some sort of symbolism in that? New year? New kid? New woman? New life? What a fucking idiot I have been. Of all things, I truly did not see this coming.”

He laughed out loud. So loud, in fact, she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at Carol, who apparently could also hear him.

“Glad I could still surprise you, sweetheart. I thought perhaps I’d gone stale on that.”

She walked away from the stairs and Carol, and into the living room. Standing dead center in the room, between the piano and the massive wall of bookshelves, she stared out the picture window and into the street. “Max?”

“You don’t know everything.”

“I know enough.”

“So, Carol told you.”

She huffed. “Leave her alone. Do you hear me? She was upset. Devastated, really. Do you have any idea how traumatic something like that is for a kid? Especially for a child who adores you? No, you don’t, because you don’t fucking care.”

“I love my daughter, Maggie.”

“Right. So, you expected her to stay quiet and wait for you to call? Don’t put that kind of pressure on our kids. Jesus, Max. It’s been over a week. You could have called sooner.”

He ignored that. “Do the other kids know?”

Other kids. Like, Carol was the only one who really mattered. “No.”

“Good. Let me tell them.”

“Over my dead body,” she sneered.

“That would make things easier, don’t you think?”

Anxiety raced through her like a jolt of electrical current.Is that a threat?She turned back to seek Carol’s eyes, meeting her gaze. She still sat on the bottom step, her arms crossed over her chest, rocking a little. Maggie watched her pull in her lower lip with her teeth and bite. Nervous gestures.

“Of all the stupid shit, Max. This takes the cake.”

“Settle down, Maggie. Get a grip.”

She whirled back and paced again toward the window. “A grip? You wantmeto get a fucking grip? Jesus. Are you an adolescent? You’re forty-six years old.”

“I’m a grown man who can make his own decisions, Maggie.”

“Well, goody for you. When do I get to grow up? Make my own decisions. Fuck around on you?” The second those words were out of her mouth, she panicked. She knew how he’d take them.

---