Page 94 of Demo
“Well, I’m kinda getting this vibe from you like you’re mad, and while you are completely justified to feel that way, I think maybe we could talk about it.”
Seconds pass, and he sighs again. “I’m not mad, Lyzbeth.”
“I mean, it really isn’t my fault. I didn’t provoke those officers. They came to the office and harassedme, and they came tomyapartment and broke in. That’s not my fault!”
“Lyzbeth,” I hear Monty’s voice in my ear, and I know he’s looking at me now. So I turn my head to look back at him. “None of this is your fault.”
“So why are you so quiet?”
Monty looks away again before he speaks, and his words are softer. “Catherine and I spent time apart. Before you met me. We had some differences that we weren’t sure we could get past, and I rented a small room out of a house out on the lakefront while we sorted things out.”
I stare at the side of his head, in utter shock and disbelief, as he continues.
“I had an opportunity to do some travel photography. Some magazine that promoted excursions and adventures. Anyway, I wanted to do it. But the kids were still in school. Peggy was just finishing middle school and I believe Jake was going to be a junior. Catherine said she wasn’t going to uproot them from their high school lives, their friends and clubs and teammates and all that. So I would have had to go by myself and try to just make it back and forth a lot.
“I was in. I wanted to do it so badly, but Catherine said it would be too much for her to take care of everything by herself.”
Monty unfolds his arms and rests his palms on the bench on either side of his legs, gripping the seat as he shifts forward.
“I was so angry with her. I felt like she was being so selfish, asking me to pass up this opportunity to travel the world, photographing amazing sights and places. And she thought I was the selfish one, putting my family on the back burner.”
“What did you do?” I speak for the first time in a while.
He lets out a sigh. “I ended up not going. I couldn’t do it without her blessing. I mean, she didn’t give me an ultimatum, but I got the feeling if I took off without her consent it wouldn’t have been wise. But then I was angry. Shit, I was pissed.”
Monty looks up toward the ceiling as he confesses this next part. “I think I downright hated her, at the time.”
I am at a loss. “Well, obviously you worked things out” I prompt.
“Yeah. Yeah, we did. But it was a tough year and a half.”
“A year and a half?”
“Oh, yeah. We were separated for a while.”
“So,” I shift in my seat so I’m now situated the same way he is, hands gripping the bench at my sides. “How did you find your way back to each other?”
Monty huffs next to me. “Well, life sucked without her. I guess I decided I could be pissed on principle, and hold onto that anger. Or say, fuck it, I don’t want to be angry anymore. I don’t want to be alone anymore. And I certainly didn’t want to travel the world if my family couldn’t be with me. So, I got over it.”
A few beats pass.
“You never say ‘fuck.’”
“I was trying to drive home my point.”
“No, that was good. It was good use of a curse word.”
A few more beats of silence.
“You’re saying I should let Knox off the hook?” I ask.
“No,” he answers quickly. “Not at all. That is a very different situation, you have different history, you are different people. You are 100 percent justified in your feelings and your actions. I get it—as much as I can—I get it. I’m just saying …” He drifts off in thought for a minute. “I’m just saying that I hate to see you hurting, kiddo.”
I smile at the floor. “Thanks.”
We hear footsteps outside and look up, both hopeful they will stop outside the door, but they keep moving.
“Were you hoping she would come to you?” I look at Monty again. “Were you at all angry that you had to go to Catherine, and she didn’t come to you?”
