Eight Hundred Grapes

Michelle laughed, giving the old women a hearty shrug, smiling at Tropper gratefully. The mixed emotion she had been showing to me was gone from her face. Her winning smile back in its place.

A Few Good Men

Ben held two glasses of scotch in one hand, Maddie’s hand in his other, when I caught up to him. He gave me a smile, but I couldn’t make myself smile back.

“We need to talk,” I said.

Ben tilted his head. “Okay . . .” he said.

I took him in—tall and strong in his suit. Michelle could have any man in the world, and yet she was entirely fixated on this man—a man who wasn’t available to her. Was it as simple as that? It would be easier to believe it was—Michelle wanting what she couldn’t have, Michelle thinking she was entitled to it. Though she wanted him also because he was her child’s father, the two things rolling around togethe

r, the generous and selfish parts of herself, to make Ben feel like he was her soul mate.

Ben sent Maddie back to Michelle and took my hand, walked us to the edge of the tent, the vineyard side, the moon and stars shooting out over the vineyard, shining over the vines.

“What’s going on?” he said.

“I had a little talk with Michelle.”

He looked at me anxiously. “I knew her coming was a bad idea.”

“I’m just trying to understand if your visit to London was about our future there or your future there.”

“Our future.” He held my face in his hands. “Everything is about our future.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me about Surrey?”

“Surrey?” Ben looked at me, realizing what I now knew. “Georgia, come on.”

“It was more than Maddie, wasn’t it? You were trying to see if you could be a family. If you could be with her.”

Ben shook his head. “Of course not. It was always about Maddie.”

“What happened to no more secrets, Ben?”

“Nothing. Michelle tries to paint things in a light that she wants to see them in,” he said. “I told you Michelle is complicated.”

“Is she complicated or is she a liar?”

He pulled back, as if deciding how honest with me he needed to be. He picked his drink up, stalling.

“Look, when she came back, I had a moment, sure. I had a moment of thinking about this woman who broke me who was now the mother of my kid. Any man would have had the same moment of hesitation.”

I looked away from him, my heart dropping. “You didn’t tell me, though.”

“How would it have been helpful to tell you that? To tell you I was having a moment? Do you share with me every guy that crosses your mind?”

I was too struck by what he said to fight back. How could I fight back? He was right—any man would consider the most beautiful woman in the world, if she wanted him, if she was the mother of his child.

“I know Michelle is throwing you, and throwing out your idea of our plan together. But don’t let her.”

He leaned in and put his face up to my ear, whispering.

“The important thing is what I decided. I decided to stay with you. It was the easiest decision I ever made.”

I nodded and wrapped my arms around him, trying to trust his words. Still, something felt off in his explanation. It didn’t feel like the whole story. The whole story was that Michelle had left Ben. Now she wanted him back. That seemed to be the story.

And here was the problem—it wasn’t about Ben messing with our master plan—with my idea of what our ordered and lovely life was going to look like. It wasn’t about knowing I was going to have to navigate Michelle.