Rules Bend, Just Not for Me novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Table for Two

Sabine walks into the restaurant with Tobin, the room sides with his tears, and Jasper walks out and prints the divorce papers while Tobin's video of the scene climbs.

Tobin saw me first.

He crossed the dining room fast, with his hand already out and his smile already in place.

"Jasper! Are you here by yourself?"

I did not answer.

He talked anyway.

"There was a pileup on the interstate today. We were in surgery from noon until nine. We're starving."

"Sabine remembered this place has the cod you love. She dragged me here so we could box one up for you."

He turned to her with wide, soft eyes.

"She talks about you all the time. You're the first thing on her mind."

"Honestly, I'm jealous. I'd give anything to be loved like that."

Sabine said nothing.

She stood beside him with her coat still buttoned, and she did not look at me.

The reservation was on our shared calendar.

Only two people could see it.

Would a woman who loved me forget her own anniversary?

Would she bring another man to a candlelit table and call it a dinner break?

Would she fly out to save his aunt, and then stand in the hallway and quote a rule while my father died?

I looked at Tobin.

"Whether she loves me or not," I said, "what is that to you?"

His smile came off his face a piece at a time.

His shoulders curled in.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "Did I say something wrong? I only meant to be kind."

His eyes went red at the edges.

I had not raised my voice.

Sabine stepped in front of him and blocked him from me with her whole body.

That small move cut deeper than the card had.

"Jasper, he didn't mean anything. Why do you have to talk to him like that?"

Her voice stayed low and tight.

"A pileup came through our doors today. He's the charge nurse, and he hasn't eaten since morning. Don't start."

The tables around us joined in.

"Doctors and nurses carry this whole city on their backs."

"She walked out of surgery and she's still thinking about her husband's dinner. What more does he want?"

"Some men can't stand it when their wives have male coworkers."

A woman at the next table lifted her phone.

I saw the red dot of the camera.

Fine.

A room full of saints, and one villain.

I turned to go.

She caught my wrist as I passed.

Her hand was warm, and I knew it better than my own.

My feet stopped for half a second.

"Apologize to Tobin," she said.

I thought I had misheard.

"What?"

"What you said humiliated him. Apologize."

I looked past her.

Tobin stood behind her shoulder with wet eyes and trembling lashes.

For one moment his eyes met mine, dry and steady.

Then his face crumpled again.

Sabine looked at me with hard, wary eyes.

I laughed once, with nothing in it.

"Sabine. Tell me exactly what I said that was wrong."

She opened her mouth.

"What happens between a husband and his wife," I said, "is not a coworker's business."

I let the last word hang.

Her mouth stayed open and nothing came out.

I pulled my wrist out of her grip and walked toward the front doors.

Behind me, Tobin sniffed.

"I ruined your night. I'm so sorry, Sabine."

"You ruined nothing," she said. "Sit down and eat."

I did not turn around.

The cold air hit my face and took all the anger with it.

The cage had never been locked.

I had only needed to walk out.

At home, I printed the divorce papers on the old printer in the study.

The pages came out warm.

Five years of marriage came to nine sheets and a signature line.

I put them in a folder and set the folder on the dining table.

Then my phone buzzed.

It was Heath.

"Jasper. Are you looking at your phone?"

"No."

"Look at it."

I opened the video.

The woman at the next table had filmed it.

It began after Tobin's smile and ended before Sabine took my wrist.

It showed me, flat-voiced, with my back straight and my arms still.

It showed Tobin crying behind a woman's shoulder.

Tobin had shared it from his own account.

The caption read: "Rough night at dinner. I only wanted to be kind. Please don't be hard on anyone."

Under it, in the comments, strangers had already named me.

One of them had posted the name of my old studio.

The number beside it said forty thousand views.

It kept climbing while I watched.

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