The Dating List (32 page)

Sarah. Sarah will help me.

Kit sat down at her computer to contact her Facebook
friend, Sarah Morgan, also an aspiring writer. Sarah had
recommended the boarding school Kit picked for her daughter, Zoe,
located in Willow Falls, where Sarah lived.

Sarah,

Johnny dumped me on the eve of our trip! I can't
believe it. He is divorcing me. Now I'm alone, with no job, no
place to live…no book to write. All my plans for the future are
finished…I have no future.

Kit

A ding from her computer told her she had a
reply.

Sarah - You're kidding. Tell me you're kidding.

Kit - I wish I was.

Sarah - How horrible! Come to Willow Falls. Stay with
me and the kids for a few days until you know what you want to do.
You can still write, you just have to find a new topic. You can
spend some time with Zoe. The train leaves at 11am tomorrow. Be on
it. I'll pick you up at three. After all, you're all packed, ready
for a trip anyway.

Kit - I'll be on the train. But I'll stay at the
Willow Falls motel. Can we have dinner together?

Sarah - Sure. I'll make my little sister's pot roast
recipe. It cures anything.

See you tomorrow.

Kit got into bed exhausted, but not too tired to cry
herself to sleep.

* * * *

When Kit stepped off the train in Willow Falls, she
perceived the small town with new eyes.

Her last trip had been to bring Zoe to her new
school. Kit had barely noticed the town, being completely
preoccupied with getting her daughter comfortably set up in school.
She took a deep breath, pulling fresh, clean air into her lungs.
Beats New York City air by a mile.
Kit chuckled at her own
observation.

Her smile faded quickly. She found Willow Falls
lacking when compared to Paris, London, Rome and other capitals of
the world she'd have visited if on the tour with Johnny. Reminding
herself the option to take the journey no longer existed made the
tiny town become more appealing.
It must be cheap to live here.
I can't afford New York anymore.

She checked into the Willow Falls Motel, within
walking distance of the train station. After placing her suitcase
on the bed, she left the modern three story edifice behind to
stroll through the town.

Kensington State University resided in Willow Falls,
population about five thousand. The little town had had a
renaissance resulting in many beautifully renovated Victorian
houses plus large brick homes with businesses on the first floor,
apartments above. These buildings showcased the town's charming
history.

An intriguing hundred-year-old, three-story bed and
breakfast called Gracie's Mansion commanded attention in the center
of town. The inn, situated in a three-story Victorian with burnt
orange and gold curtains billowing through open windows in the warm
August breeze, had inviting rocking chairs on the porch. Grace
Cooper, a former New York City school teacher, the proprietor,
perched on the porch sipping a tall, frosty glass of iced tea.
Drawn to the warm house over the sterility of the motel, Kit warmed
to Grace's friendly greeting.

Right across the street from Gracie's sat Bon
Appetit, an excellent French restaurant. She and Johnny had eaten
there with Zoe when they arrived to drop her off at school. The
cuisine was as good as any they'd had in New York City.

Perhaps Kit would spend some time in Willow Falls.
After all, she had no place to live back in New York City. Her city
friends had been warm, gracious, sympathetic, but most had little
enough space for themselves. "Bunking in" with her friends, as
Johnny had suggested, meant sleeping on a couch and disrupting the
lives of people she cared about—not an appealing solution.

Sarah picked her up in front of Bon Appetit. Dinner
with Sarah, her seven-year-old son Scott and her eleven-year-old
daughter, Laura, promised to be a lively one. She marveled at the
difference in Sarah's children with Scott being talkative and Laura
the quiet one. Kit found herself trying to guess what had happened
to Sarah's husband. Sarah had never mentioned him.

At dinner the children didn't either. "Callie's pot
roast", as the kids called it, tasted out of this world to Kit,
soothing her as promised. The two women stayed up late drinking
wine, trying to sort through the mess Kit called her life.

"A make-over would help…nothing wrong with the way
you look. Hey, I'd love to have your figure. But a change might
make you feel better. Some new clothes, haircut, manicure?

Wadda ya say?"

"I can't afford much. I don't have a job."

Kit didn't feel much like getting made over.
How
can you make over a disaster, a failure like me? Any way you dress
me, I'm still a woman who's been dumped.

"I'm a bargain hunter. I think I have a coupon for a
mani-pedi." Sarah got up and rooted around in a small wicker basket
on a table by the door.

"Got it! Special two for one. Let's go together
tomorrow. Then a haircut."

"Okay, but I have to face Zoe."

"Can't you wait one more day?"

* * * *

Kit looked in the mirror at her newly shaped, bouncy,
shoulder-length straight hair. She tossed her head from side to
side to watch the way her locks swished. Her head felt lighter. Her
nails were perfect with a dark pink polish. The new look included a
new t-shirt and skirt set plus new sandals.
Well done, Sarah. I
do feel better. I look better too, at least on the outside.

Now, the hard part—telling Zoe, a task she dreaded.
Despite Johnny's shortcomings, Zoe adored him. Kit had no idea how
to break the news to Zoe her father had blown apart their family.
Since he'd be away until Christmas, maybe Zoe wouldn't miss him so
much anyway. Fat chance.
Typical Johnny move, take off…let me
clean up the mess he left behind plus take all the
heat.
Another reason he landed on her shit list.

She arranged to visit Zoe the next afternoon after
classes. During the day, the women continued their shopping as Kit
had little informal clothing. Her days had been spent in a bank,
wearing a dark-color conservative suit with a white blouse. Sarah
encouraged her to buy some sexier outfits. The new clothes lifted
Kit's spirits a bit.

"Now, perfume!"

"Must we?"

"You need to smell different…for a different guy you
know?"

"Guy?" Kit burst out laughing. "I'm a retread, Sarah.
Washed up at thirty-three."

"Uh uh. Positive vibes."

Sarah dragged her friend to the perfume counter at
Franklyn's, the town department store.

After sampling a few different scents, they put their
heads together. Kit picked one in a small, elegant bottle that put
a smile on her face.

Sarah dropped Kit at Willow Falls Academy where Kit's
daughter had already begun school. After accepting a hug from her
new friend, she left the car feeling shaky, uncertain, not typical
for her. Seeing Zoe's puzzled look didn't boost her flagging
confidence.

"Weren't you guys leaving yesterday? What are you
doing here?"

"Can we take a walk?" Kit reached for her daughter's
hand.

They strolled around the beautiful grounds. The
soccer fields were thick with lush grass, green and surprisingly
cool in the August sun. They walked the entire perimeter, chatting
about events at the school. The smell of fresh mown lawn tickled
her nose, reminding her she no longer walked in the concrete and
steel capital of the world.

"Okay, Mom. So why are you here?" Zoe stopped to face
her mother.

"Well…your father made a decision. He decided he
wanted to go on the tour alone."

"Without you?" Her eyebrows rose with the octaves of
her voice.

"Yes." Kit picked a leaf off a tree.

"Why?"

"I don't know why." Kit shook her head slightly while
her fingers finished stripping the leaf down to one stalk.

"What do you mean?"

"He's divorcing me, Zoe," she confessed.

"Divorcing you?" Her daughter's lower lip trembled as
tears filled her eyes.

"I'm so sorry to tell you."

"Why?" Zoe asked. Tears overflowed, streaming down
her face.

"I wish I knew." The sting of tears behind Kit's eyes
made her blink but she fought to keep her composure while plucking
a tissue from her purse.

"What about me?" Zoe accepted a tissue from her
mother.

"A parent never divorces their child. He's still your
father and will still come see you at

Christmas, like we planned." Kit stopped to take a
breath to steady her voice.

"Oh, God. Divorce. Why? Why, Mommy? Why" Zoe said,
throwing herself into her mother's arms, sobbing.

Kit couldn't hold back her own tears anymore as she
held her daughter tightly, stroking hair wetted with her tears.

"I don't know, baby. I just don't know. But we'll get
through this." She tried to remain calm for Zoe.

As suddenly as Zoe fell into her mother's arms, she
pulled away.

"What did you do to him? What did you say to make him
leave us?" Zoe asked, anger

flashing in her eyes. Zoe wiped her eyes one more
time.

"I didn't do anything, sweetheart."

"You did. You must have."

"I don't think I did. He didn't say anything." Her
brow furrowed.

"What did he say?"

"He said he wanted to be free…he didn't want to be
married anymore," she said, her lip trembling as she stopped to
take a breath. Zoe covered her face with her hands and ran off
toward the woods. She stopped at a big oak for support, leaning
against the sturdy tree, sobbing.

Kit caught up to her.

"So I'm going to be staying in the U.S, Zoe." She put
her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"Are you going back to New York?" the girl asked, her
voice shaking.

"I've no place to live there." Quickly she regretted
her admission.

A look of fear swept over Zoe's face.

"You won't leave me, will you?" Her eyes teared
up.

"Of course not, sweetheart. I've been thinking about
spending some time here in Willow Falls. Being closer to you'd be
good. What do you think?" She forced her lips to curl into a tight
smile as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I think I hate you both. I don't care where you
live," Zoe spat at her mother, then ran off returning to the school
building, alone. When Kit arrived, Zoe had returned to her room and
locked the door. Her mother knocked repeatedly but Zoe refused to
answer. Pain at leaving her daughter to lick her wounds by herself,
stabbed Kit's heart. Zoe's silence left her mother no choice but to
return to the motel.

Moonlight Books