Breach of Promise Read Free Page B

seemed like my fifth-grade teacher about to chastise me—“four months is not a big deal.”
“To you maybe, but what about Maddie?”
“Bring her over.”
“Right. And meanwhile I quit auditioning.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
The way she said it entered my pores like an arctic wind. She might as well have said, Your career isn’t exactly taking off, like mine, and you haven’t had a paying gig in eight months, so how can it be wrong to have you fly over where I’ll be making myself into a legend?
    “That’s just like you all of a sudden,” I said. “You’re the center of the universe now.”
“Maybe I am. Maybe it’s my time.”
“You sound like George Segal in Look Who’s Talking.
“Huh?”
“When he cheats on Kirstie Alley and tells her, ‘I’m going through a selfish phase.’”
“That is so mean.”
“Comparing you to George Segal?” I can be nasty when I want to be.
“You don’t want me to succeed, do you?”
At that precise moment I was not sure if I did. I could feel her star ascending like it was launched by some heavenly Cape Canaveral, while I sat here back on earth, a boulder in Death Valley.
I did want her to succeed. Part of me was so proud of her. She was going to become a major star, I had always believed that. And she was my wife. I never felt so good as when I walked into a party with Paula on my arm. Everyone would stop what they were doing and just stare—at her—and then they’d look over at me, thinking Who is that lucky guy?
But I also didn’t want her to go away. And I yelled at her about it.
Paula yelled back. She had a good, strong voice. Great for theater work.
My voice is stronger, however, and I used it. Paula got so mad she started to cry and took off one of her shoes and threw it at me as hard as she could. She missed and I laughed. (To this day I am sorry about that. It was a cruel and ugly thing to do, and I did it because I wanted to win. That was all that mattered.)
And then Maddie came into the kitchen where World War III was commencing.
“Guys!” Maddie said emphatically, “this is not what you do!”
We looked at Maddie. I looked at Paula. Paula looked at me. Then Paula started to laugh. And I started to laugh. Maddie put her hands on her hips and said, “This is not funny.”
2 “Mark, I’ve been thinking.”
    Paula and I were in bed. I’d just finished getting Maddie settled by letting her read Dr. Seuss to me. I chose Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! All the way through I was thinking about Paula. She would be going soon.
    “Good,” I said. “A woman who thinks is very sexy.” “Not about that.”
“Can I change your way of thinking?”
“Will you listen?”
“I’m listening.” I folded my hands on my stomach and looked
at the ceiling. It had a brown water spot in the corner. Funny, but
    I hadn’t noticed it before. Did it come after the last rains? “It’s about you and Maddie.”
“What about me and Maddie?”
“I think maybe we can work something out while I’m gone. To
    help.”
“Help?”
“You know.”
I got up on one elbow, looked at Paula. “No, I don’t know.” Paula sighed. “About taking care of her.”
“What, you’re saying I can’t handle the job?”
“You said so yourself.”
“When?”
“When you were bagging on me going to Europe. All that about
    your career suffering.”
“What are you, an elephant? Never forget?”
“It was three days ago. It’s not like last year.”
“Why are you bringing this up now?”
“Duh, because I’m about to leave.”
“Forget about it. We went through this.”
“No, you went through this.”
“Then you said okay.”
“When did I say okay?”
“When you didn’t say anything. That was a silent okay.” She shook her head. “This is starting to sound like a bad Seinfeld script. I’m telling you I’ve got an idea. You want to hear it, or do you want to bat around lines?”
With a hand to her shoulder, I said, “Or something else?”
    She pulled