Free If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now by Claire LaZebnik Page A

eat a lot,” Nicole said.
    “That I do!” He put Cameron down and mussed Nicole’s hair.
    “Where did Sherri go?” asked Cameron.
    “Oh, she wanted to wander around a little, see the sights.” He kept grinning down at the kids, but now it felt like it was
     to avoid making eye contact with Mel and me.
    “Naomi told me she was famous,” Nicole said. Naomi was Nicole’s best friend and occasionally her worst enemy. “She recognized
     her and said we were so lucky we knew her and she wants an autograph.” Then, with a sudden anxious look at her mother. “But
     I don’t have to get one. I mean,
I
don’t care if she’s famous.”
    “She asked to come,” Gabriel said. It wasn’t clear who he was talking to. “I was going to come by myself but she asked if
     she could come. I thought it would be okay?” He gave a quick questioning look up toward Melanie, who was just standing there
     like she was frozen, a stiff smile on her tight lips.
    “Of course,” she said tonelessly. “You’re allowed to bring whoever you like. Or is it whomever? I can never remember which
     is right when it’s the object of the sentence, can you?”
    I said quickly, “Hey, Gabriel, will you do me a favor and take the kids to go find Noah? He’s with my mother but I know he’d
     rather be hanging out with you guys.”
    He got it. “Of course. Come on, kids, let’s go find your cousin.”
    As soon as they were out of earshot, Melanie’s whole body went limp. I put my arms around her and she let her head sink down
     onto my shoulder. “I can’t believe he brought her here,” she whispered. “It’s
my
event.”
    “It sucks,” I said. “He shouldn’t have done that.”
    “And they’re excited that she’s here. She’s famous. How can I compete with that?”
    I squeezed her tightly. “Your kids are smart—they’ll see right through her.”
    “Everyone will see her here with him.” She stood up. Her eyes were swollen but she wasn’t actually crying. “It’s so humiliating.”
     Someone came up and asked for a hot dog and she handed it over mechanically without even smiling or saying “Thank you,” which
     was very un-Melanie-like.
    “It’s only humiliating if you let it be,” I said. “Act like you don’t care. Better yet,
don’t
care. Someday soon, you’re going to be dating someone wonderful and Gabriel will be sick of Sherri.”
    “I can’t imagine ever being with anyone else,” she said.“That’s the worst part. That I still love him in spite of everything.”
    I remembered what Ryan had said. “Did you ever think about giving Gabriel a second chance?” I asked.
    “What would have been the point?” she said wearily. “He is who he is. Even back when we were dating, he—”
    “Excuse me?” said a tall man with glasses who had stepped up to the counter. “Is it possible to get a burger that’s not beef?”
    “We have veggie burgers,” I said.
    “What brand?”
    “I have no idea.”
    He narrowed his eyes at me.
    “Let me go find out,” I said with a sigh. I gave Melanie a quick pat on the shoulder and headed toward the grills. Carol Lynn
     was coming my way with a tin of freshly cooked hamburgers, the weight of it making the narrow, ropy muscles in her arms stand
     out even more than usual.
    “Hey.” She nodded in Mel’s direction, resting the tin on her hip while she stopped. “She okay? That was her husband, right?
     And they’re separated?”
    “Yeah.” I had no desire to gossip about Melanie’s private life with someone over the age of forty-five who was wearing a baby-doll
     T-shirt with the word
Juicy
over her chest.
    When it was clear I wasn’t going to say more, Carol Lynn said, “I feel for her. I remember when I was going through this—school
     events were the worst. Do you think I should say anything to her?”
    “I don’t know,” I said honestly.
    “I just want her to know it gets better.”
    “That’s just what I was telling her.”
    “Only… it never