Chapter 3
The door was already open. That was the problem.
I heard his shoes on the concrete first, then the soft thump as he stepped onto the rug just inside the foyer. Jason didn't knock. He never had. He smiled at me like we were still the kind of people who could finish each other's grocery lists, and his eyes dropped for half a second to the black duffel bag by the staircase before coming back to my face.
"Hey, Mara," he said. "You didn't have to leave it out here for me."
My cardigan slipped a little off my shoulder and I pulled it back up without thinking. My hands were cold. Eli's hand was still in the pocket of his dark henley where the keys were. Tyler hadn't moved from the doorway, hands in his pockets, watching the driveway like he wanted to be anywhere else.
"Hey," I said. My voice sounded smaller than I wanted it to. "You made good time."
Jason laughed once, easy. "Yeah, that truck's been sitting dead since Thursday. You saved me." He looked past me then, at Eli, and gave a nod that was trying to be respectful. "Eli. Appreciate you guys doing this."
Eli didn't nod back right away. He took his hand out of his pocket, but he didn't take the keys out. He just stood there between me and the open door, the light from outside cutting across the hardwood and hitting the side table lamp in a way that made the whole foyer feel too bright.
"When did she promise it?" Eli asked.
Jason blinked. "Sorry?"
"When did Mara promise you the car," Eli said. His voice was calm, even. He wasn't raising it. That made it worse. "What exactly did she say?"
I felt my breath catch. I stared at the vase on the side table so I wouldn't have to look at either of them. The SUV was still parked out in the driveway, dark and visible through the open door, and for a second I hated that it was there at all.
Jason glanced at me, then back at Eli. He shifted his weight and hooked his thumbs in his jeans pockets. He wasn't being threatening. He was being comfortable, and that was what made it so hard to speak.
"Thursday night," he said. "My truck died Thursday after work. I texted her to see if she knew a decent shop over here and she said I could just take the spare car for the weekend. Said you guys weren't using it. I told her she didn't have to do that, but she insisted."
The words landed exactly how I knew they would. She insisted.
Eli turned his head to look at me. I could feel Tyler look away, out toward the porch.
"Is that right?" Eli asked me.
I swallowed. My messy bun had loosened and hair was sticking to the back of my neck. The hardwood felt cold through my socks.
"I texted him Thursday night," I said. My voice was quiet. "He said his truck died. I told him he could borrow it."
"You offered," Eli said. It wasn't a question.
I nodded. "I offered before I asked you."
The foyer went quiet. The lamp hummed. Outside, a car passed slow on our street and then was gone.
Jason cleared his throat. "Look, man, if it's a problem, I can figure something else out. I didn't mean to — "
"It's not about the truck," Eli said, still looking at me. He finally pulled the keys partway out of his pocket, just enough that the metal caught the light. He didn't hold them out. "It's about the house. It's our car. You promised our car without asking me."
"I already promised him the car for the weekend," I said, and as soon as I said it I heard how it had sounded that morning, defensive and thin. I tried to fix it. "You can survive without it for two days."
Eli's jaw tightened. "So your promise to your ex matters more than my right to use our own car?" he asked. He said it exactly like he had before, but quieter now, with Jason right there.
"It's not like that," I said.
Jason looked down at the duffel bag by the stairs again. He didn't touch it. No one touched it. It just sat there, zipped and undisturbed, and I realized I didn't even know when he'd left it or if Eli had noticed it before I did. Jason took a half step back toward the driveway, giving us space that didn't actually help.
"I'll wait out by the SUV," he said to me, gentler now. "Just let me know. No pressure."
May you like
He stepped back out onto the concrete, leaving the front door wide open. The daylight poured in. I could see him standing there waiting, expecting the keys, his duffel still inside on our floor.
Eli slipped the keys back into his pocket and zipped it shut. He didn't hand them over. I stood between the promise I'd already made and the marriage I was standing inside, with Tyler still by the door and the whole standoff suddenly public, and nobody moved.
