The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan

It’s a strange business.”
    “You can’t possibly equate what Teddy’s doing to what we did.”
    “Why not? I married my best friend’s girl. In most people’s playbooks, it doesn’t get much more rotten than that.”
    She was startled by his words. Perhaps it was surprising that she and Gerald should have come together the way they did, but ever since, theirs had been the most ordinary of marriages. Maybe the way they met was still the most interesting thing about them, but it had happened so long ago. Since then, Gerald had fought in a war and returned home unscathed to become one of the top men in his firm. She had taught hundreds of students. Their son had come into being, and both their grandchildren.
    From time to time, she had imagined what her life would have been like had Nathaniel lived. They would have been happy. They might have struggled with money, something she and Gerald never had to think about. They would have talked about books, and watched less television than Gerald did. Perhaps she would have had more children, though she wasn’t quite sure how all that worked, that,” she said.me. They
    But when she let her mind wander down this path, she pictured her Gerald—alone, or married to the wrong woman, someone who would only see the surface of him. And there, her imaginings would stop, for the thought of either one of them without the other simply could not be.
    “It breaks my heart to think of you carrying that around all these years,” she said. “Darling, you have to know you didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “On the one hand, you’re right,” he said. “But on the other, I’ve occasionally wondered what he’ll say when we meet on the other side. Will he be angry? Will he hold a grudge for all eternity?”
    “I don’t think there are grudges on the other side,” she said.
    “Perhaps not.”
    “What will we ever do about Teddy?”
    “We’ve been asking each other that question for thirty years now. Teddy is a forty-year-old man. I don’t think there’s much we can do about him.”
    “But we’re his parents.”
    Gerald said nothing.
    “That woman, Nicole. I couldn’t stand the way she looked at this place. Like she was just waiting for us to die so it could all be hers. She’s awful.”
    When Gerald didn’t reply, Evelyn added, “She’s tacky.”
    “So’s he,” Gerald said.
    Evelyn laughed. Her husband had always been able to make her laugh, even when it seemed impossible.
    “I’ll bet she doesn’t last a year,” Gerald said.
    “But it’s not about her, anyway. A year from now, whatever happens, the damage will be done. I can’t part with the girls,” Evelyn said. “What if Julie really does take them away?”
    “Then you’ll write letters. We’ll visit them, and they’ll come see us. You’re their grandmother. Nothing Teddy does or doesn’t do can ever change that.”
    She wondered if he was right. She hoped he was.
    “It will all work out, you’ll see,” he said. “Why don’t we take a drivedown to the Cape tomorrow? I know you love the ocean in the fall. What do you say?”
    “All right,” she said weakly. She couldn’t quite bring herself to feel excited, but she was grateful that he was there to try to cheer her, and this, at least, was something.
    “Perk up, kiddo,” Gerald said. He extended his hand, and she took it.
    “Come on, Evie. Let’s take a walk outside before it gets too late.”
The Engagements

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2003
    The taxi ride to JFK never looked the same twice. Delphine had made it five times in the past year with P.J., and each time she had spent a few minutes wondering if perhaps they were about to be kidnapped. Neither of them could ever say where they were.
    Today was no different. The driver was African. He had the windows rolled down, the air-conditioning turned off. He talked into his cell phone in some foreign language, yelling at the person at the other end of the line.
    Her own cell phone lit up.