Excerpt: (Still Negotiating)

She dropped her eyes, squaring her shoulders. For awhile, she remained like that, then she checked to make sure Seth was still occupied. “This is a me and you only conversation, okay?” she said, locking his eyes with hers. When he nodded, she continued, “I thought I saw my ex. That’s ridiculous, of course. He moved halfway across the country years ago and hasn’t even been back for holidays.” She looked up at him, then quickly away. “His mother still checks up on me from time to time.”

“Your ex-husband's mother checks up on you?”

“Well, we dated all through high school, and she was my mother-in-law. We were close.” She twisted her wedding band around her finger. “It’s strange, though. I haven’t thought about him in years, and then a few weeks ago, I had a dream about him. Now I’m imagining him walking down the street.” She frowned, her brow wrinkling in delicate folds. “I wonder if he’s okay.”

“You could always call his mother,” Shain suggested, a little facetiously. Audrey’s previous marriage had left her with a lot of unresolved issues that cropped up from time to time in her relationship with Seth. Audrey generally didn’t say much about it, but on more than one occasion Seth had used Shain to vent, obsess and commiserate. The questions he wanted to ask would all reveal Seth’s indiscretion, so Shain tried to stay casual. “Or you could try getting in touch with him.”

She studied him carefully. “I don’t even know what I would say if I could find him,” she admitted. “It’s been almost six years. It’s hard to even imagine how different our lives are now from what they were.” She paused, looking out the window again. “How different he must be.”

It must be a strange thing, trying to imagine the new life of someone you once promised forever to. To try to picture them going to work, mowing the lawn, making a new life with someone else, having children… Shain was at a loss for what to say to her. None of his brief romantic encounters came anywhere near that level of commitment.

She smiled and blinked quickly. “I hope he’s happy, wherever he is.”