Chapter 2 – The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel

Filed To Story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel

He nodded and drank the remainder of his coffee.

“You once told me, I, we, could have a baby after three years of marriage.”

She bit the bullet and told him what she was thinking.

“Did I, I don’t recall that.”

He frowned right at her.

“Yes, it was just after our first anniversary at your mother’s house,”

she told him. She recalled it very vividly.

“For mothers’ benefit only then… Did you try and get pregnant last night?”

he was suddenly frowning right at her now.

“No, I’m still on birth control.”

She shook her head and looked at her watch. It was almost time to go and take it, she realised.

“Good, stay on it,”

Cal stated and headed for the door.

“There will be no baby inside this marriage.”

He looked right at her.

“I mean that, not inside this marriage, am I clear.”

“Yes.”

She murmured as pain touched her chest. She watched him leave the room and thought about those very words ‘there will be no baby inside this marriage.’ ‘For his mother’s benefit,’ but he’d looked at her that day and nodded at her, as if to tell her yes he meant it. They could have a baby together if their marriage lasted that long. The man she loved, her husband, didn’t want to have a baby with her. When she left this marriage she would once again be alone. A part of her she knew, was so freaking stupid as to think he would want that with her. She was just a contract wife. A convenience for him to show he was a family man was all. She got up and walked outside. Maybe it was time to ask for a divorce herself, either one of them could ask for it. There was an exit clause, though if she asked for it, she had to give up everything and leave with nothing. Her whole life was here now, revolved around that man. She’d learned how to eat correctly, dance properly, and had etiquette lessons that first year as well. She even learned how to apply make-up and do her hair. All things that were needed to be his wife, to be seen on his arm. The only things she didn’t get in this marriage was an actual wedding, his heart, and to kiss the man she loved. Everything else was hers until they got divorced. She walked up to the cliff at the end of the property and sat down on the seat that was there. It was her favourite place to go and think. The wind would whip away her thoughts and clear her mind, and she liked the smell of the salty sea breeze as well. She felt more than a little stupid right at the moment; she should have held her tongue and she knew it. Should have known better than to ask to have a family. She, and family; those two things she didn’t think really mixed. Though his family liked her, and she got along with his mother and father, his sister all quite well. They were nice normal people, everyday average people like she was. Cal had not been born wealthy, he had created his own wealth at 25, made a name for himself and continued to do so to this day. He ran his own company, enjoyed buying smaller companies and absorbing them, growing them, head-hunting the top computer programmers. She knew who they all were. That was her world. Though she worked remotely now, she could work anywhere in the world. She sat up there and looked over the ocean as she wondered where she would go when she got that divorce, and wondered if she should start looking now. He’d been unhappy with her question and she knew it; she recognised that expression on his face. That one question could well be her undoing in this marriage. She sighed softly and looked out there at the ocean and wondered if one day she would have someone to call, son or daughter. Though she knew right now that it wasn’t going to be with Cal, that was now a given.

“There will be no baby in this marriage.”

She mimicked his words. But then she huffed at herself and got up. She wanted a baby, and she wasn’t getting any younger; She was already 28. Maybe it was time to move on, away from him and this life he gave her, but also at the same time, how could she? When she loved him.

Calvin He stood prowling around in Wil’s office. The man was on the phone, and it wasn’t even 9am yet. Cal was annoyed right this minute, his plan to ask for a divorce this morning had not happened. Rin had just completely blindsided him with that question about her wanting a baby with him.

“What’s got you all worked up?”

Wil finally asked when he ended the call. The man had been watching him prowl around the room.

“Did Rin lose it when you asked for the divorce?”

“No, I didn’t ask her for one,”

he muttered.

“What? Why not? That was the plan,”

Wil stated with a frown.

“I just couldn’t. She was happy last night, giggled at me and then this morning…”

he sighed.

“She asked me about having a baby.”

“What!”

Wil stared at him now.

“Yeah, that was my reaction.”

Calvin stated,

“How could I ask for a divorce on the back of that conversation? She would think it was because she had asked for a baby. That’s just wrong, I’m not that cruel.”

“You say that, but that girl is in love with you, Calvin, you said so yourself. Told me she was all curled into you after your second wedding anniversary and murmured she loved you in her half-addled sleep state.”

“I know,”

he muttered, and a slight smile touched his face at the memory of it. She’d been so cute, hugged into him patted his chest a little and sighed all softly, kind of dreamily murmured ‘I love you, Cal.’ She was the only one allowed to call him Cal. Everyone else called him Calvin or Mr Reeves.

“You should have asked for a divorce back then,”

Wil muttered,

“now look at what you’ve got yourself into.”

“I wasn’t ready then.”

He sighed and sat down on the man’s couch, and he hadn’t been. Yes, she was his wife, but it was contract marriage and he’d never looked at her in any other way than that.

“I have to ask for it now, I just couldn’t do it today as planned.”

“Well, the sooner, the better, you know this. Even a no-contest divorce, which it will be, will take six weeks to settle and be finalized, so I suggest you start making those plans of yours come to light. Or she might just ask for it herself. Do you really want that?”

“No,”

he muttered.