Our menus provided a great distraction from the awkwardness. I swear I never focused on a book so hard in my life. I started noticing things like fonts and how nice the paper was. Oh Watcher, it was terrible. The table was so quiet! I hoped we hadn’t made the children uncomfortable as well. This restaurant was the fanciest place they’d ever been to, so maybe they were trying to figure out what all the fancy food items were. At least I hope that’s why they were also quiet.
Lucy and Duane walked in, and she looked amazing. She kept her hair straightened, but I knew she had beautiful, curly locks. I know she saw us because she sneaked a glance over her shoulder, but she walked right past our table and looked upset. I felt like it was a signal. If we didn’t have time to speak at the restaurant, I’ll stop by later in the week to catch up. I watched her as they got seated and noticed the young lady with them. At first I thought she was just another patron, but she sat at their table. Who was she?
Ali randomly sang happy birthday to Luca loud and dramatic, and it startled the cowplant essence out of me. I love it when he’s silly. It’s such a rare occurrence and always extremely random. I guess he wanted out of awkwardville too. But it was a good icebreaker and got us all talking.
Things felt better after a while, and Ali and I could at least look at each other without wanting the floor to open up and swallow us. Even though we can’t make a habit of this—at least not now—it was nice for all of us to be together again. The kids were happy, and Alessia was much better behaved. That’s when it occurred to me…
“Ali?”
“What’s up?”
“We’re about to have two teenagers…”
I think my statement caught him off guard, and rightfully so. This is unfamiliar territory for both of us, but now we’ll be heading into uncharted waters alone. I’m kinda scared. Excited, but concerned too. We may be divorced now and in an extremely awkward place, but we still need to be a united front. I don’t really know what that will look like, but we need to support each other despite how we feel.
“We’re gonna be ok, right?” I asked. I thought about that night he made a pie for dinner. The kids were out of control and he was completely frazzled. We have no idea how our lives will change or if they will. I just think it will be nice to know we can lean on each other despite our relationship status.
“I really don’t know, Em. We’ll just have to see what happens.”
He must be really worried. Or maybe that’s his way of saying he doesn’t want to form an alliance with me. I guess that’s fair.
