When she woke, still crumpled on the floor in the hallway, she had a text from Glen. I dropped Jordie off at your parents' home. You can pick him up there. Don't worry. I didn't tell them anything. But what did he tell Jordie? That was the question rattling around in her brain right then. She moved, every muscle screaming at her for the way she slept last night. She deserved the agony. She deserved worse. All she had wanted was to feel again, to have the adventures she used to have that made her feel alive, even those adventures in the end left her high and dry. She wasn't sure when she fell asleep. When Glen left, all she could do was crumble to the floor and cry until no more tears flowed. It felt like forever ago.Cherish heard the front door open. "Anyone home?" It was Aubrey, their neighbor, which meant Cherish slept all night on the floor with the front door unlocked. Glen always made sure to lock the house up before he went to bed."I'm here," Cherish said as she forced herself
Glen dropped Jordie off at the Driscolls' and sent Cherish a note telling her she could pick him up there. He just didn't want to face her again, didn't want to listen to more of her justifications and hurtful words. He didn't think he could take any more pain. Not from the woman for whom he sacrificed everything.Instead, he texted Brent Dodson, his partner at Melbourne Docks and Piers, and told him to meet him for a beer. Of course, Brent, always up for a cold one, said no problem, and thirty minutes later, they sat around a bar table at Grill's, overlooking the Indian River, Glen pouring his guts out to his friend. The night before, he gave his parents a quick synopsis of what transpired between Cherish and himself. Both said he was free to stay at their place as long as he needed, his mother seeming as if she knew this would happen and felt justified in her feelings toward Cherish, which had never been accepting. Glen spent the night sleeping next to Jordie, but not really sleeping
It didn't go well with her parents. Cherish stopped by their house to pick up Jordie, and her mother, ever the nosy one, was full of interrogating questions Cherish couldn't avoid. After all, Glen never dropped Jordie off on the weekend, and why wasn't Cherish with him when he did? After sending Jordie out to the backyard to play in the sandbox his grandpa made for him, she dumped everything on her parents in one lengthy monotone monologue. She screwed up, and she owned it. Her mother went hysterical at first, blaming Edwin for seducing her daughter and Glen for not satisfying Cherish. It was everyone's fault but Cherish's. Valerie Driscoll even managed to somehow make Cherish's affair Faith's fault. Cherish just shook her head, not saying a word. Her father, Arni Driscoll, just sat there, his hands on the top of his head as he stared into space. He said nothing. He didn't condemn her. He didn't join in his wife's rant against everyone else who failed his daughter. He just sat there. W
Selby was the one who finally broke the silence, his expression one of sympathy. She should have known they would know about Glen leaving her, probably had a party about it, laughing at her. "Hey, Cherish. Your mom told us what happened. I'm sorry to hear what's happening."Cherish glanced at him and nodded. "Me, too. Thanks."Faith continued to stare. "Why are you here?" Cherish's sister had really perfected her bitch face.Cherish looked out at the breaking waves, then down at the beach. She struggled to hold it together, bouncing between being angry and just feeling lost. Finally, she stared down at her hands. "I don't know what to do. I've lost Glen. You've got Edwin. I …""I don't have Edwin." Faith's voice wasn't a shout, but it was cold and hard. "I have Selby."Cherish snorted a short laugh. "You were fucking Edwin. I'm not stupid." She glanced at Selby. "He seduced your wife, too.""No, he didn't," Selby said.Were they really going to deny it? "Bullshit. Your wife isn't Miss
Glen stood on his parents' back porch staring up at the clouds drifting by as his thoughts churned. Cherish called, telling him about her conversation with Faith and Selby, wanting him to know they were right, and Faith actually fucked Edwin. Selby even knew about it and was happy. All Glen could tell her was that at least Selby knew and wasn't blindsided. What the Greers did in their marriage was up to them. He didn't care. What he cared about was his wife cheating on him and knowing she would go to work tomorrow, side-by-side with her lover. "Ex-lover," Cherish reminded him, but he didn't care. She wanted him to come home, but he couldn't. Not yet. Not while she still worked at Rutherford Construction.He heard footsteps behind him. "Here," his mother said as she stepped up beside him, a coffee mug with a rooster painted on the front in her hand. "I thought you could use a cup of coffee. A hot beverage always helps ease tense emotions."Giving his mother a weak smile, he muttered his
Cherish pulled up in front of the Lansky home, the other Lansky home, her stomach a twisted knot ready to snap and send her hurling into the bushes. Faith and Selby's words haunted her with how accurate they were. She had screwed the pooch, being her typical selfish, bitchy self, and it was time for her to fix it. It was time to talk to Glen, and if she was honest with herself, she wasn't sure she had the guts for it. He didn't seem too willing to talk on the phone earlier.She shifted the car into park and turned off the engine, but she didn't make a move to open her door. Instead, she stared at the front of her in-laws's house, dreading knocking on their door. She had thought about just texting Glen and asking him to meet her outside, so she could avoid the judgmental glares she knew Brenda Lansky would give her, but then decided against it. She deserved those glares.Once Cherish left her sister's house, she drove around for a while, not even paying attention to where she drove. She
Glen watched Cherish slip through the doorway, her shoulders slumped, face downcast. He knew she hoped he would give in, return home, and pick up where they left off, but how did she expect him to forget what she did?He walked back over to the table, picked up his beer bottle, and downed the rest of its contents. The coolness of the beer did nothing to assuage the burning in his heart, however. This was a frickin' nightmare.He glanced down at his beer bottle—empty beer bottle, that is. He needed another one. With a shake of his head, he turned and walked back inside his parents' house. His mother sat in front of the television, watching a rerun of Wheel of Fortune while his father read the Sunday paper, something Glen didn't see many people do these days. As he walked through to the kitchen, his father glanced up at him, but said nothing. His mother, however, could never allow anything to go when it came to making a dig at Cherish."She didn't stay long," Glen's mother said as she gl
If Glen would ever forgive her, she needed to get out of Rutherford Construction and stay away from Edwin. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she drove, her mind repeating the look in her father's eyes when she told him of her affair, a look that was like a knife in her gut that wouldn't stop twisting. She lost it all, her husband, the respect of her parents, and now, the job she loved, and the sad part was she should have seen it all coming. She was such an idiot! She wasn't sure how she never saw Edwin's betrayal coming, except for the fact she was too preoccupied committing her own betrayal. She knew Faith's behavior was odd but Cherish never connected it with Edwin. It was right under her nose the entire time, though. How could she have been so blind?The sun started to dip in the west as she weaved through the Sunday traffic on her way to the offices of Rutherford Construction, ready to give Glen what he needed. It was time to quit Rutherford Construction. Jed said he'd meet her th