Page 16 of Trading Up
Though Petey did let me know they had their baby and posted professional birth photos online for everyone to see their love. He didn’t want me to be blindsided in case I ran into them around town somewhere, because apparently, now that the cat was out of the bag, they didn’t want to ‘hide their love anymore’ and ‘just want things to be amicable between all of us’. They could take their amicable feelings and shove it up their ass. I had more important things to worry about than whatever shit theywere trying to stir up. When it was close to the time she would start planning her baby shower, I had Petey check and make sure that no one I was booked with for a baby shower was for her. I didn’t want to take any money from them, ever, and I didn’t want them to try to use their shower as a way of showing that I was open to keeping things civil, like they were trying to say.
I wanted nothing to do with either of them. They lived in a fantasy world far from my reality, and I wanted to keep it that way.
I was thankful that I’d been so busy. Between being a mom, therapy, and growing the business, I was plenty busy. That’s what I told myself. Even when I lay in bed at night, staring at the ceiling after the last meditation meeting. I kept telling myself that I was too busy. Too busy to think much about that worthless piece of shit and the fact that he was willing to sign his rights away to his kids for 1.7 million dollars. In addition to the house and savings.
I guess hislovewas always conditional for the three of us. I didn’t care too much anymore if it was conditional towards me. But I hated that it was conditional for the boys. They had only ever wanted to gain his attention, his love, his playtime.
The divorce was proceeding much as Jenson thought it would. With Will practically bending over and grabbing his ankles to keep the money, he tried to hide from me; he was willing to do anything.Clearly. I shook my head. I didn’t know this man anymore. I wasn’t going to let him make me into a pushover like he usually did. I was going to take whatever I could get, as well as take everything else the prenup covered. I was reminded that if he signed away his rights, I would also forfeit child support.
I didn’t care, because he hadn’t been a present father, dumping all of the child care and housework on me, and since he was so willing to offer it up, for me not going after the 1.7 million,I was going to take full advantage. The boys and I would be fine. I would be getting a lump sum from him anyway, along with being able to keep the house and the car. Looking across the table at the man who looked so familiar, yet so different, I couldn’t figure it out. I couldn’t reason that they were the same person. The man I used to love, with whom he was now. He seemed so familiar, much like somebody that I used to know, with someone I no longer recognized. He felt like a stranger now. I wasn’t sure if the man I fell in love with ever really existed.
But today was the last day I’d ever have to see him. Today was the day we finalized everything and started our waiting month. This was finally about to be done. This was finally about to be over. I just had to wait another thirty days, and the nightmare will be over. As long as he didn’t contest anything, again, after today, we’d be officially divorced soon, and the thought had me giddy like I was a schoolgirl with my first crush again. Because over the last three months, I’d become stronger. I’d started working on myself and moving past what he did to me. I still wanted to confront him about his actions to see what he had to say for himself, and I think the day we sign the papers in a month, I’ll be ready.
I’ll be able to tell him about himself.
At least, that’s what I told myself. Unfortunately, it seemed Paloma had other ideas. She paused at the entrance to the law office, like she was waiting for me. She glared as I strode past her, head held high, not sparing her a glance, but seeing her ugly mug out of the corner of my eye.
“He never loved you like he loves us,” she hissed under her breath.
Row’s parents were in town watching the kids for me. I didn’t want them here for this, hearing any of this. I’d felt her glaring at the back of my head through the window ofthe conference room, because we refused to do any sort of negotiations with her in the room.
Every. Time.
Finally, the mediator told Will that if he brought her again, we would be going before a judge instead of sitting in the conference room, then there’d be more fines. He finally agreed, bringing her, but making her wait outside during our meetings. I tried to ignore her burning glare, but it was hard when she did it every time, for the whole damn meeting. But this time, I just wanted to burst out into a huge smile because we were almost done! I didn’t care that I looked fabulous in my business casual clothes, and that Will was looking at me with shock, yet again. I was a working woman, and I wanted to look appropriate for my clients, so I bought a new wardrobe for myself.
Standing and shaking hands with Jenson, we shook hands with the mediator, and I moved to walk out the door. I was faced with a full-frontal glare from her as she stood, showing off her ill-fitting clothes. She was trying to show that she was still hot by somehow squeezing herself into her pre-pregnancy clothes. As I glided past her, Jenson ushering me out, she looked at Will, and a look flashed in her eyes. It was there and gone quickly, but I saw it. She was finally understanding what it meant to have kids and how they wrecked your body. I just looked through her, not giving her any kind of satisfaction.
Devereaux was waiting for me. Leaning against the car, a smug smile on his face, looking like Derek Morgan smiling at Penelope. I smiled back at him, knowing he was silently cheering me on and supporting me, acting as my guard tower when I needed somewhere to retreat to the first time I’d seen them together. I’d almost crumpled when I reached him, but I held it together until the car pulled away. Then the tears came. It hurt, but not as badly as I thought it would. It was like reading the cliffhanger of a series, and the lives of the main couple were leftin limbo. You didn’t know what was going to happen next, and you had to wait months for the next book in the series to come out. That’s what it felt like.
But I was ready to close this chapter and move on to the next.
S I X T E E N: Moving ahead.
Devereaux’s POV
Waiting outside, leaning against my car, I was ready for her and Jenson to come out of the office. They had been at this mediation for months! The first time, they had to reschedule because Will-But-Won’t wanted to bring his side piece for ‘support’. Jenson said he shut that down after she attempted to take over negotiations for them as a couple. Like she was in the divorce, also. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the audacity of this woman.
The second attempt at mediation was much the same until she left willingly, sitting in the hallway. I was sitting there for that meeting, waiting to go over a few invoices with Sarah for the upcoming events we had. The mistress sat there, stewing, rubbing her pregnant belly, trying to vent to me about not being able to be in there since this had to do with ‘family’. I told Jenson and Sarah about the comment and how she seemed completely unhinged.
After that, Jenson sent a letter to the courts, detailing Paloma’s behavior and words, asking that she be barred from any further discussions because she is not a part of the marriage, even as the other woman. A fitting title based on what I had heard from Petey about her childhood. Like mother, like daughter, it seemed.
After today, if they could hammer out all of the details without other parties trying to nudge in, and both parties signed the paperwork, there would be only a month left in the waiting period. Then the divorce was final. I was hoping that, since they had finally come to an agreement about the assets in the last meeting, three weeks ago, things would start moving forward in a somewhat positive manner ever since this fucking morondecided to give up his rights to the kids, and the waiting period could start for everyone to sit with it. I knew my girl could do this last month of marriage to him, even though they were already separated. I knew that she was ready to move forward. I saw it in her a little more every day. I just didn’t know how the boys would take it, how they’d handle never seeing their dad again. He was hardly ever present, but he was still their father.
I knew she and I were ready to never see him again, but it might be different for the boys. I knew what it was like to have only one parent who wanted you. I didn’t want them to ever feel that way.
She was itching to sign the papers so badly that she had requested the first appointment on the day the waiting period was over, before we even came into mediation today. She wanted to be done with all of it, move on to better things. When I would ask her why she was in such a hurry to be done with it, she told me, “Because. I’m trading up. In every aspect of my life. I know one day I’ll be trading up my love life too, and I want to make sure I’m ready for him when he’s ready for me.”
I think my heart about stopped. I’d been ready for her for years. Fucking. Years.
There were flings over the years, girls I’d fuck, but none of them lasted, none of them stayed. None of them even got added to the contacts in my phone. That’s how insignificant they were in my life. They knew the score before anything happened. I was just looking for someone to warm my bed; in no way would I ever catch feelings, nor would they ever have the chance to have my babies. I was ready for her. Always had been. I’d wait as long as she needed because now, I had a chance. Now, she was so close to being free from him.
And I didn’t blame her for being ready to be done with him. She had a high-profile gig this month, working with Silver Spoon to cater the mayor’s wife’s end-of-summer party. She wasgoing to bring the big boards, decked out with assorted fruits, crackers, cheeses, meats, bacon-wrapped and cheese-stuffed veggies, raw veggies with dips, sliders, desserts, the works. She’d been working with the Browning’s, the mayor and his wife, to get the largest variety of finger foods and appetizers possible on ‘The Big Boards’.
I’d been working with her to coordinate meals to go with the finger foods, appetizers, and desserts. She had boards, on a much smaller scale than the big ones, for my servers to walk with, while the two large boards would be set up on tables. One was completely desserts, the other was all of the finger foods and appetizers. The servers would be walking around the guests serving most of the same things on their boards, but that way, people didn’t have to be surrounding the big boards if they wanted something to munch on. I smiled, thinking about all the fun we were going to have after the event. It was two days after she signed the papers, after the waiting period.
Until then, I loved all of the excuses for us to get together. Like right now. We were on our way to what had quickly become a tradition for us. We would have dinner at Silver Spoon multiple nights a week, the kids and her lawyer present each time, as well as my parents. I wanted to make sure that these taste-testing dinners couldn’t be classified as dates, but I still tried to make them special. I would have her favorite flowers on the table, pull her chair out, as well as the kids’ chairs, while Pops pulled out Ma’s chair. I would make sure their favorite desserts were prepared and waiting for them. I did everything I could to make sure that my girl had whatever was needed to feel special.
***
