Page 35 of Real Forever
Lauren: Mads, where are you?
Madison: Hey. Sorry, got storm-stayed last night, but we’re on the road home now.
Lauren: How long will you be? I need someone to watch Maisie for a bit.
Madison: Shouldn’t be too much longer. An hour?
Lauren: K.
Madison: Everything okay?
Lauren:…
Lauren:
Lauren:…
Lauren:
Lauren:…
Lauren: Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll talk to you when you get home.
Huh.The conversation didn’t sit quite right in Madison’s chest. She tapped the phone against her thigh.
“Is something wrong?” Jake seemed to notice her peacefulness dissolve.
“I’m not sure. Got kind of a weird text from Lauren. And…” she trailed off.
“Sorry. It’s none of my business. I don’t mean to pry.” Jake waved his hand back and forth.
“No. It’s not that. You aren’t prying. It’s just… well, usually when something is wrong with Lauren and she’s being cagey like this, it means Dave did something stupid.”
“Her husband?”
“Yeah. He’s a fucking dumpster fire of trash in the body of an undeservedly confident thirty-year-old man.”
Jake smirked. “But why wouldn’t she tell you if they had an argument?”
“Well, first,” Madison raised a thumb, “she wouldn’t tell me because she knows I already loathe him. So she never tells me anything that gives me more hate fuel. And second,” she raised her index finger, “it probably wasn’t just an argument. Dave goes well beyond normal shit-head husband land. This isn’t a he forgot to do the dishes or he stayed too late at poker night kind of situation.”
Jake nodded and sat up a little straighter in his chair. “Okay, so what does she need? How can we help?”
Madison smiled at Jake. “She needs me to get home to watch Maisie so she can leave. I don’t know where she’s leaving to.”
He nodded again. “Okay, well, that’s easy enough.” He checked his speedometer. “I can speed up a little, but with the roads still as icy as they are, I don’t think we should push it too much.”
Fuck. You are the goddamn best.
“It’s fine. Don’t speed up. We’ll get there soon enough. But thank you.” Madison squeezed his hand.
About half an hour later, Madison’s phone buzzed again.
Lauren:Agatha is here with Maisie. She can stay until you get home. Not sure when I’ll be back, but I’ll text you.
She signedit with a heart emoji.
Now Madison was really worried. What could have been so urgent she couldn’t wait the extra half hour for Madison to get home? She scraped her bottom lip with her teeth and tapped her foot on the slushy floor mat.
