After 24 Years of Marriage, My Husband Got His Costar Pregnant and My Son Asked Me to Accept Her novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Approved as Arranged

At the reception she refuses the family photo and finds her name approved on a seating chart she never saw.

Outside the hall doors, I stopped and turned to Randall.

"Overnight reshoots, you said. On our anniversary."

"Helena, not here."

"I washed my face and canceled our table for a lie. You were at dinner with my son."

He looked at the doors, not at me. "Keep your voice down. We'll talk at home."

Bennett said nothing, and I let Randall open the door.

The reception hall had thinned out by the time we walked in.

Talk by the coffee table stopped when Randall came through.

I took a napkin, wiped my mouth, and went to stand by the poster for my son's film.

A man in a dark cardigan was already there, holding a paper cup.

"Mrs. Alder, I'm Philip Llewellyn. I teach Bennett's thesis class."

He held the cup out to me. It was tea, and it was hot.

"I saw you leave your water in the other room," he said. "I thought you might want something warm."

I took it. My hands were not steady, and he looked at the cup instead of at them.

"Thank you."

"Your son's long take is the best thing in this year's program," he said.

"He wouldn't tell me why the last scene is so quiet."

"Neither will I," I said, because I didn't know either.

Something almost like a smile crossed his face, and then Bennett called him over to meet a producer.

I stood by the poster and listened to my son explain his camera path.

When the producer left, Bennett held out a business card to the next guest, and his cuff slid back.

There was a new watch on his wrist.

"When did you get that?" I asked.

He touched the strap. "Graduation present."

"From whom?"

He looked at his father.

"A little something from Danica," Randall said. "He's about to start working. He should have a decent watch."

My tea was too hot to hold, and I held it anyway.

"You tell her when he graduates?"

"I mentioned it," Randall said.

"She watched my film last month," Bennett said. "She put me in touch with a producer."

He tugged his cuff down, thought better of it, and pushed it back up.

"Mom, when I took it, I thought you and Dad had worked everything out."

He was twenty-two, and nobody had taught him which gifts you hand back.

So I nodded.

"Don't lose it," I said.

His shoulders came down. "I won't."

When the photographer saw the three of us, he raised his camera again.

"Bennett, how about one with your parents?"

My son came straight over and took my arm. "Mom, it's only a second."

I set down the tea and let him lead me to the poster.

Randall stepped in beside me and laid his palm against my waist.

I went stiff.

I could see that same hand on the screen, flat against Danica.

I shifted toward Bennett, and Randall moved with me.

"A little closer, Dad," the photographer said.

I took hold of Randall's wrist and pushed his hand away.

Bennett turned. The smile he had been about to give the camera was gone.

"Mom."

"I'll take one with you," I said. "You can take one with your father."

"It's my screening. Everyone is looking."

He glanced at the photographer and dropped his voice.

"Please, just one, and then we can leave. They've seen enough tonight."

His fingers were bunched in my sleeve.

He thought I might walk out in front of everyone.

I loosened them one at a time.

"I'm not leaving. Take it with your dad."

I stepped out of the light and held Bennett's bag while the photographer took several pictures.

Bennett looked over at me between every shot.

He had stopped smiling by the last one.

When they finished, he did not check the photos. He came straight to me.

"Is graduation going to be like this?"

I zipped his open bag. "I'll be there."

"I know. But there's the dinner after, and relatives are coming, and Danica."

"Did she ask to come?"

"I asked her. She's done so much for me. I can't take her watch and her introductions and then tell her to stay away."

He glanced at his wrist and let his arm drop.

"She's pregnant, Mom. I don't want her to feel like none of us wanted her there."

He pulled up the restaurant's seating chart on his phone and held it out to me.

Randall sat at the head of the long table, with Danica at his right hand.

I was at the far end, six chairs away.

"You'll be next to Grandma and people you know," Bennett said. "That way it won't be uncomfortable for you."

I enlarged the chart, then shrank it.

The way he had drawn it, Randall and Danica looked like the married couple.

My son looked pleased with how neatly he had solved it.

Randall glanced at the screen. "That works. Everyone can relax."

"Can I sit with Bennett?"

My son said nothing.

"His friends are coming," Randall said. "He has to be in the middle to talk to everyone. Don't make this hard for him."

Bennett swiped, and the restaurant's confirmation form came up.

I put my hand flat on the screen.

"When did I confirm this?"

"The restaurant's been dealing with you," Randall said. "I left your name on it. It's only the head count and the seating."

I did not let go of the phone.

At the bottom of the form, one line read: Helena Alder, approved as arranged.

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