The View From Alameda Island. Robyn Carr

for men. Depending on your self-confidence, that could make a husband feel a little puffed up and proud.

      Sometimes Pam took it over the edge.

      She barely resembled the young jeans-clad single mother, struggling with two rambunctious little boys, living in a one-bedroom apartment and keeping an old car running on meager support from their fathers and food stamps. Sometimes he missed that girl. She was holding it together somehow.

      “We’ve talked about this, Pam,” he said. “I will be happy to explain my feelings to the therapist. He seems like a nice enough guy.”

      She sniffed in a breath through her nose and stiffened. “I’m hoping he can help put us back together. Aren’t you?”

      Beau didn’t answer. He gave a small, melancholy smile and stuck his hands in his pockets. Then he looked at his watch. “You have to be somewhere?” she asked tartly.

      “I have appointments this afternoon, but I have some time now,” Beau said.

      “Why are you so distant?” she asked. “We had such a successful weekend, Drew’s party, the whole family together for once... I really felt we were making great progress!”

      “It was a nice weekend, wasn’t it? Drew really appreciated it. He’s also glad it’s over so he can get on with his life. He’s ready for the next chapter.”

      “I can feel you pulling away...”

      Only Pamela. How many times did she have to call a time-out before it was truly over? She moved into a sublet flat in the city, took a ten-day vacation to Maui, did a little traveling for work, plastered pictures of her fun times all over her Facebook page, but now she was done and wanted a smooth return to her base. There seemed to be one man’s face in many of the photos, including what looked like a partial profile of him in Maui. He must have left.

      “Maybe you’re right,” he said. And then thankfully the door opened.

      “Come on in folks,” George said. “I hope everyone had a good week.”

      “A very good week,” Beau said.

      “Before we get started, anything I should know?” George asked.

      “Yes,” Beau said. “I’m afraid I’m not going to continue with this counseling,” he said.

      “He has someone,” Pamela said.

      “I don’t,” Beau said. “I wouldn’t mind, though. I thought it would be decent of me to give this a chance, but I just can’t work up the enthusiasm. This is the fourth separation and you’re our seventh counselor. Just by the numbers, we’re probably done. No criticism of you, George. I’m sure you’re one of the best.”

      Pam put her hands over her face and began to cry.

      “Pam, you should stay,” Beau said. “Really. I think you want to end this phase in your life, this marriage, and find some new direction. But I’m not it. If we got back together now it would be nice for a few months and then tense, then difficult for a long time until you decided it was too difficult, then we’d have another time-out. It’s your pattern and I’m done.”

      She broke into loud wails.

      “Aw, Jesus,” Beau said.

      “What brought this on right now, if you don’t mind me asking,” George said.

      “I don’t mind at all,” Beau said. “I have a good friend who is also a counselor. I was talking with him about going to counseling for a marriage I don’t want anymore and he suggested I be more honest about my feelings. Look, no offense intended, but Pamela doesn’t want to be married. At least not to me. It’s usually more about another man...”

      “It is not!” she spat.

      “Yeah, it usually is,” Beau said. “And I don’t even care. Just let us end it.”

      “Then you’ll have to move out of my house!” she said emphatically.

      “Folks, these are not the kind of things negotiated in therapy, but if you want to dissolve the marriage, I can help with the emotional part,” George said.

      “Then help Pam with the emotional part,” Beau said, standing up. “I’d say Pam has some doubt about us staying married—we’ve done this too many times. I’m going to call it.”

      “The counselor he talked to is a priest!” she shouted.

      Beau just shrugged. “He didn’t quote me scriptures,” Beau said. “He’s just a friend. But he does a lot of counseling. Look, I should stop wasting your time and Pam’s. I’m not going to have a fifth separation. The boys are adults now. They still need parents. They’ll always need parents—”

      “You’re not their father!” she said.

      “I’m not their biological father,” he said. “I’ve supported them for a dozen years and we’re very close. I’ll be their parent as long as they’ll let me.”

      “I can’t believe you’re giving up on us so soon!”

      “Beau,” George said. “Why don’t you sit down and let’s just talk about this issue.”

      He thought about it for a second. He even began to take a seat; he’d always been so accommodating. Being cooperative and helpful had worked for him. He firmly believed it had made him successful. Then he remembered that Peacekeepers were also bombs and he stood again. “Sorry, George, this is the end of the line for me. Thanks for trying to help. Look, see if you can convince Pamela to get a little personal counseling. She’s angry and unhappy.”

      “How dare you say that about me!”

      “I’ll tell the boys I just didn’t have one more try in me.”

      He turned and left the small office. He was surprised by how terrible he felt. He had expected to feel free and nothing could be further from what he felt. He felt disappointment and heartache and sheer dread. And there was guilt because he had plotted out this day carefully and while Pamela shouldn’t have been surprised, clearly she was broadsided. She had expected him to go on like this forever.

      He had two appointments. First the lawyer and then the locksmith. Sonja Lawrence, the attorney, was a woman in her sixties who had been doing this for a long time. They had met for the first time two months ago and after a brief interview, she gave him a list of things to do and to decide. She pulled the list right out of her top drawer—so clinical. It was like the list the dentist gave you after he’d pulled a tooth. He tried to explain to Ms. Lawrence about the separations, the other men who Pamela referred to as a little casual dating during a separation, the counseling, the toxic environment—

      “Really, Mr. Magellan, it’s irrelevant. This is a no-fault state. No one has to be right or wrong. The lawyers have to work on negotiating the division of property.”

      “She’s going to take half my business, isn’t she?”

      “I imagine she will try,” Ms. Lawrence said.

      He gave a huff of forlorn laughter.

      “I know it’s not funny,” she said.

      “No, it wasn’t that. It’s just that... I like you, I really do. I don’t want anyone else. I didn’t set out to find the meanest lawyer in the Bay Area. But you remind me of my grandmother... When I was younger, of course. But will you be able to get me a fair deal out of this?”

      She smiled patiently. “Don’t let looks deceive you, Mr. Magellan. Most of the time they never even see me coming.”

       CHAPTER FIVE

      Lauren and Cassie flew to Boston, rented a car and proceeded to a real estate office that specialized in rental properties