Page 86 of Give & Take

It’s not because Mike’s not there. It’s because he’s…done something to his face.

“You okay?” Mike asks, fingering the new little triangle of hair under his bottom lip.

I’m trying extremely hard to keep a straight face.

“Yup,” I say. I clear my throat. “That’s new, isn’t it?”

“This?” Mike asks, stroking the miniature goatee like he’s a D-list villain.

On a normal day, I’d roll my eyes at corporate, straight-laced Mike with a geometrical soul patch. But with the wholegrass-patch ass-patchthing? It’s nearly too much.

“Remember I told you I started doing some work for Richard Boswell?” Mike asks.

Richard Boswell is this actor who moonlights as a spiritual guru, who I think also sells some kind of pyramid scheme skincare products.

“I didn’t?—”

Mike continues as if I haven’t said a word. “Well, you know, Riki tells his whole team to liveauthentically. I just figured it’s been a long time since I expressed myself through my body. You know?”

“Cool,” I say, even though this vibe is the absolute antithesis of cool. But I’m kind of amazed. Mike just fully interrupted me, which would have made me lose it a few weeks ago. Today? I feel nothing. Not even annoyed.

It’s a revelation.

It’s Raph, shrugging.The grass will grow back.

“Oh, Hi, Dad,” Nova said, coming back to the room with her sister after washing up.

Okay, now if the girls had seen that, I would have pointed out that interrupting is not okay. But this time I let it slide. My peace is valuable.

Aurora immediately squints and sticks her finger out, rubbing it back and forth on my laptop screen.

“Aurora, what are you doing?” I ask.

“There’s something there.”

“No,” Nova says wearily, “That’s just dad’s face.”

“You dig it?” Mike asks.

“Dig what?” Aurora asks. “A hole?”

I abruptly stand up, mumbling something about letting them chat.

Mike chuckles, doing a little drum-beat on his coffee table as I walk away. “Let me tell you about digging it,” he tells the kids.

I picture Mike playing bongo drums with his new buddy Riki and nearly cough-splatter the water I drank to avoid laughing out loud.

Mike is so far from the man I married.

But I hesitate on that thought as I head toward the deck to give them time.

Is he really that different than he was then? He was smart. Somewhat charming. A go-getter and full of compliments for me. He’s the same now, minus the compliments.

But I never felt that extreme chemistry people talked about even in the early days of our relationship. The chemistry I always thought was made up, until I met Raph.

Raphael LaForest makes me feel like the inside of a grilled cheese sandwich.

My mind reels once again as I step out onto the back deck, thinking about my moment yesterday morning. I have neverneverfelt compelled to do something like that before. Ever.

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