Page 39 of My Favorite Lost Cause
20
CHARLIE
I’m at a beach bar with Elijah and a couple guys on the crew—lots of decks, picnic tables, beer in pitchers—but I’m enjoying myself less than I’d expected.
Some girls have wound up at our table. One of them is all over Elijah; another is all over me. I guess I’ll be taking her home, and I don’t know why I’m not more excited about that… It’s been over a week, after all. That’s a decade in Charlie years.
“So you’re from New York?” the girl shouts over the band. “I went there once on a school field trip.”
She starts telling me all about some guy grabbing her purse in Times Square, and I’m barely listening. I’m not sure why I lack the energy to act interested. I wish I’d just stayed back with Maren. I have a bad feeling, and I don’t know why.
I shoot her a text while the girl beside me isstilltalking about Times Square. We could have flown to New York in the length of time she’s spent telling this story.
You okay?
Maren
Not really.
When the fuck does Mareneveradmit things aren’t perfect?
“I’m sorry,” I tell the girl. “I need to make a call.”
I’m already walking outside as I hit Maren’s number.
“What’s up?” I demand the second she answers.
“I’m just—” Her voice wavers, then cracks.
“What happened?” I hiss.
Her swallow is audible. “He gave away the dogs,” she whispers, and then she lets out this wail, a sound that rips my heart from my chest. I’ve seen Maren tear up. I’ve never heard her cry likethis.
I blink, not understanding. “He didwhat?”
“My dogs,” she sobs. “Echo and Narcy. Harvey gave them to his sister’s kids.”
“Mare,” I say, looking at the smokers around me as if they might help make sense of this, “I don’t understand. You mean they’rewatchingthe dogs?”
“No,” she chokes out. “He gave one to each of the kids as a belated birthday gift. He said I needed to focus on IVF. That they’d made me too complacent.”
What the fuck?
Anyone who has seen Maren with those dogs for five seconds knows she’s obsessed with them, that she carries them in her arms and coos to them, and thinks every single thing they do is adorable when it isn’t.
I don’t even like dogs. But only a monster would have done something like this.
“Go to bed,” I tell her. “If Harvey calls, don’t answer. We’ll figure this out in the morning.”
“Okay.” She sounds like she doesn’t believe me, but why would she? She’s under the impression that there’s nothing to figure out because Maren can’t conceive of demanding her dogs back from two little kids.
Fortunately for her, I like kids even less than I like dogs.
I go back inside the bar, ignoring the girls while I tell Elijah I’m taking off.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
I give him a small shake of my head. “I’ve got to get back to New York. I’m going to see if Maren’s stepfather can hook me up with a ride, but otherwise there’s a six AM flight out in the morning.”
