Fuck. He leaned back on the couch and let out a deep sigh of his own. That was heavy, heavy stuff.
He needed a beer.
As he rose to get one, something by the printer caught his eye. A pile of paper. He moved closer and, Jesus, if his heart didn’t stop beating in his chest.
He’d known it was there, but what was on the top sheet made him aware of every muscle in his body, yet aware of nothing but the two words glaring at him.
Nullity Application.
The step that Cherry, his wife of nearly one month, had taken in ending their marriage.
Nothing could have prepared Sean for how heavy this made him feel. He picked up the paper and flicked through the sheets.
She’d filled the whole fucking form in. There had been no mention of that. Twenty pages of boring, formal detail done and dusted. A box ticked for the reason it was all ending before it had begun.
The marriage was not consummated owing to the wilful refusal of the respondent to consummate it.
That was true.
But how depressing. All their passion and fireworks boiled down to this cold, black and white document, so some judge somewhere could make a decision on whether their marriage was a mistake or not.
It wasn’t a mistake. Not as far as he was concerned.
Sean hated this.
Loathed it.
Nonetheless, there was one question niggling at him.
Cherry had dotted every I, crossed every T and left theform sitting by the printer for him. But there was nothing left to fill in. So why hadn’t she posted this or pressed him to do so?
A suspicion crept through him that Cherry was struggling to decide. Somewhere deep inside her, she didn’t want this either. Perhaps she was hoping he would post the form for her and take the decision out of her hands.
Or chuck it in the bin.
Who did she think she’d married? Mr Give Up After The First Hurdle?
Sean was not that guy.
Then he had an idea. A wee thing to test her out.
It was a gamble, but how Cherry responded would speak volumes.
Chapter 18
Sean
It was six p.m. by the time Sean reached the distillery, sweat prickling on the back of his neck from the run from the cooperage. Jamie was in his office, shirt sleeves rolled up, winding up a video call of some kind.
Sean would forever be grateful to his older brother for taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer then the distillery CEO as their father became too ill to do it himself. Besides getting the rest of them off the hook from working in an office in a suit and tie, it meant that there was family at the helm of the business.
And that mattered. A lot. The distillery wasn’t merely business. It was blood. From the barrels Sean sweated over, to the flavours his mother as Master Distiller selected, to the bottles of the stuff Cal sold in his bars in Edinburgh.
Jamie motioned for Sean to sit down, but he jogged on the spot and pointed at his watch. Jamie, ever the professional, nodded at the screen and continued to speak in what Sean called ‘business drivel’ but which he knew was a necessary part of keeping the company running. Jamie did,however, manage a subtly raised middle finger under the desk.
Sean grinned. He loved how he could reduce his sensible big brother to behaving like a teenager again.
‘Right, let’s go!’ Sean clapped his hands when the call ended. ‘You were meant to be ready at six.’
