Unexpectedly, Milo - Matthew Dicks [110]
He spotted Emma almost immediately, sitting in the same booth that he had occupied the afternoon before. Sipping coffee from an oversize mug, she motioned him over.
“Hi again,” Milo said, immediately feeling like an idiot. Why could he never open a conversation like a normal person?
“Hi,” Emma said, the greeting sounding more like a question. “I ordered you a cup.” She pointed to an identical mug of coffee set in front of Milo.
“Thanks, but I don’t drink coffee.”
“No?”
“Afraid not,” Milo said. “I don’t drink any adult drinks. No coffee, no tea, no wine. Pretty much no alcohol at all except for the occasional beer. I’m basically a soda and juice man. It’s actually a bone of contention between me and my wife.”
“Really? How so?”
Milo hesitated but then took a deep breath. He didn’t see any reason not to tell the truth, to himself and to Emma. Yesterday, while sitting in this very same booth, he had told Officer Eblen that his marriage was over. He could certainly tell this woman a little bit about the reasons why. “Well, my wife says it would be nice if we could have a cup of coffee together at Starbucks, or share a bottle of wine at dinner, or even some tea with dessert. But I just don’t like the stuff. She thinks … I don’t know. She thinks it’s sort of juvenile, I guess. And I think she wishes that I could be more of an adult at times. More of a man.”
“And a cup of coffee might do that?”
“She seems to think so,” Milo said, trying without success to find a way to gently change the subject. As much as he might be willing to share a bit of his life with Emma, this wasn’t why he had come to North Carolina. “But I think it’s more about image than anything else. When we go to a nice restaurant, she’ll order a martini or a glass of wine and I’ll order a Coke. I guess it just doesn’t complete the picture for her. I swear that she cringes every time I order.”
“No marriage is perfect. Right?”
“Nope,” Milo agreed. “That’s probably why my wife and I are separated. Maybe we were foolishly expecting perfection but never found it.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. And we’re not divorced yet, so there’s still hope,” Milo lied. “But that’s not why we’re here. Right?”
“Are you hoping that it works out? Your marriage, I mean.”
Milo paused for a moment, wondering how to answer the question, looking for a way to turn the discussion to Tess Bryson. Finally he surrendered, hoping that his willingness to answer Emma’s questions honestly and candidly would pay dividends later. “Sometimes I do. Or I did, until recently. I don’t know. Sometimes I wish that we could go back to how things used to be, before we started having trouble. I know that I wasn’t the happiest guy in the world, but things were set back then. Everything was in its place. And even though we could’ve been happier, we weren’t miserable either. So yes, there are days when I hope that we can work things out.”
“And there are days when you don’t?”
“Yes,” Milo said, resignation tainting his voice. “There are days when I’d love to make a clean break from Christine. More days like that than not, to be honest. Most days, I suspect. And it’s looking like that’s where we are headed. But you never know what might happen. Besides, I assume that my marital problems aren’t the reason we’re here. Right?”
“That’s true,” Emma said, sitting up and assuming a more serious disposition. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I have that way about me. Always asking questions without thinking about how they might make someone feel. I should’ve been a newspaper reporter. I guess that’s why Tess chose me to speak to you.”
“So