A Life Beyond Us novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Room Fourteen

Maura drives Tom home with Hugh following and makes Tom admit the motel was real, then sees a text on his phone from a contact called Truck about a notebook.

Nobody on the roof said a word.

Darcy stood by the sofa with her glass in the air, waiting for me to cry.

I did not give her that.

I took Tom's car keys off the bar, because he was not going to be the one driving.

"We're leaving," I said.

"Maura, let me say..."

"In the car."

I walked toward the elevator, and the crowd opened up to let me through.

Hugh was standing in front of the doors with his coat still buttoned.

Up close he looked thinner than I remembered, and he looked like he had not slept in a week.

"Maura," he said.

"Hello, Hugh. Three years."

"I know."

"You're coming too."

He blinked at me.

"Darcy has spent twenty minutes telling people you're in this story," I said. "So you can hear what your best friend has to say about it. Follow us in your car."

He glanced past me at Tom.

Tom gave him one short nod.

That nod told me they had talked.

I did not know when or how, and I filed it away for later, because the elevator doors had opened.

We rode down in silence, the three of us.

Nobody touched anybody.

In the parking garage I got behind the wheel of Tom's truck.

He climbed into the passenger seat and shut the door gently, the way he did when he knew I was angry.

Hugh's headlights came on two rows behind us.

I pulled out and drove toward home, and neither of us spoke until the second stoplight.

"Was it a lie?" I said.

Tom stared at the dashboard.

"The motel was real," he said. "Room fourteen was real. I was there, and Hugh was there, and so was Darcy."

My hands tightened on the wheel.

"Nothing else she said was true," he went on. "Not the way she told it. I swear that on my mother."

"Then why didn't you say so on the roof?"

"Because six women were looking at me and Darcy was smiling, and I knew whatever came out of my mouth would sound like a man making it up."

"You could have tried."

"I could have," he said. "I wanted you to hear it in a place where you could hit me if you needed to."

The light turned green.

I drove.

"Start at the beginning," I said.

He rubbed both hands over his face.

"The divorce was final on a Friday. I went to the Dugout and drank until the bartender took my keys."

"I remember the Friday."

"I called Hugh. He came and got me. Darcy was at the next stool. She said she'd get us both somewhere safe, and the only place near the bar that rented by the night was the Route 9 Lodge."

"So she picked the motel."

"She picked the motel, and she paid for the room, and she walked us in like two kids."

He said it flatly, looking out the side window.

"I wasn't in any shape to argue. I sat on the bed and cried like an idiot because you were gone."

I kept my eyes on the road.

I wanted to be furious, and instead my throat had gone tight.

"Hugh sat on the other bed," Tom said. "Darcy locked the door and started taking off her dress."

"And?"

"And I'm not going to tell you what happened next in a truck, Maura. Not half of it. I want to tell you all of it, and I want Hugh in the room, because he was there and I'm not going to speak for him."

I glanced in the mirror.

Hugh's headlights were still two rows back, keeping a steady distance.

"That's convenient," I said.

"It's the opposite of convenient."

"You've never told me any of this. Six years, Tom. Two weddings."

"I know."

"Why not?"

He took a long time to answer.

"Because the part she got right isn't the motel," he said quietly. "Please let me say all of it at once."

I turned onto our street.

The porch light was on, the way we had left it.

I pulled into the driveway and shut off the engine, and in the sudden quiet his phone buzzed in the cup holder.

I looked down at it before he could reach for it.

The contact name on the screen was "Truck."

The message said: "She's going to find out about the notebook. Tell her yourself."

Behind us, Hugh's headlights swung into the driveway and went dark.

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