Page 33 of First Date: Divorce
Why didn’t she tell me?
Stupid.The question and the twinge.
They were strangers.Barely met.
They’d finish this and they’d still be strangers.
Then they’d go their separate ways.
Pauline wasn’t done.“Can’t stand to look at them, much less have someone eat one in front of her.Here she comes.Good thing you have me around to remind you—”
“No bananas.Got it.”
“And a lot more work.”
*
K.D.wasn’t sure she’d ever worked harder.Not this kind of work, anyway.
Thinking of likes and dislikes that were such an automatic part of her that she forgot them, writing them down, sharing them with Eric, then memorizing his.
And that was the easy part.
Because the other area they tackled centered on issues in their “marriage.”
After eating the takeout dinner Eric picked up in town, followed by cookies, they sat at the island listing ways they could disagree about topics Pauline labeled as: Having Kids, Trust, Communication, and Extended Family.
Pauline left.They kept working.
They’d agreed on how to present kids as a relationship problem — he wanted them, she didn’t — without much elaboration.Trust and Communication would be mostly fictional since they both came out in favor of honesty, fidelity, and loyalty, while the smaller issues tied into having a day-to-day relationship.They’d have to wing those.
Extended Family turned out to be a bust.
He liked his and didn’t want to make them out to be bad guys even in this fictional scenario.
When she first said she didn’t have any extended family, he’d looked taken aback.After hearing her mother raised her alone, then married after K.D.left home and she didn’t really know the man, he accepted that.
K.D.met Mark Brown when she was home between college graduation and the academy.She’d been fortunate to get in quickly.She’d also worked her tail off.With studies, with volunteering to get recs from law enforcement, with physical training.She’d kept it up in those weeks before the academy, too.
She’d noticed the guy dating her mom, but no reason to think he’d last.None of the others had.
So it shocked her when her mother called and said they were getting married and asked her to come to the wedding.
She’d swapped assignments around to get one day off, driving overnight to reach her hometown.A quick shower and change of clothes and they were at the tiny chapel for the simple ceremony.A few photos, a reception in the church basement, saying hello to a few of her mother’s co-workers and former neighbors K.D.barely remembered, meeting Mark’s unprepossessing family, then back on the road, back to the academy.
Since then, she’d gone home for a couple awkward overnights.Then persuaded her mother, instead, to drive partway to meet her for lunch while Mark worked.She hoped that would get her mother to open up about being married to Mark beyond dutifully saying she was happy.But Janeece Hamilton Brown never did.
Not during those lunches.Certainly not during their phone calls with Mark lurking in the background.
K.D.didn’t include those details in what she told Eric.
Around ten, Eric stood, stretching his long frame.“Let’s take a break.Want ice cream?”
“That sounds good.”
He got a carton of butter pecan from the freezer.Without turning around from taking down two dishes, he asked, “Want a banana on top?I like mine like that.”
“No, thanks.”She switched sheets of paper, looking for the date he graduated from college.Why could she not remember that?
