I'm glad you agreed to meet. Let's skip the pretense. You didn't call to apologize or explain. You called because you're worried about something. So, tell me what it is and we can both get on with our mornings.
He blinked, the mass slipping for just a moment. I don't I'm not worried. I just thought we should clear the air. You already said that on the phone. It wasn't convincing then either.
I leaned back, crossed my arms. Rachel signed divorce papers 3 days ago. She's moving in with you next week. You won, Marcus. You got what you wanted.
So, why do you look like someone who lost? His coffee arrived. He added cream, stirred it, used the ritual to avoid answering. Finally, did Rachel tell you why it started between us? She said you'd been flirting for months that it escalated at the summer party.
That's true, but it's not. He took a breath. James, your marriage was already over when I came into the picture. I felt a flash of heat behind my eyes, the ember of anger reigniting. Our marriage was fine, was it?
Because Rachel told me she'd been unhappy for years, that you were distant, disconnected, that you'd stopped really seeing her. She said she felt invisible in her own life and you believed her. I leaned forward. Or did you just like having permission to pursue a married woman? I believed her because it's true.
He met my eyes with something that looked like genuine conviction. I'm not the villain here, James. I fell in love with someone who was already leaving you emotionally. I just gave her somewhere to go. The audacity of it took my breath away.
You're rewriting history to make yourself feel better. Rachel and I had problems. Every long-term marriage does, but we were working on them. Or at least I thought we were until I found out she was working on you instead. She said you'd frame it that way.
That you'd make her the betrayer when you were the one who checked out of the marriage years ago. I stared at him. This man who'd shared my wife's bed and apparently her revisionist history. Is that what she told you? That I'm the reason for her affair?
Not the reason, but part of it. James, I'm not trying to hurt you more than you're already hurt. I'm trying to help you understand that this didn't happen in a vacuum. Rachel didn't wake up one day and decide to destroy her marriage for fun. She was lonely.