The Anniversary

“The twelfth one since I’ve left the house. And I answered the first one.” Simone sipped her coffee and put the mug back down, sitting back and rubbing at her face with her hands. “It’s driving me mad.”

“Is something wrong with Carl? You told me last night he’d been beaten up. What happens if he’s trying to call because something is wrong with Carl?”

“Carl would’ve called me. Besides, Toby texts all the time. His phone doesn’t get good reception often so he sends texts.”

Maria rolled her eyes and tittered, her newly curled locks bouncing about her head.

“I’ve never understood how a billionaire has a cell phone that doesn’t get a signal.”

Simone grunted.

“He couldn’t bear to leave his phone behind. They give him the best but we seem to be in a dead spot for signal. So he texts all the time.” As if on cue, her phone buzzed, this time just once to signal an incoming message. “And here we go.”

“Text back is Carl okay and that you’re busy.”

“I don’t know about the busy bit.” Simone didn’t look up as she tapped away, trying not to say something she really wanted to say. “He’s a bit short at the moment.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Maria put her mug down. “You guys were normal as usual before Nick’s game. Then when you got back he’s like a moody teenager.”

“I’ve already got one and one on the way.” Simone groaned. “I don’t want another one.”

While she didn’t want to discuss her suspected marital problems – that often raised a red flag to the proverbial bull – Maria was her sister and her closest confidant. Maria had gone through a messy divorce ten years before and Simone had been the one she went to. Now she was in a new relationship, a better one, and she had primary custody of her two teenage daughters. Maria had been through a lot and had chosen Simone’s shoulder to cry on.

Now it seemed like Simone needed to use Maria’s shoulder.

“Men can be like moody teenagers when they want to be.” Maria picked up her brownie and bit into it, chocolate crumbs coating her mouth. “They like to sulk.”

“Does Lee sulk?”

“All the time. It’s amazing that I can get a smile out of him sometimes.”

Simone chuckled. Her new man Lee was a stoic type of man, lovely as anything but he didn’t smile much. It had taken some getting used to but Maria’s daughters adored him and Simone’s sons thought he was awesome. Even Toby admitted he was a good guy.

“I didn’t get that at all from Toby. He accused me of being melodramatic when I expressed my worries over Carl and then went to sleep on the couch because he didn’t want to answer that he was okay when he clearly wasn’t. I ended up going to sleep next to him because I couldn’t settle and he acted like I was contagious once he woke up.”

That had hurt. Toby had been nothing but affectionate. So to have him avoid her like she had the plague had upset Simone. She hadn’t shown it in front of the children and tried to act like nothing was wrong but she escaped out the house as quickly as possible. Being at home with that was stifling.

She wished she knew what was going on.