Page 5 of Suddenly Dating
“I’mnotletting him off the hook! I divorced him, remember?”
“The man is a dick. Get mad! Call him a dick!”
“Why do I have to call him a name?”
“Because you do!” Sara exclaimed, arms flailing. “He cheated on you! Am I right?” she asked, looking around to the other three divorcées.
John shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt anything to call him a few names. Get it off the chest, you know?”
“Russell definitely called me some names,” Betty snorted.
“Everyone, let’s remember our rules. No judgments,” Tamira reminded the group, and to Sara, she said pointedly, “Please don’t project your anger with Zach onto Lola.”
“I’m not projecting my anger with Zach onto her,” Sara said, mimicking Tamira sarcastically. “I’m projecting my anger withherlike a missile right into her kisser. She sits here every week and doodles on her notepad like she is so above us.”
“That’s not true!” Lola objected.
“It’s kind of true,” Betty said, without rancor. “If you don’t have any issues from your divorce, why are you coming?”
“Because!”
Everyone leaned forward, waiting for her to expound.
Because Sara had asked her to? Because she had trouble saying no? Because she hid the truth of her sorry life from everyone and always had because that is how she’d learned to survive? Because she’d buried the pain of Will’s betrayal in a hole so deep she couldn’t dig it out if she tried?
“Because, Lola, maybe youdohave some issues you need to deal with, and your subconscious is aware of it,” Tamira suggested. She was practically levitating out of her seat with eagerness, as if she’d just led Lola toward some miraculous breakthrough.
“Ofcourseshe has issues she needs to deal with. You don’t get divorced and not haveissues,” Sara said with a roll of her eyes.
The issue right now, Lola realized, was that she’d twisted herself into a human pretzel.
“Well, okay!” Tamira said. “I think we’re getting somewhere.”
Lola wondered where exactly they were getting, but she knew where she was getting, and that was the hell out of this group.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have time to tackle all of Lola’s lingering issues today. So next week, we’ll talk more about it.”
“I don’t have lingering issues,” Lola insisted.
“In the meantime, I’d like you all to read chapter seven from your handbook for next week,” Tamira said, ignoring Lola. “Sorry, but I have to run. Please don’t leave empty cups and napkins. There is a Zumba class in here after us, and I’ve had a few complaints.”
Everyone else had left by the time Lola had obediently picked up the room. Sara had left with Betty, talking in low voices with their heads together, probably about Lola. Lola tucked her dirty cake pan under her arm, kicked the door open with her foot, and strode out of the building and into a breezy spring day. She walked across the Brooklyn College campus, headed for Flatbush Avenue and the subway.
She wasn’t coming back. She’d have to deal with Sara in yoga class, but Lola had played at this “divorce trauma” long enough, and by God, someone else could make a damn cake—
“Hey!Hey!”
Lola whipped around.
Sara was striding for her, with her arms and the fringe on her leather vest swinging with each violent step. “What the hell is the matter with you? Why are you letting your ex off the hook?”
“I didn’t let him off the hook!” Lola said angrily. She wasn’t angry with Sara, but with herself, because maybe she had let Will off the hook. She was always letting people off that goddamn hook. “Why are you giving me such a hard time about it?”
“Are you kidding me? I have tried to help you—”
“If by helping, you mean having me sit while you talk aboutyourdivorce—”
“And you sit there week after week, you never say a word, and when you do, you’re practically apologizing for having divorced a dickhead who I find out today was cheating on you!”
