Page 1 of The Hampton Beach Café 6
ONE
Frances froze when she saw Malcolm reaching out to her, a look of mock compassion on his face. She took a step back, putting her hand up to stop him.
“What the hell are you talking about, Malcolm?” she asked, her voice shaking. “What do you mean I'm still your wife?”
“I just wanted to see you, to talk…” Malcolm replied, his eyes pleading with hers, “…but I can't talk about it here. Please, just trust me. I needed to sort something out…I can explain.”
Frances snorted. “Talk? Trust!? You disappeared for six months. You humiliated me. You go on public dates with your high school sweetheart, and now you expect me to just welcome you back with open arms?”
Malcolm's face fell, and he stepped back. “You're really going to try to use that against me? I'm not the only one guilty of stepping out with an old flame...”
His eyes darted to Alex, who was standing behind Frances and Lucinda in the street.
Oh no, Alex!She'd forgotten he was there. To be honest, she'd forgotten anyone was there other than her and her filthy, lying ex-husband.
Frances spun to look at Alex to find that he was perfectly calm, which made her more nervous than if he had been visibly upset. At least then she'd have known what he was thinking...
Lucinda stepped in, her voice raised. “Actually, jerkoff, what you needed to do was grow up and stop treating Frances like dirt. You don't get to just waltz back in here and act like nothing happened. You were selfish, crass, and cruel. But you know what you did that was worse than any of that? You came back. The best thing you ever did for her was leave and you couldn't even get that right.”
Malcolm looked stunned, as if he couldn't believe Lucinda was talking to him like this. “Listen, woman, how dare you speak to me like that! There are plenty of things I know about you that are shameful and—”
“You need to leave.”
Frances heard her words like they were piped in from somewhere far away.
“What?”
“You need to leave, right now,” Frances said, her voice growing stronger as she gained momentum. “I don't care why you're here, I don't care why you left, but if you don't leave this place right the hell now I'm going to scream…and I can't guarantee I'll stop.”
Malcolm looked like he was about to argue, but Lucinda cut him off.
“You heard the lady, Malcolm. Now get out of here before we call the police.”
At the word police, his attention pricked up. He glanced down at the flowers he was holding and hesitantly held them out to Frances. Resolutely, she refused to look down at them.
Anger prickled in his face, but Malcolm didn't say anything. He just turned and got back into the car he'd arrived in. He looked ridiculous, a small and dejected middle-aged man in a red sports car he didn't know how to drive.
He over-revved the engine as he left and Frances winced as the sound echoed down the street.
She didn't want to watch him go in case he looked in his mirror and saw her. The last few hours were so surreal that Frances wouldn't have been entirely shocked if she had rolled over in bed and woken up in the next few seconds.
Frances and Lucinda made their way back inside the café, but their path was blocked by Alex, who held out one hand in front of him and the other pressed against his forehead.
“You need to tell me what's going on,” Alex demanded. “Why was Malcolm here, Frances?”
“I don't know,” she said. “I mean, I only know what he just said. I don't know anything else…I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
“Still married,” he said in a low, hurt voice. “You're still married?”
She heard the unspoken words loud and clear—after all, she and Alex had been making out not so long ago. Frances shook her head, feeling numb. She didn't know why Malcolm was back and why he was saying those things. All that mattered to her, right now, was that Alex knew that she wasn’t married. She had told him she’d signed the papers the day she got them! But…Malcolm did sound so sure of his words…
“Not as far as I'm concerned,” she said, trying to convey equal meaning in her voice.
“As far as you're concerned?” he repeated, disbelief filling his voice. “I gotta go.”
As Alex turned to leave, Frances felt a pang of regret. She wanted to follow him and talk more, but knew it was better not to. She had to deal with Malcolm's sudden reappearance and figure out what it meant for her life—was she really still married to him?
She found that she was still standing in the street with Lucinda at her side as they watched Alex walk away from them.
