This Christmas by Jane Green Page A

good for me so I went to the bookstore and asked for a cookbook that was entirely idiot-proof. Let me tell you, I’ve cooked every night this week and the meals have been delicious.”
    There are a few moments of shocked silence. “I don’t believe you. What have you cooked?”
    “Roasted cod in miso sauce,” Eddie says. “Rosemary and garlic chicken with wild rice…”
    “Oh, my God,” Sarah gasps. “You have got to be kidding me! Is this some kind of sick joke where we split up and you suddenly become the perfect man? I suppose you’ve been working out too.” Sarah is joking and laughs until she realizes there is silence on the other end of the phone.
    “Just some running in the mornings,” Eddie says, “although I’m thinking of getting a personal trainer.”
    “Am I living in bizarro world?” Sarah frowns. “Is this Eddie Evans I’m talking to? I think I have the wrong number. I’m really sorry to have troubled you. Good-bye.” And she puts the phone down to try to get her head round what she just heard. The phone rings less than fifteen seconds later.
    “You’re nuts,” Eddie says, but he’s smiling. This is the Sarah he fell in love with. The Sarah who had character. Strength. Balls. The Sarah he thought had disappeared.
    “I’m not nuts,” Sarah says. “You’re the one who’s gone crazy. Tell me, seriously, were you kidnapped by aliens sometime in the night? Because you are not my husband. My husband’s cooking skills are limited to heating up McDonald’s in the microwave, plus my husband is severely allergic to exercise.”
    Eddie sucks in his breath at the sound of the words my husband . Sarah doesn’t seem to have noticed but the hope those two words give him is immeasurable—she still thinks of him as her husband! She hasn’t given up on him entirely! Eddie never would have thought such simple words could open up his world so much, but they do. He feels a great cloud lift, as he stands in his tiny kitchen opening a can of tomato sauce.
    “Obviously you were a terrible influence on me,” Eddie jokes.
    “Thanks a lot,” Sarah’s voice is hard again.
    “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Relax. It’s just there isn’t much else to do with my time here. I don’t know anyone in Chicago other than my colleagues, and I don’t have my family here.” Eddie puts the can of tomatoes down and goes into his living room, where he stares out the window at the tops of the buildings as he leans his head against the glass and cradles the phone into his shoulder. “I miss you, Sarah,” he says gently. “This is really hard, you know.”
    “I know,” she says softly. “It’s hard for me too.”
    “Can we talk about it? Could you maybe come up with the kids this weekend?”
    Sarah shakes her head. “It’s too soon,” she says. “I’m still confused, and I still think we both need some space. I just need to sort my head out, to get some clarity about what our future holds.”
    “Okay,” says Eddie sadly. “I understand. So tell me about the kids. How are they? I can’t believe how much I miss them.”
    But you were hardly ever with them , Sarah wants to say. Except she doesn’t. No point in saying that now.
    “They miss you too,” is all she says, before she takes a deep breath. “And there’s something else I wanted to tell you.”
    Oh, shit, thinks Eddie. Here it comes. He knew it. He knew it. Marriages don’t just dissolve into nothingness because of unhappiness. Marriages only ever end when there’s someone else, and here it comes….
    This is the part where Sarah tells him she’s fallen in love with someone else. Someone else is going to be sleeping on his side of the bed. Someone else is going to be waking up with his kids. Someone else will probably be a better father than he has ever been, for do not make the mistake of thinking Eddie is unaware of his failings. Eddie is becoming more and more aware of who he is and what he may have done wrong. He’s just