Chapter 26 - THE FIRST FAMILY DINNER
Three years after the scream from Lily’s bedroom, we ate dinner together.
Me.
Anna.
Lily.
No Marlene.
No therapist.
No lawyer.
Anna brought pasta.
I burned garlic bread.
Lily talked too much.
Normal.
At one point Anna stared at me.
“What?”
“You still mow in those terrible shorts?”
I laughed.
“You remember?”
“Unfortunately.”
Memory returned in islands.
Some never did.
Our marriage did not resume exactly.
We dated.
Awkwardly.
At forty-one, I took my own wife to coffee and asked:
“So what do you do?”
She laughed for five minutes.
Eventually Anna moved into the house.
Not because old vows demanded it.
Because we chose a new version.
We never remarried.
We were still legally married.
The paperwork had waited more patiently than people.
Lily called it:
May you like
“The longest weird date ever.”
Fair.
