Thursday, July 17
More psycho Kelly crap. The kids and I went out to lunch with Liv and her boys. I had to tell Liv I’d called Kelly on her bad behavior and dragged her into it. I didn’t bring it up during lunch because I didn’t want to mention anything in front of the kids, but when Seth came home with us afterward to play with Max, I called Liv.
“I had a talk with Kelly about her BB gun story,” I said. “I told her we discussed it. Sorry.”
“I’m so glad you’re bringing this up,” Liv said. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about this, but Reed was like, ‘This is between Kelly and Brenda. Stay out of it.’ You were out of town, but at Kelly’s book club, she pulled me aside and wanted to talk about the conversation she had with you.”
“What did she say?”
“After everyone left, Kelly told me you were mad at her because, and these were her words, ‘I supposedly told you Ryan was using Max as a BB gun target,’ then she started crying.”
“I told Kelly I didn’t appreciate her fabricated story,” I said. “She blamed it on Ryan and said she wasn’t the one who brought it up the weekend your families were together. She said Ryan brought it up. She kept insisting Ryan was the one who told the story. I told her Ryan didn’t figure into the version she told me when she brought that cockamamie story up in the first place. I told her that you said the story was weird and you didn’t believe it, but she kept insisting it was true. Then Kelly said, ‘It sounds to me like some Kelly-bashing was going on.’”
“I’m so glad we’re talking about this,” Liv said. “When I was talking to Kelly, I was beginning to think I was crazy. She kept saying, ‘Ryan was the one who said it. Don’t you remember?’ I kept telling her, ‘No, I don’t remember it that way.’ She wanted me to tell you that’s how it happened. I told her I wasn’t going to do that. She wasn’t too happy with me. She was pretty irritated. She kept saying, ‘Don’t you remember it was Ryan?’”
“She’s lost her mind,” I said.
“That story about Ryan shooting at Max was just so weird,” Liv said. “I remember thinking at the time, ‘Why is she telling me this?’ It was after I told her Seth was going to Minocqua with you guys. She seemed bothered by that. Then she told me that whacky story.”
“That lying, manipulative, sack of you-know-what.”
“What am I going to say when she calls me and asks how it went when I talked to you?” Liv asked. “Kelly is expecting me to talk to you.”
“Kelly’s been calling me a lot since I got back from Michigan,” I said. “Now I know why.”
Kelly’s been leaving numerous messages on my answering machine. I ordered a belated wedding present for Audrey and Nehemiah from her friend Lexi, who runs a corporate gifts business, and Lexi dropped off the Kosta Boda platter and bowl I ordered at Kelly’s house while I was out of town. Yesterday, I swung by Kelly’s to pick up my packages and when she opened the door she had a sad look pasted on her face.
“You never called me to tell me how your dad’s doctor appointment went and it hurt my feelings,” she said.
I ignored her and opened the boxes. The hand-painted glass wear was gorgeous. “Look at this,” I said. “I want to keep this stuff.”
“I need to get something for my mother-in-law’s birthday,” Kelly said. “Will you bring me those catalogues Lexi gave you?”
“Kelly left me another message today saying she needed to stop by and get those catalogues,” I told Liv. “I’m not calling her back.”
