The Good Father

“Because, you know, I’ve been thinking,” Brett continued on as though if he kept talking, he wouldn’t have time to think about the night ahead. Him on the couch and Ella alone in the next room.

With a toddler sleeping in a porta-crib close by.

“You’ve been thinking...” Jeff held the same beer he’d had when he’d come out. It was still mostly full.

“Yeah, I’m wondering if the problem is that Chloe needs to go back to work. She’s extra sensitive right now, we know that. So maybe, without even realizing it, she’s a bit jealous that you’re out working every day while she’s at home. There’s no question that the work she’s doing is valuable, but she’s not getting outside validation from those who don’t love her. Maybe she sees her chances of having her own restaurant sliding further away.” He was on a roll. And was experiencing the first couple minutes that hadn’t been uncomfortable in the last several hours. “Ella was talking about how happy Chloe seems to be, working...”

“Chloe’s working?” Jeff’s smile turned into an immediate frown.

And Brett caught himself.

“Just volunteering. In a kitchen for people down on their luck.” He quickly improvised while sticking with a semblance of the truth.

“She’s in LA, isn’t she? With those college friends of hers. Her sorority sisters. I had a feeling that’s where she’d gone...” Jeff was smiling again. Apparently approving of the sisters.

Brett couldn’t answer the question.

Jeff didn’t seem to take offense as he continued. “Anyway, no, I mean, maybe that’s part of it and I’ll certainly take it up with her, but I still think she’s struggling with some kind of emotional phase. And now I’m pretty certain that there’s something else going on, too. At least from what she hinted at today.”

“What did she hint at?”

“I just have this hunch that Chloe is trying to get you and Ella back together.”

For the first time since Ella had contacted him, Brett had doubts where Jeff was concerned.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No. It’s crazy, I know, but think about it. She adores you both. Ella especially. And, I hate to say it, but you have no idea how close my sister came to breaking down completely after you left. Maybe if she hadn’t lost the baby, too, I don’t know...” Jeff finally took a drink of his beer. A long one. “And really, it’s water under the bridge. Don’t get me wrong. Chloe clearly wanted to get my attention. What I said that last night, about her burdening me with her crap—” The other man stopped. Swallowed. “It was unforgivable. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes...”

Brett would have liked to save Jeff from himself, but this time, he couldn’t. So he did what guys did in situations like these and sipped his beer instead.

“I’m just wondering now, though, if this time with her sorority sisters—I’m pretty sure that’s where she’s staying because it’s something she’s been talking about doing for months—has given her another goal, too.”

“Another goal.” He watched his friend, seriously contemplating the idea that Jeff was hiding from his own truth. The man was facing the fact that his wife would be leaving him again in the morning and he was smiling.

Jeff nodded.

“What goal would that be?” Brett was almost afraid to ask.

“Keeping you and Ella in the same room long enough for you to figure out how much you love and need Ella.”

“That’s ludicrous...”

“No, think about it. She goes to to LA but calls Ella to let her know where she is. Ella then calls you, you come see me and suddenly she sees her family whole again...”

Brett knew that Chloe wasn’t in LA. But the sorority sister part wasn’t really necessary to the plan Jeff was laying out...

“She gets to teach me the lesson I most definitely needed to learn. Has some time to come to grips with her own emotions and, in the midst of all that, sees that she can help you and Ella, too...”

Brett shook his head, came up with nothing to say and took another sip of his beer.

“Ella’s getting older,” Jeff said now, completely serious. “And as much as she’s made to be a mother, her biological clock’s ticking away. With everything she has to go through to conceive, Chloe says Ella’s adamant about never trying to have a baby again.”

That he hadn’t known. The part about never trying again. The knowledge was like another nail on the coffin that held his marriage. Had he made the fertility treatments and eventual pregnancy so hard on her, with his coldness and his inability to celebrate the eventual pregnancy, that she couldn’t face the thought of going through it all again?

“Anyway, she’s not even dating, and Chloe’s certain that she never will because Ella’s heart isn’t hers to give away. It’s yours.”

No. That just wasn’t true.