I sighed as I walked back to my car. Even after the divorce, living with my ex had pretty much felt the same as being married to him. To some extent I still answered to him. Still shopped, cooked, even cleaned for the both of us sometimes. Looking back now, I realized more than ever I should’ve gotten out of there a long time ago.
Garrett…
In all the happiness of shopping with Lauren, I’d forgotten all about Garrett’s missed phone call. What the hell did he want, anyway? He hadn’t left a message. Maybe he’d finished boxing up the rest of my stuff?
Whatever it was, it could wait. I wasn’t calling him back anytime soon. Tonight was special, and I wanted to focus solely on—
“Hey Claudia.”
The sight of my ex husband standing there on the sidewalk threw me physically backwards. I had to blink three times to make sure it was him.
“W—What are doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you,” Garrett said. “You didn’t call me back so…” His statement trailed off awkwardly.
“So you stalked me?” I asked incredulously.
“Oh relax,” he said, with just a hint of his trademark sneer. “It’s nothing that ominous. I saw you were in town so I came to see if we could sit down for a few minutes. You’re still sharing locating services with me, remember?”
Oh shit.
I pulled out my phone. Pressed a few buttons. “Not anymore.”
Garrett sighed. “Fine, I guess I had that coming. But now that we’re both here, could you at least give me ten minutes?”
My better judgment told me to walk away, but Garrett was never any good at taking no for an answer. I’d spend ten minutes just arguing that I wouldn’t spend ten minutes with him.
“I’ll give you five.” I grumbled.
Less than a block later we were at an old coffee shop, sitting across from each other in the front window. I wanted as public a place as possible. Not that I didn’t trust him — Garrett was many things, but not that big of a creep — but mostly because I wanted an excuse to duck out as soon as I’d heard what he had to say.
“You sure you don’t want anything?” he asked, dumping su
gar in his cup.
“No, I just ate.”
“Fine,” he sighed. “By the way, you look really good…”
Flattery. That’s a new one.
Actually it was an old one. Garrett hadn’t actually said something nice about me in just about forever.
He must want something.
“What do you want Garrett?”
He looked away for a moment, his eyes wandering across the street as if staring off into nothing. I could see him thinking. Trying to form the words. Trying to say as much as possible by revealing as little as possible, because that’s the way he always worked.
“I want you back,” he finally blurted.
The words were alien to me at first, like he was speaking a different language. When their meaning finally struck home, I nearly choked on my own laugh.
“I’m serious,” he went on. “Claudia I made a huge mistake. I never should have let our marriage fall apart. And when we were separated… I should’ve fixed it. I should’ve never—”
“Screwed a half dozen other women?” I jumped in. “While trying to ‘find out’ what you really want?”
He winced as he sipped his coffee. “Yeah, that’s fair. I guess I had that one coming too.”