Page 47 of A Week Away
“You haven’t opened it yet.”
“It’s not what I wanted.”
He sighed. “I know what you wanted, Joanne, but I’m not working. I have to pay the rent, we have to eat.”
“We’ve been married more than three years. I think I deserve an engagement ring.”
“I didn’t say you don’t deserve it. I said I can’t afford it.”
“This isn’t what I wanted.”
“Open it. You might like it anyway.”
“I didn’t mean the cruddy present. I meantthis.”
“Maybe it’s not what I wanted either. But it’s what we have.”
“You think I should have gotten rid of him.”
“I didn’t say that. When did I say that? I love the kid.”
“If you really loved the kid you’d try harder to make me happy.”
He struggled with the sense of that for a moment, then he asked a question that had been bothering him for a long time. “Why did you fight so hard to have him? Most of the time it seems like you don’t want him around.”
There wasn’t time to answer. The waiter was back with her martini and an empty glass for wine. When he asked if they were ready to order Dominick said they’d wait.
“But bring us a shrimp cocktail,” Joanne added.
“Of course,” the waiter said before drifting off.
Dominick had been watching his wife’s neck. Beneath the collar of her lavender top there was a flash of gold. It had been distracting him since they got into the car. It looked like it was real gold. Not that he had much experience, but you didn’t have to be a jeweler to recognize quality.
“Where’d you get the chain?”
“Bought it.”
“Let me see it.”
“I said I bought it.”
“Yeah, so let me see it.”
She pulled it over the collar of her blouse. It said JOANNE in script.
“Somebody gave that to you.”
“No. I bought it.”
“You didn’t buy it.”
“Okay. Fine. I stole it. It’s not hard.”
“You’re shoplifting? You’ve got a baby, you can’t get yourself arrested!”
“I didn’t get arrested. I told you, it’s not hard.”
“You could have gotten arrested.”
