“Mommy, the house is on fire.”
I look up from the television and see Bobby standing in front of me. His eyes are wide and he’s pointing at the kitchen. And that’s when I remember:
The cookies dammit!
I made my famous double chocolate chip cookies for my book club tonight. I did a show on the cookies last year. The secret is using dark cocoa powder for a more fudgy and rich flavor. I made these cookies dozens of times, but I’ve never burned them before. I must’ve forgotten to set the timer.
I leap off the couch to retrieve my cookies from the oven. Bobby has flopped down on the floor on his belly. “No, you have to stop, drop, and roll,” he says.
Well, at least he was paying attention in that fire safety lecture he got at school last year.
By the time I get to the kitchen, there’s smoke pouring out of the oven. I quickly turn it off and pull my cookies out of the oven. My delicious double chocolate chip cookies have turned into little black hockey pucks. Thankfully, I have enough batter for a second batch, but the kitchen is going to need to be aired out. There’s smoke everywhere.
And right on cue, the fire alarm starts going off.
Elliot has been trying to stay out of my way, but the fire alarm brings him into the kitchen. He wanders into the room, coughing into his elbow from all the smoke. “Everything okay in here, April?”
“Wonderful. Just perfect.” “Can I do anything to help?”
I can’t say Elliot isn’t trying to make nice. During the day, he went out and bought me some flowers. And by “some flowers,” I mean that he purchased what appears to be the contents of an entire flower shop. I ran out of vases to put them in.
“It’s fine,” I say, as I wrench open the sliding door to the backyard. “I just need to air out the kitchen.” And throw away a bunch of cookies.
He scratches at his scalp. “When are you leaving for your book club?” “In about an hour.”
“Okay. Um, let me know when you’re going so I can come down.”
He’s a little stiff when he talks to me. Despite his grand gesture with the flowers, the two of us are still acting like a couple of strangers who aren’t quite sure how to behave around each other. I am still really angry at him. No, beyond angry. Half the time, I want to reach out and strangle him with my bare hands. (And then strangle Brianna.)
But at the same time, I’m scared he’s going to choose her over me. He isn’t just having an affair with her (or a one night stand, if that’s to be believed). She’s pregnant. He can’t just walk away from that. And Brianna told me that he’s trying to let me down easy.
I keep thinking about Carrie’s humiliation when her husband left her for the hot, young babysitter. I don’t want to be the woman whose husband left her for his hot, young secretary. I just can’t.
An hour later, I’ve got a Tupperware container stuffed with double chocolate chip cookies that aren’t burned. I call up to Elliot, who comes downstairs to watch Bobby.
“Would you like a cookie?” I ask him. My olive branch.
He eyes the large container of Tupperware stuffed with cookies. “You sure you got enough in there?”
A joke. This is very positive.
A joke and an offer of a cookie are all we’ve got right now. We don’t kiss or hug or even make eye contact as I get ready to leave. I do give Bobby a kiss and hug though. And an extra one for good measure.
The book club tonight is being held at Lucy Miller’s house at the end of the block. Lucy has two children, one in middle school and one in high school, so that makes me think she knows nothing of the drama going on between Leo and Bobby. Only a few of the women on the block have kids at the elementary school. So really, I just have to cross my fingers that Maria isn’t there.
And if she is? Well, I’m going in anyway. I have a right to be there. I live on this block like everyone else. And I’ve even read the book for a change, in case the impossible happens and we end up actually discussing it.
I clutch my tub of cookies to my chest as I march up the steps to Lucy’s house. Sounds are coming from within the house, which makes me think I’m not the first person to arrive. Good. I press my index finger against the doorbell and then quickly grab the cookie tub again before it falls.
I wait for a moment for the door to open. All the voices from inside have gone silent. Just when I’m about to ring the doorbell again, the door cracks open.
It’s Lucy. But she’s only opened the door about half a foot. Not enough for me to get inside.
“Hi!” I say brightly. I hold up my cookie tub. “I brought cookies for the book club. That’s tonight, right?”
Lucy’s lips are set in a straight line so that no color is visible. “We didn’t expect to see you here tonight, April.”
I keep a smile plastered on my face. “Really? Because I always come to the book club.”
“Yes, but with everything going on right now…”
Is she talking about what Bobby allegedly did to Leo? Or the alleged theft from the silent auction fund? Or my shoplifting charge?
Maybe I don’t want to know.
“Yes,” I say, “I’ve been having a rough week. I was hoping to just sort of… forget about it for a couple of hours…”
Lucy lowers her voice a few notches. “Listen, April. I just don’t think the other women will feel comfortable with you here right now.”
I feel my face turning pink. “Maybe you should ask them.” “I did.”
I hear a voice in the background. Maria’s voice. She’s here. That explains it.
“Fine.” Tears are pricking at my eyes, but I don’t want to cry in front of Lucy. I can just imagine what she would say to the other women. “I’ll go.”
Before I can even say goodbye, Lucy has closed the door in my face.
Now I’ve got two dozen cookies and nowhere to go. I suppose I could donate them somewhere. Is there a homeless shelter around here? I know there’s a food pantry because I bring a canned goods donation once a month, but I don’t think they accept fresh baked cookies.
That proves I’m a good person, doesn’t it? Bad people don’t donate huge boxes of canned food every month, right?
I turn back in the direction of my house. I don’t know how to explain what happened to Elliot. He knows about Bobby pushing Leo, but I haven’t told him about the PTA theft thing. I don’t know how to say those words to him, especially now. And frankly, I’m not looking forward to spending an evening with that man after what he did to me.
So instead of going home, I get in my car. I put the cookies in the passenger seat and take off.
The first place I go to is Taco Bell. Right now, I want some greasy, cheesy processed food. The kind of stuff I would never let Bobby eat, except possibly at a birthday party. I go to the drive-through window and order a quesadilla and two tacos with a large diet soda. Then I park in the lot to eat.
I devour the quesadilla and tacos in under five minutes. And then I eat about ten cookies. After all that food is sloshing around in my belly, I feel mildly nauseous, but I welcome it. Anything is better than that sick clawing feeling in my gut.
I turn on the radio in the car. It’s a Maroon 5 song I’ve heard a million times before. When I first met Elliot, he sort of reminded me of Adam Levine. That was back when he had hair. I almost laugh at the memory.
I was so happy when the two of us got married. Then soon after, we had Bobby. He was the man I had been looking for my entire life. We were just so in love. I know a lot of people say they’re in love, but Elliot and I were really in love. The kind of love where we wanted to be together every second of the day. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. From the moment I first met him, I knew he was going to be my husband and we would be together forever.
Well, there’s no point in dwelling on the past. It doesn’t matter how in love Elliot and I were back then. The only thing that matters is now.
Now we’ve got a problem. Brianna.
