“Do you think something’s wrong?” she asked quietly.
“No,” I assured her. “I’m just being cautious.”
“Take Diablo with you. He’ll let you know if someone’s in there.”
Diablo and I went inside. He ran upstairs while I checked downstairs. Together, we quickly cleared her house.
“It’s all clear,” I told her and escorted her into her house.
She walked into the living room and took a seat on the sofa. “Normally, I’d give you a tour of the house and show you to the guest room, but if I go up those stairs, I don’t think I’ll be coming back down them again today. And I’m not ready to go up for the day.”
“Don’t worry about it. We can get everything squared away later. Is there anything I can do for you right now?”
“I could go for a drink and a snack, but I have no idea what’s in the kitchen. I probably need to order some groceries,” she said apologetically.
I opened the fridge, followed by the pantry. “Looks like your dad and Buck made sure you were fully stocked before they left.”
“Of course they did. I should’ve expected that. Can I have a zero-sugar ginger ale and a bag of Cheez-Its? And help yourself to anything you want.”
“Thanks,” I said and placed her drink and crackers on the table beside her. “Do you need anything else?”
“If you can hand me that blanket,” she said and pointed to a blanket at the end of the couch, “I think I’ll be set for a while.”
I covered her with the blanket and made sure the television remote was within her reach before I took a seat on the other sofa. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to go back to work tomorrow?”
“Honestly, no, but I’ll only be in the office tomorrow, and Andi said I could leave early if I needed to.”
Personally, I thought she needed to take a few more days off, but I kept my opinion to myself in case there were other factors I was unaware of that affected her decision, such as her personal finances.
She picked up the remote and tossed it to me. “I’m probably going to fall asleep, so you’re welcome to watch whatever you want. My dad has all the channels and streaming services.”
“What do you like to watch?” I asked.
“I don’t really watch a lot of television. Occasionally, I watch movies, but I prefer reading or listening to books.”
“How about a movie then?” I asked.
“As long as it’s nothing scary or extremely violent.”
I clicked on one of the popular streaming services and scrolled through their selection of movies. I wasn’t really interested in watching a movie, but I went through the motions and used the opportunity to ask her some questions.
“Can I ask you something about your divorce?”
“Sure. What do you want to know?”
“Why is it taking so long?”
She exhaled slowly, and I briefly wondered if my question had offended her. “Some of that’s my fault. At first, I was being petty and refused to file for divorce. I mean, he was the one who cheated and left me for another woman, and I just didn’t think I should have to pay for it. When six months went by and I hadn’t been served with papers, I realized I would have to be the one to file if I wanted to get divorced. Then it took around a month for me to decide on a lawyer and another month to get an appointment. I was under the impression that it would be quite simple since we didn’t have children and didn’t have many assets to speak of, but apparently that’s not the case since he can’t be located to be served.”
“You can’t be the first person this has happened to. There has to be something you can do.”
“My lawyer said I had to prove that I had made a significant effort to locate him and suggested I hire a private investigator. So, I contacted a few PIs in the area. Do you know how much they charge? Anywhere from one-fifty to two hundred dollars an hour. And none of them would even give me a rough estimate of how many hours it might take to locate him. I wasn’t willing to potentially spend thousands of dollars to try to find him. WhenI explained this to my lawyer, he said there was nothing else he could do and told me to let him know if I changed my mind. At that point, I decided to track him down myself before forking out the money for a private investigator. A couple of weeks later, the police showed up at my house. I thought they were going to accuse me of stalking him, but to my surprise, they said his mother had reported him missing and wanted to know if I knew where he was or if I’d had any contact with him. I told them I hadn’t and explained that I was also looking for him. I called my lawyer and told him what was going on, and he told me I couldn’t proceed with the divorce process until the missing person case was closed. So, I’m kind of stuck until he’s found.”
“That doesn’t seem right to me,” I said. “What if he’s never found? Are you supposed to wait seven years, or whatever the standard timeframe is, for them to declare him dead?”
“I didn’t think about it like that. I just kind of went with it because it seemed, I don’t know, rude, or maybe insensitive to continue pursuing a divorce when he’s actively missing,” she explained.
“You’re too nice.”