Shaun moves to follow my mother and I reach out to stop him.

"Shaun, you can't think this is a good idea. Are you really okay with going in there and discussing our divorce with my mother?"

Shaun looks at my hand on his arm before looking back up and stepping in toward me, "How did you think this was going to go? Did you honestly think we could just part ways and no one in our families would notice? You didn't think they were going to want an explanation for what happened to our marriage?"

"I thought I was going to have some time to think about it, be able to do it on my terms, when I was ready. Now I'm being pushed into it unprepared."

"Unprepared? Are you saying you're surprised our relationship is ending this way. Seems to me we've been heading down this road for a while. We were both just too stubborn to admit it."

I pause a moment.

"Is there going to be enough for three people?"

"What?"

"The pizza. You said you ordered pizza. Did you order enough for three people?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Did you know my mother was coming to Durant and neglect to tell me. Because you seem awfully calm about this whole turn of events."

"No. My mother did call this afternoon to tell me she had run into Lena at the store. She was more than a little surprised you hadn't told her about the divorce yet. But, I had no idea she was going to fly out to Wyoming to talk about it. Now that's she's here, let's just get this part over with. I'd have thought you'd be glad to not have to tell her on your own."

"You told your mother I was involved with Walt, as if that's the cause of our breakup. That's what she told my mother."

"And?"

I continue through gritted teeth, "It's not the truth."

"Isn't it?"

"Shaun, we've been through this already, multiple times. I don't want to go through it again with an audience."

"It's a matter of semantics, Vic. Now, unless you have other plans for my arm..." He runs his eyes down my body and back up again, "or the rest of me, I'm going to go in and talk to our guest. You can join me or not. That's up to you."

I loosen my grip and watch him walk into the other room. If I had been unsure about what he meant by his "suit yourself" comment upstairs, the look he had just given me left no doubt as to what he had hoped might happen this evening before we were interrupted. Great. Now I really want to leave but I know I have to stay. I cannot let Shaun intimidate me into allowing him to provide his own narrative to my mother alone. I take a brief detour into the kitchen and grab a beer. This could be a long night.

The next morning...

The intercom beeps and Ruby's voice fills my office, "Walt, you have a call on line one. It's Vic."

"Hello."

"My mother's here, in Durant."

"I heard."

"I'm going to kill Ferg."

"Now Vic, if he hadn't given her directions to your house someone else would have. She'd have found you eventually."

"Yes, but he could have called and warned me she was coming. Shaun was here when she arrived."

"Shaun was there? I thought he'd already gotten all his things out of the house."

"Apparently there are some things he missed. Can you believe that? He came over without letting me know he was coming, and then he had the nerve to assume he could stay the night. In my house."

"Isn't it still technically his house too, Vic."

"Did I ask your opinion?"

"Uh, nope. So, did he?"

"Did he what?"

"Stay."

"Thankfully no. Unfortunately he did stay long enough for the three of us to have a delightful discussion about our relationship, how it got to this point and what we both did to try make things work."

"Ouch."

"Exactly. It was excruciating. But, once my mother was finally satisfied and allowed us to move onto other topics of conversation, he said he would give my mother and me some time alone. I guess I should be grateful she got here when she did. Who knows what kind of shit he might have pulled if she hadn't."

"What do you mean? Did something happen?"

"Shaun was acting strangely: kind of like he did when things were good between us, like nothing had ever changed."

"In what way?"

"He was calm and relatively pleasant, for him anyway...a little flirty. He made it pretty clear he wasn't just here to get his college yearbooks."

Walt clears his throat, "And uh, how were you able to discern that?"

"Walt, do I detect some jealously in your voice? Are you worried I might have had some final, passionate farewell with my soon-to-be ex-husband."

"Wouldn't be the the first time that's happened. Omar's slept with all his ex-wives both during and after his divorces. Besides, Shaun's still your husband. I don't exactly have the right to tell you you can't take him into your bed if that's what you want. Especially since I'm not ready to take that step yet. Of course, just because I don't have the right to say it, doesn't mean I don't want to. "

"Well, you don't need to worry about that. Sex was something Shaun and I always did well, but now that it's over, it's over. At least for me. I'm not going back."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"So, I wanted to ask what time you're eating today. Mom wants to go out to lunch and I'd just as soon not see you when I'm with her today."

"Why? I can be good company."

"Well, let's just say your name had been brought up as a contributing factor to the divorce. I think I've just about gotten her convinced that we haven't been having an affair all this time, but I still think it's better if we don't run into you just yet."

"I trust your judgment on that. But, what about later."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know, when we are..."

"Having an affair?"

"In a word. How do you think she'll react to that?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Until then, I'd like the rest of her visit to be as drama free as possible."