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“It seemed like the thing to do,” he said simply.
“No kids, obviously?”
“No. Lydia didn’t want to spoil her figure, and I wasn’t invested in the idea enough to push it.”
“What about now?”
“Do I want kids now?”
“Yeah. If you were to get married again, would you want kids?”
He paused for a moment, clearly giving it some thought. “Yeah. Maybe.”
“Only maybe?”
“I’m not sure I’m cut out for fatherhood, I guess.”
“Why not?”
“I’m just not very…I don’t know the right words. Warm?”
“I disagree.” It cut me a bit that he didn’t see himself the way I saw him. But he shrugged and didn’t seem inclined to go on, so I didn’t push it. “Back to Lydia, then.”
“Must we?”
“We must.”
“It’s not that interesting.”
“It is to me!”
“Fine. What else do you want to know?”
“Who broke up with who? Like, who ended it?”
“Me.”
“Why?”
Again with the long pause, so he could think about it. I found that kinda cute. “We lived in my condo in Raleigh, which is only a seven-minute commute from my work. Lydia didn’t work, although she was a qualified lawyer. So she was just…always there. I found myself dreading going home to her, so much so that I was staying back at work later and later. Or finding things to do on my way home, just to delay the inevitable. That’s when I knew it was time to call it quits.”
“How did she take it?”
“Her only question was to ask me if there was someone else involved. I said no, she asked me to swear by that. I did. She packed her bags and left that night. We haven’t spoken since. All of our communication after that was through the lawyers.”
“It seems very…”
“Shallow? Cold?” he put in, when I hesitated.
“Sad.” He flinched a little, which was exactly why I’d paused before finishing the thought. “So what did you do after that?”
He put the lid back on the nail polish and placed it on the coffee table, before leaning back and laying his arm along the back of the couch. “To be honest, nothing changed very much. About the only difference to my life was buying this place, so I had somewhere else to go.”
“All on your own.”
“All on my own,” he confirmed.
“Vera told me how you’ve never had anyone stay here before me.”