Hello February

Seeing Eric in the grocery store was the last thing Ellie expected. She thought he'd moved away to Iowa and was probably busy with the Caucus.

"Aren't you supposed to be in Des Moines?" She asked and when he turned to look at her he looked as if something was stuck in his throat.

They'd lost touch. She hadn't told him she divorced and remarried, but she was with the kids and Drew. So she introduced her old boyfriend from high school to Drew.

"Well, you know-" Drew started, "I knew her first."

Ellie looked at Drew as if this was no time to be joking. Eric and Syd were no longer together.

"What happened?" She thought their marriage was rock solid. They'd been through so much together and there were their kids. They had two now.

"We..we grew apart,"  he said. Ellie wanted to tell him that was too vague, but she knew she didn't really have a right to know. They were once friends. Now, hardly acquaintances. But he'd moved back he'd got on as an auditor for the City. He was living in his father's home.

"They moved to Florida," he said they were downsizing.  Eric's oldest was now in school. He had custody of the kids.

Ellie couldn't believe it. She felt bad for him and the kids, too.

"Where's Syd?" Ellie wanted to know.

"Russia," Eric told her. She worked for the embassy.