Free The Sweetest Revenge by Jennifer Ransom

of
her leaving Jim behind while she pursued her art and academic career.
The thought of him being left alone after giving everything up with
me had gotten me through many a night.
    I turned my head so they wouldn’t
see me. But I couldn’t resist glancing over at them every few
seconds. Why were they looking at fruit trees? That was the kind of
item you bought when you were putting down roots, not a temporary
kind of plant at all. Was Kimberly going to stay in town? That made
me heartsick.
    And then Jim looked my way. I saw
the look of surprise on his face. His smile quivered, then dropped
until his lips were in a straight line. I turned my head again. I
left my basket of flowers and walked all the way through the store
and out the other side before circling back around to my car.
    I sat in my car and cried. I had
imagined Jim with Kimberly many times, had tortured myself with
visions of their life, their lovemaking. But seeing them together in
person was worse than any of those visions. In person, they were a
real couple, out buying things together. For their house.
    Like Jim and I used to do.
    After I had collected myself, I
drove to the grocery store and went down the aisles in a frenzy,
buying food like I had when Jim was still there. I hauled the grocery
bags inside and started making lasagna before I even put the
groceries up. Hours later, when the lasagna was bubbling and the
fresh mozzarella was oozing on top, I cut a piece. I ate the entire
piece ravenously, like I hadn’t eaten in a week.
    It was too much for me. I was so
full after I ate, that I threw up. I guess I had just needed to know
that I could still do it, that I was still a good cook even if there
was no one to cook for anymore. I cut the rest of the lasagna into
individual pieces and froze them for later. I didn’t know when I’d
be able to eat it again.
    I checked my email before
settling in for the night. I don’t know why I still bothered to do
that. I rarely got email, except from my parents. But that evening,
there was an email from Jim.
    “ Was that you I saw at the
garden center today?” he wrote. “I barely recognized you. You’ve
lost so much weight, it took me back in time.”
    Bastard. I didn’t respond to
him.
    I was beginning to realize that
there was no reason for me to stay in Marshall. I no longer had a job
or a husband. Or any friends. My parents had left five years earlier.
My prospects for another job were limited since the university was
the main provider in Marshall, and they had fired me. I wished I had
been clear-headed enough earlier on to realize this. Back when I had
the house on the market. With the alimony money, plus the
investments, plus the money from the sale of the house, I really
could live anywhere I wanted to. Even if it meant uprooting Midnight.
I could find a place that would allow her to be outdoors, once we
were settled.
    I was definitely going to have to
leave Marshall. There was no longer any question in my mind.
    And then Janice called me.
    “ I’ve gotten a call from the
vice president of development, Steve Harrell,” she said. “You’re
not gonna believe this, but the university wants to give you back
your job. Well, actually, they want to make you vice president of
communications.”
    “ What?” That’s all I could
think of to say, I was so shocked.
    “ They want to give you double
what you were making.”
    “ Why?” I finally said.
    “ Mr. Harrell said that Sheila
fired you without authority,” Janice said. “If you don’t make
this deal, we’ll get a great settlement out of it. They’ve
already admitted to wrongdoing.”
    “ I don’t understand,” I
said.
    “ Me either,” Sheila said.
“But the Mr. Harrell wants to meet with us. Can you go tomorrow at
two?”
    “ I’m not sure I want to go,”
I said. I was trying to figure out what was going on. Why the
university had done such an about-face.
    “ I can tell them that,”
Janice said. “We can continue with the suit and