Page 94 of For One Night

“I’ve made so many, Lola, and I have no one to blame but myself.” He takes a drink of his beer, setting it back down. “In all the years I was away, not one person asked me what I did or where I went.”

“Lennox,”—he turns to me—“when you were traveling, where’d you go? Did you meet anyone?”

His head lulls with a huge sigh. “I was in Madagascar most of the time, helping to build clean water systems and sanitation.”

“You want to know what I was doing while you were working in third world countries?”

“Yes, of course,” he says with an innocence.

“I married a man who never loved me, allowed him to cheat on me and manipulate me for more years than I care to repeat.”

He averts his eyes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that’s what had happened.”

“People always think the worst when a marriage ends. Then when it all turns out to be true, they can’t help but wonder what the other person did to warrant it.” I turn my beer up, finishing it off.

“Most of the time it’s morbid curiosity, but there’s always the ones who know it all and believe it was your fault. One thing is for sure, though, there’s always the truth.”

“Everyone likes to know what happened, but no one wants to hear the truth.” A knot forms in the pit of my stomach thinking about the things I’ve never shared with anyone.

He stands, taking my bottle and his to toss them. “I think this calls for something a little harder.”

I clap my hands together, rubbing them. “Bring on the juice!”