What was the saying about making sure your future arrived the more you worried about it?
I no longer had the bandwidth to fight. Every tear I had to cry decorated the floor around those papers. My signature sat next to his jagged name.
It was done.
All I had to do was drop them into the courthouse. But right now, that would have to wait. Because apparently, Hallie and her avocado toast therapy took precedence over my needs for the day.
And her therapy was needed because of my husband who had once again been the asshole.
Actually, if he was anyone else, I would have made sure he didn’t have a job right now.
“Don't let Ward terrorize you like that,” I instructed her, keeping my mask firmly in place.Two more hours. That's all I had left for the day. Then I could walk down to the court house. Five blocks up, three across. Everything was numbers. No point driving, I’d never get a park. “Then he’ll be in a better mood tomorrow. I promise.”
And I’d be absent, hungover and nursing the most broken heart in the history of hearts.
“What?” Hallie’s eyes got big. “Are you going to—”
“I’m not sacking him.”
Three months was all it took. Less than that by far, and Ward took the Chimeras to yet another victory. I missed that, too. I was home with Hansen, sleeping off drugs, nursing my aches and wishing I’d understood just what the only man who ever mattered to me actually meant when he promised meyou’ll never be alone.
I thought he meanthim. That he would be with me, and never leave. I hoped too much.
Fucking liar.
“No, I mean he’ll be happier tomorrow,” I corrected both Hallie and myself gently.
Hallie stuffed extra avocado smeared toast into her mouth and swallowed. “So you’ll have a talk with him, then?” she said brightly.
“What?” My mouth hung open. I glanced covertly at the pile of divorce papers on the cover of my desk, hidden by a swapsies contact with another club. “Uh, no,” I said firmly. I’ll send—” I thought back to my new intern’s name.
“Lena,” Hallie supplied helpfully.
“Yes. I’ll send Lena. The girl we adopted from Hallsworth with when we swapped players and picked up Fallingsford. Faithfury? Forthscyth!” Isa died triumphantly as Hallie's brow dipped deeper and deeper.
“Wolfford,” Hallie corrected me. “Are the drugs not doing so great?”
“I ran out,” I muttered. “And Hansen is going through kitty adolescence.”
“I can come around and do some training?” she offered. “But seriously, don’t send Lena. Ward will eat her. For breakfast.”
I closed my eyes. “Fuck.”
“I know.”
“He’ll eat me, too.”
“But he’s nicer to you.”
“You think?” I cracked one eye lid, and sighed. “Alright. I’ll…do it after lunch.” That would give me time to get to the courthouse and back. Then I could give him the good news, and…
“He has a press conference after lunch. Do you really want him biting the heads off the media in his mood?” Hallie smiled at me a touch too brightly.
I forced a smile. “Tell me that eating one of those avocados will be fortifying. Later.” I stood up from my desk and my side twinged. “Note: buy meds on the way back.”
“I’ll get one of the boys to grab them when they do lunch run. Someone will be getting coffee for someone, surely.”
“They are not my personal slaves, Hallie. They’re hockey players. They don’t do coffee runs or get meds for other people.”
