All afternoon, Natalie had wanted to phone Evie and make sure everything all right, but all afternoon she had been so busy she’d never had the chance. By the time she was free, it was almost evening, so it seemed easier just to go home. She hoped Evie hadn’t been too horrified by whatever had happened with Meredith, and she remained a little concerned about whatever that might be. She was almost certain that Meredith would have been completely unreasonable, but she had an odd feeling Evie might have been too. Not that she blamed Evie. She quite often wished she could be more unreasonable to Meredith herself.
She went home, and opened the front door, and felt almost anxious, almost expecting something awful. She didn’t quite know what kind of awful, but certainly something bad. Evie angry or Evie miserable or even Evie gone.
She seemed to have been worrying over nothing. Everything was as it usually was when she got home. Evie was in the kitchen, at the table, reading. Nothing at all seemed wrong.
Natalie put her briefcase down beside the front door, walked over to Evie, and kissed the top of her head. Evie didn’t look up, but she often didn’t until she had finished a thought. She kept staring at the page, very intently. Natalie waited a moment, in case Evie said something, but Evie didn’t. Natalie glanced around. Meredith had said she’d left a note. There was a sheet of paper at the far end the end of the table. Well away from Evie, Natalie noticed. She went and looked, and saw her own name in Meredith’s handwriting, so she picked up the note, and read it.
Meredith said she’d stopped by, and met the girl, and what the fuck was Natalie doing? Not that Natalie would want to explain, Meredith said, since she assumed Evie had read the note too. Meredith said she just wanted the receipt for the blue vase they’d got in Venice, for insurance, if Natalie still had it, but that she’d try another time. Since she assumed Natalie was busy.
Meredith had said girl rather than child, Natalie noticed. That was probably something to be grateful for. Meredith would have been getting angrier the longer she thought about Evie, so in the time between her writing the note and her phoning Natalie, Evie had changed from a girl to a child. Whatever that meant, Natalie thought. Not that she especially cared.
She read the note again, and wanted to sigh. All Meredith’s financial papers were still in her office. When they’d separated, and sold their house, Meredith had still been in the middle of her affair and couldn’t be bothered sorting things out property. She’d left it to Natalie to divide their possessions, and to pack, and had left things like her papers behind. The apartment Natalie lived in now had been their city flat, a place to sleep if either of them were working late, or couldn’t be bothered with traffic, to save them driving home. Natalie had moved in, and taken all their papers with her, and that was turning out to be a mistake. Sometimes, it seemed like quite a serious one.
Natalie looked at Evie, still expecting Evie to finish a paragraph and then talk to her, but Evie didn’t. After a while Natalie realised Evie hadn’t turned a page in several minutes. In fact, not since Natalie had walked in.
Natalie decided she ought to make sure Evie wasn’t upset.
“I hear you met Meredith,” she said.
“Yep,” Evie said.
“Are you all right?”
Evie nodded. “There’s a note.”
“Yes,” Natalie said. “I’m reading it…”
Evie looked up. “Oh yeah.”
Natalie held the note out, and Evie took it. After a moment, she said, “I didn’t read it.”
“I assumed not,” Natalie said. It seemed exactly how Evie would be.
“She’s kind of full of herself, isn’t she?” Evie said.
Natalie hesitated. “She was upset. She didn’t know about you.”
“Oh,” Evie said, and then seemed to think. “Why would she need to know about me?”
“I don’t know, actually. Because we were together so long, I suppose.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Probably not. It’s just seems to be what people do.”
“She left you, though,” Evie said.
“She did.”
“So why would she need to know?”
“I really have no idea,” Natalie said. She took off her jacket, and draped it over a chair. She sat down beside Evie, close enough to touch her arm. “Is everything okay?”
Evie nodded.
“Are you sure?”
“She was being rude,” Evie said. “She was trying to push her way in here.”
“I imagine.”
“And talking down to me.”
“Yes,” Natalie said. “I know. I mean, I imagine that’s exactly how she would be.”
“She was doing it on purpose,” Evie said. “She was trying to let me know I’m not part of your real grown-up life. And that I never will be.”
Natalie looked at Evie, surprised. “You worked that out?”
“It was kind of obvious,” Evie said. Then she grinned. “Oh look. I’m perceptive. Well fuck me.”
Natalie leaned over and kissed her.
“She cheated on you,” Evie said, into Natalie’s mouth.
“I know,” Natalie said. She kissed for a moment, thinking, and then realized. “Oh. Are you sticking up for me?”
“I think so. A bit.”
“I’m over her.”
“Good. You should be.”
“I’m over what she did too.”
“You shouldn’t be over that.”
Natalie sat back, and looked at Evie, trying to decide how serious she was. She seemed sincere. She seemed angry, almost, on Natalie’s behalf.
“I think you care more about it than I do,” Natalie said.
Evie shrugged. “Maybe.”
“She’s just hurt, that’s all. She’ll calm down.”
“Calm down?” Evie said, apparently surprised.
Natalie nodded.
“Why should she need to calm down? She left you, so…”
Natalie waited.
“I don’t know,” Evie said. “She’s in the wrong, so why do you have to be nice while she calms down.”
Natalie shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t have to make sense.”
“She pisses me off,” Evie said. “A lot.”
“I know. She pisses me off too. But try to stay calm, it’ll just be easier.”
“Why easier?” Evie said.
“It just is. We’re both lawyers,” Natalie corrected herself. “We’re all lawyers. Everyone knows everyone. It’s just easier not to let her upset you.”
“But she left you,” Evie said. “She deserves…”
“Please? For me?”
Evie didn’t answer.
“Please?” Natalie said.
Evie shrugged, and looked back to her books, which Natalie decided was begrudging agreement. She kissed Evie again, and went to change out of her work clothes, and was glad everything seemed to be all right.