Page 7 of Better Than Expected

A perfect symmetry.

“You know, there are cabs out front, paid for by the firm. You just have to tell them you’re here for Wilkens & Granger. And if you take the service entrance, you would likely avoid anyone from the party. If you need to go.”

Hannah slowly nodded as she finally managed to find something, a tether within herself drawn out by Caroline, as she rasped out, “Thank you.”

Caroline tilted her head in acknowledgement before she turned to get into the elevator.

Something about the finality of that head tilt, the way Caroline’s voice had sounded in that last statement, blanketed over Hannah.

She, Hannah, could take care of things, too.

Her daughter. She had her daughter at home. That was what she did have. And Abbie was a big thing to have. A big enough reason to pull herself together.

She did take a cab. And the packet of tissues. If for no other reason than they reminded her of kindness, even if it felt like the world had shown her very little as of late.

By the time Michael came home, she was ready:

“I want a divorce.” The words – the ones she’d thought for years, that had multiplied in strength through every affair, every fight, every time he’d threatened to take everything from her – scratched at her throat as they left, making her feel lighter for the first time in years.

He’d been shocked and initially tried to brush her off. Until he’d seen her packed suitcase by the door. Which was when the yelling had started, and he’d yelled… a lot. Some of it stuck in her mind, the way it had in the past when he’d said it: “Where do you fucking think you can go? You don’t have anyone.”

She knew that.

“If you walk out that door, I will take everything you care about that’s left in this world, including Abbie, and you know I can.”

Terrifyingly, yes, she knew that, too.

“You can’t leave. Marriage is a contract, Hannah, and that contract lasts forever.” They had been the least intimidating of his words, but the expensive cigar on his breath made her gag as her stomach had bottomed out. And with his words, he’d slammed his hands against her shoulders in a rare act of physicality, leaving her breathless as she hit the wall, and he slapped his hands on either side of her to cage her in.

But unlike every other time in the past when she’d wanted to leave, but moments like this, as the slither of terror moved through her… this time, she knew. This was it. This cage, this marriage, was over. She wasn’t going to back down, not this time.

“There’s no such thing as forever,” she’d managed back through the distress that sat heavily in her nerves, grateful she’d brought Abbie to Robyn’s for the night as soon as she’d returned home a few hours ago.

She was done.

January 5 – Last Year

“Iwish you’d told me it was your birthday!” Robyn chastised as she sipped her coffee, leaning over the counter at The Bean Dream.

It was a slow evening – just after the post-work rush – and Robyn had come to drop Abbie off to her so she could hang out here while finishing the remainder of her shift. Just like the way Hannah used to do with her mom at the diner.

Hannah shook her head. “Don’t be silly; I’ve really gotten all I could need today.”

Hannah had long since stopped expecting anything on her birthday. Especially in the last two years, after her mom died and everything was shit with Michael.

Abbie had run up to her and given her a big grin as she’d handed Hannah a card she’d made for her in art class that day. The tight hug she’d gotten from her daughter was really the best gift she could have gotten.

Well, that and the text she’d received from Caroline earlier that confirmed their next meeting.

Their first official meeting, since she’d grinned at Hannah at the end of their lunch and said, “Though you are my client, I like to keep things a little more official than Sunday lunch. So, I’ll draw up some contracts later this week and we’ll officially get started?”

It was so odd, she’d realized at that moment. Well, the entirety of lunch had felt odd, really.

It was odd how she’d known Caroline, peripherally, for the better part of a decade, but how she didn’t truly know her at all. It was odd how Caroline’s face was all perfect angles and somehow stayed both sharp and went soft when she smiled. It was odd how Hannah realized that she didn’t think she’d truly been on the receiving end of that smile – not the real one – despite their handfuls of interactions.

It was definitely odd how Caroline had thought they were on a date. God, her cheeks still burned in embarrassment at that. Definitely her own stupid fault! Writing her number on a coffee cup; she worked at a café! She should have known how that would be perceived!

Hannah glanced at Abbie, who was reading and sipping at a hot chocolate at the table she’d claimed as her favorite near the window. She felt so bad about the number of times in the last year that Abbie had to spend hours at the café with her, but…

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