Page 2 of French Escapade

I open her bedroom door. It’s such a mess in there that I have to walk to the bed to make sure she’s not sleeping in it.

Nope.

She must be at on campus.

I can keep busy waiting for her return. I start with the mailbox. It’s full. She must have forgotten about it. Why am I not surprised?

I quickly scan through the envelopes and drop them on the dining room table. Nothing that can’t wait. I bring my bag to my bedroom and pull my cell phone from the bedside table to plug in.

A warm shower, and I’ll rest for an hour while it charges.

* * *

Some hours are longer than others.

It’s pitch black when I open my eyes again. I had no idea I was so tired. The clock on the nightstand tells me it’s ten pm. And Madison is not back.

I turn on my phone, and the minute it takes to boot up seems to last forever.

The phone buzzes to let me know I have messages, but for now, I ignore them.

I press Madison’s number.

“Hey, you wanna talk to me, I can’t right now. So you know what to do.”

“Madison, it’s Ken. I’m home. It’s 10 PM. Where are you?”

I hang up and am about to listen to my messages when the front door opens.

“Madison?” I call out while getting up.

“Nah, Ken, it’s me,” Jimmy answers.

“What are you doing here?” I say, joining him in the living room.

“Don’t you have an old Macallan?” he asks, searching my liquor closet.

“I do, or at least I did when we left,” I answer, coming closer to help him look. “But you still haven’t told me what you’re doing here. I would have thought you …”

“She’s gone.”

“Gone.”

“Gone, moved, vanished, taken a powder …” He stops as if suddenly out of alternatives.

“Oooookay.” I stretch out the word searching for something else to say.

With the television, the sofa, the living room computer, and the Xbox.”

“She took the Xbox, too?” My anger is real.

I’m not surprised Marie dumped him. He deserved it. Not because we’ve been away so much during the past two years. After all, she knew he was a military man, an intelligence man. Being gone a lot is part of the job.

The real issue was that even when we were around, Jimmy was not all there, not invested in the relationship.

“Yeah, The Xbox as well.” He pulls the bottle he’s searching for out of the closet with a huge smile. But it could be worse.”

“Plenty of fish in the sea.” I fetch a glass for him.

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