Page 115 of Save the Date
“Jackie?” Zoey looked up at him expectantly.
“I gotta take this call,” he said, his voice brusque. He turned and strode back into the kitchen.
“Hey, you,” Cara said. “I just heard your message. I’d love some dinner, if it’s not too late.”
He paused and glanced back over his shoulder. Zoey now stood in the doorway from the living room, glaring at him. Her skin was deeply tanned, but she looked gaunt.
“Uh,” he stammered. “I just got in myself, and I haven’t even showered yet.”
“I can wait,” Cara said. “What, thirty minutes?”
“The thing is, there’s been kind of an unexpected development here.”
“Shaz didn’t run off again, did she?”
“No, nothing like that,” Jack said. “I’ve got some out-of-town company, is all. Sort of out of the blue.”
Zoey frowned. “Since when am I company? Who are you talking to? Is that a woman?”
“Jack?” Cara said. “What kind of company?”
Shaz trotted into the kitchen and rubbed up against his legs. He looked helplessly from Zoey to the dog to the back door. If he left right now, he could make it over to Cara’s house, explain everything in person. And maybe Zoey would dematerialize.
“Hey!” Zoey called loudly. “Whoever is on the phone? Jack can’t talk right now. Because his girlfriend is back. And he needs to take care of her. So just hang up, okay?”
He covered the phone with his hand. “Shut the fuck up,” he said hoarsely, slamming the kitchen door in Zoey’s face.
“Cara?”
There was a long pause.
“Oh,” Cara said. “Was that really Zoey?”
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “When I got home from work a little while ago, she was here. That cruise ship she was on? Everybody got some kind of stomach virus. She said they got back to port yesterday, and she drove here today. Out of the clear blue.”
“Siren of the Seas? I heard about that on the news. That’s the ship she was on?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Jack said, wearily rubbing his hand across his face, staring at his own grubby reflection in the kitchen window. “You gotta believe me, Cara. I had no idea she was coming back. I don’t want her here. We’re through. I was just trying to tell her that when you called.”
“What’s she want from you? What happened to the Jimmy Buffett impersonator?”
“She says they broke up. I guess she thinks she can just show up here and I’ll take her back. But she’s dead wrong.”
“What’ll you do?”
“Tell her to leave,” Jack said. “She sure as hell can’t stay here with me.”
“Is she still sick?”
“Zoey? She’s fine! Okay, it looks like she lost a little weight. But she was well enough to drive seven hours straight from Fort Lauderdale, so as far as I’m concerned, she can just keep driving.”
“That seems awfully mean,” Cara said. “The people on that ship were really sick. Some of them are still in the hospital.”
He snorted. “You don’t know Zoey. She’s like a cockroach. No matter how many times you stomp on her, she just gets up and keeps going. Look. Are we still on for dinner? Let me grab a shower and I’ll be over there in fifteen.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. What do you feel like for dinner?”
