Page 109 of Terms + Conditions
“Been gone a lot, hasn’t she?” Finn pushes and tries to hide the questioning glance he shares with Nick across the fire pit.
Nick knowingly raises his eyebrows, taking a drink of his beer instead of offering a verbal response. He doesn’tknowanything, but he suspects it. The only person I’m sure of who knows something is Nina, and maybe Kai, but Nina has kept this from her husband (unsurprisingly).
“Everything okay with you guys?”
“Sure, why wouldn’t it be?” I shrug, taking a long drag of my beer.
Lie. Everything is far from fine.
The sound of the doorbell echoes outside, and at first, no one moves. When it sounds again, I finally get up to answer it with a long sigh. Who in the hell could that be?
Padding through the house, I open the front door to find a young kid standing on the stoop dressed in a suit and tie, holding a manila envelope in his hands. “Is this the home of Michaela Reed?” He asks peering over my shoulder.
“As of now,” I say, and he just stares at me. Rolling my eyes, I repeat myself, but this time in the way he wants.
“Is she home?”
“That depends who’s asking.”
“I’m Luke, a courier for—”
“You new?” I’ve met almost everyone who works at the law firm handling my sister’s divorce, but not this guy. “I’m Josh, her brother. I’ll take the paperwork; she’s still out of the country.”
“Oh, well, I don’t know if—”
“Luke, if you like your job, hand me those documents because my sister is gettingveryimpatient about it,” I say. His eyes widen, and he almost throws the envelope at me. “You can tell Elias and Jason you gave them to me. You’ll be fine.”
Luke skitters away to his car without looking back, climbing into the beat-up Toyota just as another car pulls into the driveway. This one is much nicer—a sleek, black BMW—and the afternoon sun reflects off the shiny body. It parks directly in front of the steps, and the driver climbs out. She slides her sunglasses on top of her fiery red hair and reaches inside the car to pull out a manilla envelope.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Joshua Davis,” she says without a smile.
“What for?”
The woman steps around the car, dressed in skin-tight jeans and a black blazer. “Got some paperwork for him.” She lifts the envelopes in the air.
“I’m Josh.”
“Oh good.” Redhead smiles and walks up the steps. “You just need to sign that you got them.”
She peels away a document stuck to the manila envelope and hands it over with a pen.
By signing my name, it feels like I’m already signing the divorce papers. Handing back my signature, she pushes theenvelopes into my hands with a grim smile, turning on her heel and skipping down the stairs. I think about ripping it open just to see what it looks like, but I also think about throwing it straight in the garbage. I’ve been waiting for it to show up since Wednesday—exactly five and a half years from our wedding day.
Oh, but you thought it was six and a half years…
Well, according to Line Eight of our terms, if we decided not to stay together, the required year separation under South Carolina lawwouldcount towards the final year.
Walking back to the backyard, I hide my envelope behind Michaela’s and hold them up for the others to see. “Divorce papers finally came. Signed, sealed, delivered.”
Don’t think I don’t notice the way Finn’s eyes turn into giant saucers at my words. He’s confused; I haven’t told him anything about what’s going on.
“Whose divorce papers?” Finn’s voice breaks, treading carefully through unknown waters.
“My sister’s.” I rip open the envelope and pull the documents out to make sure everything is here. “We’ve been waiting for these. David and his attorney have been dragging their feet.”
David and his attorney have been taking their sweet time getting everything finalized, delaying the process until they couldn’t anymore. And why? David was already back together with what’s-her-face (Karina, or something?); the tabloids caught them sneaking around, and it cost him a few points in the polls. Call me crazy, but I think he’ll still pull out the win.
