Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“I should have left her,” Tom murmured into his glass and took another sip. When he was done, he rested the drink on his thigh, looked back at Szabo and repeated, “I should have left her. My weakness wasn’t fucking another woman. My weakness was not leaving my wife before I did it.”
“I disagree,” Szabo said in a strangled voice.
“Phoenix is okay, better than LA. I’d prefer one of the Carolinas or Florida. And when I say that, I mean I’d vastly prefer the East Coast.”
They’d moved to Phoenix not long ago. It was what Genny wanted.
It wasn’t what Tom wanted.
They talked, he made his feelings known. She was done with LA. He didn’t know what was going on with her, she wasn’t sharing, but one thing he did know was that he wanted her to be happy, he wanted her to be happy with him, so they moved.
“I didn’t want to live in a condo,” he continued. “I am not at all a condo type of man.”
And he wasn’t. Even though she already knew this, he nevertheless shared that with Genny. She put her foot down. “The kids are all but gone, Tom, what are we going to do with a huge house when the kids are gone? It’s a waste. We’re not wasteful.”
And he wanted her to be happy, so they got a huge condo instead.
“I’ve hated LA since we moved into our first house there,” he went on.
“You have a mouth, why didn’t you—?”
Tom cut him off.
“I hate those fucking awards dinners and shows and premieres. Genny does too. They make her tense. They pick apart your outfits. Your shoes. Hair. The fucking jewelry you were given to wear. The best dressed lists. The worst dressed lists. Dissecting you like you’re not a human being. The glee in their hate is despicable. Even if she never landed on the worst dressed lists, her friends did, and you hurt when someone you care about hurts. They ask questions. You know how it is. ‘How do you and Tom keep the spark in your marriage, Imogen?’ Like it’s their fucking business.”
“Tom—”
“She hates it, I hate it more. Always did. Having to go through it and watching her have to do the same.”
“Seems you married the wrong woman then.”
Tom shook his head. “You love someone, you put up with a lot of shit you hate.”
“This is fucked up,” Szabo hissed. “Excuses. You’re a grown man, Tom.”
Tom ignored that.
“I’m on her arm during those, Corey. Didn’t you notice? I don’t think she did. I drop everything. Even if there’s a tournament I’m calling, I fly to get to her and fly redeye to get back to my seat at the desk in front of the camera for the next day’s matches. We’re talking hauling ass from Melbourne or Paris or London. I did that not because she wanted me there. I did it because she needed me there. So I was there. Hell and high water, I got my ass in a fucking tux and stood at her side doing something she hated and something I detested, smiling while I did it. When I’m doing my thing, though, Corey, when has Genny dropped everything to be with me? When I’m kissing ass to raise money for my camp or doing my bit for the girls, if Genny’s filming, she’s on set and not with me. Rod joked a couple of years ago, I’m known as the Lone Wolf. He wasn’t wrong, I was alone so often, but only when it was something that mattered to me. Something that had to do with my interests and my career. He didn’t mean it ugly, but when he said it, it got under my skin.”
“And you didn’t talk to your wife about it?”
“Of course I did.”
“And Genny, our Genny, told you to fuck off?”
“My Genny was shocked I didn’t understand the way it was in her business after all these years. She was hurt that I was hurt. And in the beginning, I didn’t mind. Then it got old and one-sided, and I did. In the end, she’s right. It was her business, it was what she had to do to maintain her career, and I knew it. Men have been doing that same thing for centuries, and no one questions it. But she was also wrong.”
“So your response was to fuck someone that wasn’t her,” Szabo stated scathingly.
“No, I got even more hurt when she pulled away and stayed away and I lived in a city I hated, because she needed to live there. Then moved to a city I didn’t want to move to, into a home I didn’t like, because she wanted to move here. Then she wasn’t working as much, but she still didn’t step to my side. She threw herself into our kids, who were grown, for fuck’s sake, and took a break from her marriage without actually taking a break from her marriage.”