Free The Fallout by Tamar Cohen

doorway.
    â€œOh, poor baby. Come here.”
    Throwing herself to the floor, she swept up September into a hug, crushing the little girl’s head to her bony rib cage.
    â€œI know you miss your daddy.”
    As she stroked her daughter’s curls, Sasha gazed up at Josh, all the time keeping up a stream of whispered endearments into her daughter’s ear, and he was shocked when he finally put a name to the expression on her face.
    Triumph.
    * * *
    â€œTell me again what he said.”
    It was the third time Josh had been through it. He was tired. He just wanted to have dinner and slump on the sofa, but instead he was being quizzed about every single conversation he’d had with Dan, every conceivable nuance of every word.
    â€œHe said he felt like he’d been sleepwalking through the last few years of his life, and now he’s waking up.”
    â€œYes, but that could be a good thing, couldn’t it? It could mean that he’s finally learning what’s important to him, couldn’t it?”
    â€œIt could...”
    Josh didn’t tell her about the excitement in Dan’s voice when he’d talked about feeling alive for the first time in years. What would be the point?
    â€œI love him so much,” Sasha said now, apropos of nothing. “I think it took something like this to really realize it. I know it will all turn out okay in the end. You know how some things are just meant to be. Dan would never break up our family—he knows what it would do to me after everything I went through as a child. I feel quite relaxed about it now, because I’m so certain he’s coming back.”
    Josh didn’t even want to think about all the different levels on which that bothered him. The karmic “everything happens for a reason” bullshit, the fact that for someone claiming to be so relaxed, Sasha was doing a very good impression of being totally the opposite. Sitting in her usual spot on the end of the sofa with her feet tucked up underneath her, she was almost bouncing with excess energy, like one of those bobblehead dogs people put in cars. Her eyes were like two hard, dark marbles, boring into him as she waited impatiently for his response. Or maybe not so much a response as a confirmation.
    At least it was preferable to listening to her waxing lyrical about Dan and how wonderful he was. The guy had practically been canonized over the course of the last few days. If Josh ever tried to remind her of the little matter of Dan cheating on her, she dismissed it with hardly a second thought. “A moment of weakness” was how she’d decided to classify it. “He was flattered. She was available. Happens to people all the time. Of course, I’ll make him get tested for every STD under the sun before I take him back, but it’d be crazy to throw away a fantastic marriage with all that history, just because of some little slut who couldn’t keep her knickers on.”
    Josh would squirm with discomfort when she talked like this, glancing toward the doorway to make sure it was free of small figures who might be listening.
    A series of loud bleeps announced the arrival of a text message. Josh glanced at his phone, which sat on the coffee table between him and Sasha, aware that her eyes, too, were fixed on it. Both of them knew it was Dan, texting to see if Sasha was still there. This was the pattern they’d fallen into, with Dan resolutely refusing to talk to Sasha until their Dan-imposed “breathing time” was up. He’d already threatened to move out to an undisclosed address if Sasha “accidentally on purpose” happened to be there when he got home.
    â€œWe need to give each other this time,” he’d stressed. “We owe it to each other.”
    â€œWell?” Sasha asked, wanting to know about the text.
    â€œHe says he’s going to be back around ten.”
    â€œBecause he thinks that’s too late for