Emily’s mouth snapped shut and she sat glaring at him. Nick could see her eyes were tearing up.
“Well,” he said, “you certainly seem to be worked up about this—”
“Ya THINK?” she interrupted.
“But I wonder whether Suzanne mentioned exactly WHEN I got the promotion?”
Emily shook her head. “She just said it was in July sometime.”
“And do you happen to remember anything else I found out about in July?”
Her face got pale, and she looked down. “Yes—yes, of course I do.”
“I learned about you and Pritzker before I got a chance to tell you about the promotion,” he said, letting his voice get hard. “And, by the way, I learned about it the SAME DAY—I came home at lunchtime and found your email open, and saw your messages to that cocksucker!”
Emily gasped, and stared at him. He had never told her this before.
“And when I realized that you’d been keeping something from me—something pretty fucking important to our marriage!—I didn’t exactly feel like sharing my news with you. Is that so hard to understand?”
She shook her head, looking miserable. All the fight had gone out of her.
Now Nick was on his feet, pacing. “So yeah, you’re right, I should have told you. But I guess I was enjoying keeping my secret from you, Em—a little bit of ‘tit for tat.’ Plus, at least my secret was something good, not something sleazy and selfish.
“I’m going for a walk,” he said, and headed out the door, not looking back to see her crying quietly.
**********************
The next morning, getting breakfast on the table and Ben and Charlie dressed and fed and out the door, was almost entirely silent. Emily and Nick moved around one another smoothly, efficiently, without friction but without warmth, either.
Nick didn’t know what Emily was feeling. He himself was calm, even relaxed—their argument the night before, and then his long walk around the neighborhood, had brought some things into focus for him.
When she came back into the house after seeing the boys onto the school bus, she headed for the bedroom without a word.
“Em—”
His voice startled her, and she jumped a little. She turned and looked at him, appearing unhappy and wary.
“How about if I bring home some take-out tonight, so you don’t have to cook?”
“That would be … nice, Nick—thanks,” she said carefully. They talked about Chinese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and decided on Five Guys hamburgers, which the boys adored.
Then he said, “and I’d like us to spend some time together tonight when the boys are in bed, okay?”
Looking even more concerned, she nodded. Nick came over, held her gently and kissed her, feeling her standing as rigid as a statue in his arms.
**********************
The boys loved the hamburgers, predictably, and Nick and Emily collaborated on bathing them and getting them into bed, smiling at one another when the usual bathtub water fight soaked the bathroom floor. When both kids were sleeping soundly, Nick settled himself and Emily at opposite ends of the living room couch.
The warm, comradely feeling they’d had while taking care of Ben and Charlie had dissipated, and he could feel the tension coming from her.