Great. I take the strips out of the pan and put them on paper towels, then crack a few eggs into the pan.
Kim says, “That smells so good. I’m starving. I didn’t even get to eat the cake yesterday.” She sounds even grumpier now. “And it looked really good. Probably the nicest thing at the wedding.”
No kidding. And since I’ve just been reminded, I check my phone to make sure everything’s okay with Vi. The latest text from my parents says all’s well. There’s also a screed of messages from Geneva, most sent after two in the morning.
–Geneva: It’s all your fault.
–Geneva: You’re going to pay!
–Geneva: You owe me money!
–Geneva: How am I going to marry Churchill now?
I exhale roughly, anger and pity tugging at me from opposite directions. She was probably drunk and needed to vent. And it’s just like her to blame everyone but herself for her own bad choices.
“What’s wrong?” Kim asks. “Is it Vi?”
I shake my head. “Geneva.”
She arches an eyebrow, so I hand her the phone. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. She’s certifiable.”
“Don’t have to tell me.” I pour a mug of coffee. “How do you like it?”
“With some sugar and cream. But I can manage black.”
I put a dash of sugar and cream in it. I just add sugar to mine, then take both cups to the island.
Kim accepts hers with thanks and wraps her hands around the cup, then takes a sip. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why did you decide to marry her?” She clears her throat, then hurriedly adds, “I’m not judging, but I’m really curious. Mom told me things, but I want to hear from you in case what people are saying isn’t, like, how it happened.”
“It’s sort of stupid.” Talking about it is going to make me feel ridiculous, because the whole marriage was a bad idea. I was just too close to see things clearly.
“We’ve all done…dumb things.”
Yeah, but there’s dumb, and then there’s plain, flat-out dumb.
I take half the bacon off the paper towels and place it on her plate, then load some eggs along with it. The rest goes on mine. I swing myself onto the other stool and bite into a strip.
If anyone but Kim was asking, I’d gloss over the whole issue or just refuse to talk about it. But she deserves to know what happened, especially in light of how low Geneva sank to break us up back then. I take a couple sips of coffee, hoping the caffeine will give me a clear head so I don’t muck up the story of my personal failure.
“Okay. So at first I dated her because she said she wanted me. But I knew we weren’t that well matched. It was a rebound thing.”
Kim nods while chewing slowly, her expression carefully neutral.
“I was thinking about ending it because I knew we weren’t giving each other what we needed. Even back then, she was unhappy, and I wasn’t too thrilled with our situation either. Then she got pregnant.”
“Wow.” Kim’s doing some math in her head, I can tell.
“It was way before I made any real money.” I push the eggs around on my plate.
“Were you angry?” she asks quietly.
“I think I was shocked. If I’d already made that Sweet Darlings deal, I might’ve suspected she did it on purpose, but back then… We were doing okay, but there wasn’t a whole lot of extra cash floating around, if you understand what I’m saying.”
Kim nods. “Yeah.”