Ben sucked in a deep breath and looked up to meet Joe’s gaze.
Joe placed his mug firmly down on the picnic table and eased himself back down to the ground. “Anyways. Thanks for the coffee. I’m off to get my doughnuts. I’ll be out at Max’s place if you need me.” Ben watched him amble away. He took hold of the railing as he started down the steps, then turned and looked back. “I’m not asking those questions because I need to know the answers. I’m asking the questions that you need to answer for yourself.”
Once he’d gone Ben turned back to look out at the lake. As if he didn’t know that! He’d been asking himself those questions for weeks now. Why hadn’t he heard from Charlotte? He knew the answer, to that one at least. He’d told her not to. After they’d said good-bye at the airport in Vegas, they’d started talking a little, emailing, texting sometimes, but he hadn’t felt right about it. She was married. He’d always thought of her as his, but, in reality, she was another man’s wife. He’d told her that they should wait. Wait until she was single. She hadn’t liked it, neither had he, but they’d agreed it was the right thing to do. He hadn’t thought it would take this long though. The doubts had started to creep in. Maybe she’d changed her mind? Maybe when it came down to it, she didn’t want to leave her husband? Maybe … maybe … maybe … Those maybes kept him awake at night. As for the questions about him and Angel … he blew out a big sigh. He couldn’t think about that. She worked for him; that was all. She understood him; that was nice. She … He shook his head and got down from the picnic bench. It was time to get on with the day.
~ ~ ~
Charlotte sat at the kitchen table holding the envelope. She took the papers out and stared at them. “Decree Absolute.” She read the words out loud and sighed.
So, this was it, it was final. Alastair had divorced her—just like she’d asked him to. She stared out the window at the rain and nodded sadly. He’d divorced her on the grounds of unreasonable behavior. He hadn’t wanted to. He claimed she hadn’t been unreasonable. But it was the quickest way. And in her heart, Charlotte knew she had behaved unreasonably toward him. What was reasonable about marrying him when she’d known all along that her heart still belonged to Ben?
Looking at the papers she felt relieved. She felt free. But she also felt sad. She was sad for the years she felt she’d stolen from Alastair. Years in which he might have met someone else, someone who could have given him her whole heart—and children. She got up from the table and went to pour herself more coffee. She hated this flat. It was small and dark. She liked to sit at the table in the kitchen because it was under the window, the one spot in the whole place where she could get some natural light. There wasn’t much sunshine to be had, but even the view of the gray drizzle outside made her feel better than the tired flowers on the wallpaper inside.
She jumped at the sound of her cell phone ringing. It was Alastair.
“Hi, Lottie.”
“Hi.”
“Did you get the papers?”
“I did. You too?”
“Yeah.”
Charlotte closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Please? It was the right thing to do. It’s hard, I’m not saying it isn’t, but it’s better this way. This way we both stand a chance of making ourselves happy instead of spending the rest of our lives making each other miserable.”
“I never meant to make you miserable.” A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. He was a good man. He didn’t deserve any of what she’d done to him.
He sighed. “I know. And I never meant to make you miserable, either, but we did. What are you doing today?”
Charlotte swallowed. “I don’t know.” Usually she went grocery shopping on a Saturday, sometimes she met up with friends from work. She didn’t feel like doing either.
“Do you want to have lunch with me? We can celebrate.”
She smiled. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
“Great. Meet me at the Boar’s Head at twelve-thirty?”
“Okay. I’ll see you there.”
When she arrived at the pub she shook the water off her umbrella and shrugged out of her coat as she looked around. Alastair was sitting at a corner table and waved when he spotted her. He was a good-looking guy, no doubt about it. Charlotte smiled and made her way over to him.
“Hi.” He stood to greet her and kissed her cheek.
For a moment, Charlotte hugged him too tight and then let go and sat down.
“How’ve you been?”
She nodded. “Okay. Work’s been keeping me busy. How about you?”
“Same here. I got the contract to promote the tour in Australia. We’ve been crazy busy pulling it all together.”
“That’s great. When will you leave?”
“In a couple of weeks.”
