An online novel by Gillette Edmunds

“I’ve got to divorce Michael, but that’s about it,” Sonya continued. “It’s funny, Connie. I don’t want anything right now. There were all these men I wanted and I got all of them and their lives, their money, their prestige and it all led to nothing. It’s really too bad that it didn’t amount to anything. Nothing at all.”

“Hell, the money is something,” Connie said.

“That cost me eight years. I’ll never want to have children so maybe I never lost anything with Thomas. Maybe I learned something about preserving myself then. When I met him, the big, powerful governor, all I ate was hamburgers and all I drank was white wine. If I’d gotten fat, he would have left me. Bill would never have wanted me. Thomas was a fool, trying to marry me and leave his wife, and I was a fool for not getting an abortion earlier. I could have ruined my figure, permanently.”

“Did Michael ever want kids?” Connie asked. She dropped her hand from Sonya’s neck and lay down on her back. Her eyes closed and she searched the deck with her hand for her sunglasses.

“He never said anything about kids,” Sonya said. She lay on her stomach and twisted her head towards Connie. “All he does is work. He doesn’t think about those things. He never even asked me why I didn’t use birth control. In four years, he never asked me. Maybe he didn’t even notice.”

“He was odd,” Connie said. A warm, drowsy breeze floated over the deck.

Closing her eyes, Sonya mumbled sleepily, “need to divorce ‘um before he thinks ‘m coming back.”