“I was too …” Taylor stops. “Startled and stunned like a deer in headlights. Ashamed. Overwhelmed.”

“Is it too late?”

“Too late for the house. Too late for Rick.” Taylor pushes her shoulders back.

“But not too late for you and your kids.” Charlene’s and Sissy’s words are on top of each other.

“But that’s not the only story. I didn’t think I could come here, couldn’t take money needed to feed my kids to use for cookies or packaging, even from the dollar store. I struggled to figure out where we’d go—my mom’s? Rick’s parents? My sister’s?” She reaches for a glass of water.

I knew she had lost her job. She called me months ago and I suggested she consider moving into sales—it was rough, but it would be something. She wanted to stay in teaching and training. She needed a job with benefits to take care of her children. I suggested she try the U, but they had a hiring freeze. She had tried there already. I invited her to networking breakfasts, but no luck. Everyone had pounded every inch of pavement and pulled in each favor.

“I should move to India,” she joked.

I didn’t know Rick was having an affair. Didn’t know he had cleaned her out and abandoned her and their kids. I remember his eyes while we were dancing all those years ago, looking slantwise from the corner. At every gathering, he kept himself separate and just watched as we drank and laughed. The downward curve of his lips lent him an aura of disapproval and scorn. I told myself it was just the way his mouth was formed. The last few years, he seldom joined us at all, too busy finishing up experiments, working in the lab. Everyone I knew who worked for Pfizer put in sixty hours a week, so I didn’t question it. All those long hours made it difficult to keep a relationship alive.

I think of Jim’s hectic work.

Taylor seemed like the spark in the marriage, the one with the added spice of flair and enthusiasm. Rick seemed the consumer of her energy, but maybe that matched her drive to feel needed. Two kids, though, swallow that energy. I know. I remember. And Rick’s downturned mouth expressed not just smugness but dissatisfaction. Depression, I thought. People will do anything to distract themselves from it. Anything. Including abandoning a wife and kids. Anything.

“And then the day before Thanksgiving, Allie said that we could move to her basement. It’s a separate apartment with a small bedroom, huge living room, and its own kitchen and bath.”

“It’s okay in a pinch and they can stay until Taylor gets a job and enough money to rent something else.” Allie smiles at Taylor. And then I understand Taylor’s adoring gaze.

“Allie saved my life,” Taylor says.