Chapter 3 – The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel

Filed To Story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel

“It has to come from me,”

he nodded.

“I’ll sort my end out today. I know where she dreams of going on holiday. It’s not half obvious her screen saver is the place she wants to go.”

“Then make the plans, you keep her passport, right?”

Wil stated.

“Yes, it’s with mine. I’ll get it all sorted out, the flights and accommodation, the tours I know she’ll want to go on.”

he nodded decisively. His mind was made up.

“It’s a lot of effort for a divorce, you know that right.”

Wil shook his head.

“Mm, I’m the good guy, remember.”

Though he didn’t feel like it right now, that girl had nobody, dumped in an orphanage and then raised in the foster system. He was surprised she was so well-adjusted. He shook that off and stood up.

“When will the papers be drawn up?”

“When you list off what you want in them, I’ll draw it up today I got the time, no court today myself. What is she getting?”

“The house we share, and four million dollars should do it. Then that holiday all paid to her dream destination. I’ll make it first class, as well.”

He would spoil her a little, she deserved it.

“Are you sure you want to do it this way, Calvin. You could simply…”

“No, it has to be this way. We have to get divorced, it’s the only way I see her being happy. She’ll understand my intent is to let her go, so she can be happy in the future.”

“It could backfire, you know, I’d be willing to bet there is a temper in that wife of yours.”

“Hmm, I’ve never seen it,”

he shook his head.

“She’s too sweet to yell and scream and pitch a fit. Likely just stare at me and mutter ‘right where are the papers.'”

Or that was what he was hoping for.

“I don’t want a big scene made out of this, keep it low-key and out of the papers.”

“So when are you going to do it? Will you be delivering the papers yourself? Or will I be the bad guy for your sweet-natured, loving wife?”

Wil muttered.

“I understand you don’t like it, Wil, but we can’t go on in our marriage as it is. It’s not right and you know it. I can never tell her I love her back, so it’s time to get divorced.”

He stated

“If you can get everything drawn up by tomorrow, we’ll both go to the Cliffside Estate, and I’ll tell her I want a divorce and you, my friend, can hand her the papers.”

“Yay, I ain’t getting in the way if she tries to smack you one.”

“She won’t,”

Cal stated, and she wouldn’t. She wasn’t that kind of woman.

“Getting her heart broken, she just might. I’ll have them ready to go in the morning. Best you sign them prior to going out there, so I can file them on the day, so that six-week wait starts right away. Cal nodded and headed off to his own office. It was going to be a long and infuriatingly frustrating day, and he knew it. His mind was going to be distracted with those words she’d uttered this morning. A baby, she wanted to have a baby with him, inside a contract marriage. It was not the right thing to do, to bring a child into a marriage like they had. So, no, he would not only not have a baby with her, he would divorce her to make sure she would understand him. He spent the day sorting out airfares and accommodation, checked on tours of the area and booked several of them: a vineyard tour, a hot air balloon ride, horseback riding on the beach. A dinner cruise on a nice yacht and a spa day, he booked the best hotels and made sure there were luxury transfers. All the things she’d talked about with his own mother, all the things his mother told him he should do with her,”

take your wife on vacation son, make it romantic and relax, enjoy each other.”

He knew what that meant. She wanted him to have a baby with his wife. Come home pregnant is what she meant. He looked at the list of things, and printed out the itinerary. It was quite extensive, a full month-long holiday in Italy. She would really like that, she would see he’d made the effort to give her something she was interested in, her dream destination. She’d not had a holiday in the three years they’d been married, his schedule kind of hindered that. He always had events, whether they be business or charity, here or in other states or outside the country. He put it all together and got her passport from the safe, flipped through it. She’d been on two business trips with him, and he’d bedded her relentlessly those days they’d stayed together. His wife was beautiful and had a smile that could melt any man’s heart. That was why he needed a divorce. He wanted her to be truly happy, and she could not be that inside their contract marriage, something that was full of rules and stipulations, things he kept in place to protect her and himself. Not that it had seemed to help protect her, she’d still managed to fall in love with him. It was time to end their sham of a marriage in favour of happiness and contentment. She wasn’t going to like it, be heartbroken, but it was for the best. He couldn’t stay in that contract marriage if he couldn’t give her what she truly wanted, and he could not.

Rin She was out the back of the house, sitting in the shade of a large tree on a blanket. The morning was sunny, but cool, and the breeze coming off the ocean was gentle. She was working outside this morning, being cooped up in that big house for the past two days without so much as a single word from Cal, had kind of felt suffocating. She understood he was mad at her, and that those words he’d spoken were in fact the truth. The manuscript she was working on had turned dark and emotional, to match her mood. Though she had used those feelings she’d had of heartache and loneliness to add a new twist to the tale she was weaving. Even now she was typing away out here, she’d not really slept all that much last night, she had tossed and turned and, in the end gotten herself up to write, because it was the one thing that could shut her own emotions off or pour them into her writing. She turned her head at the sound of a car coming up the driveway and frowned instantly. Cal never came home at this time of the day. She wasn’t even dressed appropriately, she was just sitting out here in an old pair of shorts and a tee-shirt. She did always try to dress nicely when he was around. These were clothes from her old days. She’d been feeling nostalgic and so had rummaged through her old clothes, to be her old self. She had a feeling she was about to be shoved back into her old life, and so she was dressed to match her mood. She turned back to her work. It was unlikely he was there to see her. At this time of the day, he likely needed something from his office; he did have one here, though she never went in there. He’d told her once not to, and had also pointed out the camera that was in there. It was motion activated and would alert his phone if she did go in there. She’d not really cared about it, didn’t work in his industry, though she knew a fair few of those that worked in his tech department. She had a computer science degree and could, if she so chose to, could go and sit in her office inside his building in the city and work all day long. She and the team she worked for, had been absorbed by C.R. Technology just before he and she had gotten into the marriage contract; that was how he’d come across her. She was the one that checked for bugs and glitches in the gaming programmes they made. She was smart technology-wise, just not so smart in the emotional department. She had given her heart to the man she was married to, and she shouldn’t have. She caught movement in her peripheral vision and turned to look, to see not only Cal coming this way but his friend and lawyer, Wil, as well. Her eyes moved to the envelope in Wil’s hand; It was large. Denoting a contract of some sort. Here it comes she told herself, and wondered how she was going to explain herself to the team, that she’d gotten divorced, when everything in her life looked wonderful, and that she had an amazing husband. They were a team of girls, and they all thought she was so very lucky to have the love of a man like Calvin Reeves. Little did they know she did not have his heart, and as she watched him walk towards her, Rin finally realised it was true. He may have hers, but she would never have his. It was all just a show for the public, something to keep his public image clean and family-orientated. She closed her laptop so that no prying eyes would see what she was working on. It was nothing to do with his company. Not even Cal knew she had a second career. She’d needed to keep that part of her life solely for herself, for the day she got divorced and she was once again all alone. She’d never told anyone, she’d always worried it would be a complete and utter failure. Though it was not, it had taken off really well a year and a half ago, and if she was completely honest with herself, she’d kept it from Cal on purpose, because she knew this day would come, and she needed something to fall back on. She had a secret career under her pen name Marilyn Riddley. Her romance novels sold quite well, and she now had two books in print. The rest were all online, but she had made it, and could actually earn a living from it. Not be super wealthy, but enough to sit at home and work on the next one, instead of having to go into the office and work in the computer lab. When their divorce was finalised, she would leave her life as Marrin Reeves and become Marilyn Riddley, move away from this city, where everyone would know her as the ex-wife of Calvin Reeves. She would move to some place where no one would know her and she could live her life small and peacefully, and never have to hear his name or see him with another woman on his arm, because she knew that would just be painful for her to look at, read about in the papers or see online. She was going to have to leave his company, it was part of the marriage contract. When they divorced, she would move on from the company so as not to cause gossip or awkwardness for him. Though he had told her he’d personally write her a glowing reference for the work she’d participated in within his company. So it would be easy for her to get another job in her field. He might be able to see her in her field at those conferences without issue, but she doubted she’d be able to look at him with some other woman on his arm, and not feel uncomfortable inside her chest. If he had the audacity to kiss another woman in front of her, she’d likely lose it completely, even though those lips of his were never to be hers, not for a single second. That didn’t mean she didn’t think about how it would feel to have him kiss her. Would it be all soft and sensual? Or would it be all hard and demanding? Or would it be light and playful even? She wanted to experience it all, but would never get to. No, that was only for the woman he would love, Mrs Right. Her heart ached as she looked at him. He was dressed as immaculately as always; a dark blue suit, white dress shirt and a blue and gold tie. He had a hand in his pants’ pocket as he walked across the lawn towards hers with Wil next to him. She saw him chuckle softly and even Wil chuckled right after him. A small part of her clung to the hope that she was wrong. This was not about them getting divorced at all, because how could he be smiling and laughing with Wil? If they were here to serve her with divorce papers. That was not a funny matter, but a serious matter. She stood up to greet them, and she saw his eyes look over her outfit, and a frown marred his handsome face; he didn’t like her wearing this type of clothing. It was not something he’d bought for her or approved of her wearing. She smiled at him like she always did.

“Cal, you’re not normally here at this time of the day.”

She stated.

“Is that why you’re dressed like that?”

he asked right back, and she could hear the disapproval in his voice.

“Didn’t I purchase you proper summer clothing?”

She looked down at her old clothes and half smiled.

“I’m going to do some gardening. These are appropriate wear for that.”

She looked back to him.

“Hmm, I suppose they are only good for getting dirty.”

He nodded and looked right at her.

“It’s time to get divorced, Rin,”

he told her. There was no hesitation in his words.

“If you could sign the papers today, I’d appreciate it. It will take six weeks for the finality of it to come through.”