Page 126 of The Book of Summer

“That he’s too old for this shit.”

Bess fights a hard smirk. Indeed they are both too old for this shit.

“So there’s nothing to get riled up about,” Cissy says. “Because it’s over. Done. All the way finished.”

“I’m sorry you’re upset,” Bess tells her. “I really am. But you’re going to have to give me a minute here. It’s like someone’s pushed me into a wall but, hey, no big, because I don’t have an actual concussion.”

“For goodness’ sake, Bess.”

“My parents’ marriage. Fake.”

“It’s not fake,” Cissy says, and grits her teeth. “It never has been. We know what we are to each other. And that is our concern, not yours.”

“It’s a little bit mine. I did live with you for a good portion of my life.”

“Oh, Bess, don’t be such a baby,” Cissy says, sounding so much like Grandma Ruby it’s like a ghost tickling the back of Bess’s neck. “It’s not the worst thing in the world.”

“Why do people keep saying that?”

“This sort of thing happens all the time. We’ve always done what we believed was best for our children, and each other.”

“You stayed together ‘for the children’?” Bess says. “I guess that sort of thing does ‘happen all the time’ but I thought our family was different.”

“Elisabeth, your father is difficult,” Cissy says. “I recognize that I am, too, but in a completely different way. Dudley and I started in the same place but moved too quickly in opposite directions. I tried with him, even when my own mother said to let him go.”

“Grandma Ruby? She would never!”

“It’s true. I almost left him. I was so close.” She shakes her head. “Then my mom died and I just… couldn’t. You were still in high school and Lala was so young. The loss of your grandmother was hard enough and I didn’t want this family to suffer another blow.”

“I get why you felt that way then,” Bess says. “But we’re adults now and she died twenty years ago. Why not get divorced fifteen years ago? Seven? Last week?”

“Darling, I tell you this with great love—”

“Oh, no, here we go.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Cissy says.

“Right. Because I’ve never been divorced.”

“You’re lucky, Bess. You don’t have kids. In your case, a divorce—not such a big deal.”

“Ha!” Bess laughs, breathless in shock, as if someone’s just punched her in the chest. “Too true. No big deal. What an accurate way to describe it. In fact, we’ve conducted all proceedings via text messages and Facebook chats. As they say in a physician’s office, you’ll only feel a pinch.…”

“I didn’t mean you wouldn’t understand about a divorce in general,” Cissy says. “It’s merely that you seem so sure of yourself. So utterly confident that a permanent split is the best course. I promise it’d be different if kids were involved. If a whole lifetime was.”

“If kids were involved.” Bess snorts. “Well, surprise, Cis, because—”

Bess freezes. There is a kid involved, sort of. For now. But even though Cissy is a lifelong Democrat, the ultimate bleeding heart and a women’s rights drum-pounder to the core, there’s no decent way to explain a proposed abortion. Not even Cissy would understand.

“Because what?” Cissy asks, pink spreading across both cheeks.

Bless it, the woman can hear the patter of potential grandbabies a mile away.

“The decision to get divorced,” Bess stutters. She sniffs but then gets ahold of herself. “The decision is clear-cut, but not because we were child-free. Brandon was… he is… abusive?”

It still sounds strange, not right, like it doesn’t exactly fit. No bruises, no bumps. All the bad stuff that a person cannot see.

“Abusive… question mark?” Cissy says, jacking both eyebrows way up into her hairline. “That doesn’t sound like something you should be on the fence about.”