Just a Number(28)

I’d love it if you came over. I’ve

enjoyed spending time with you, &

this way you’re safe from the ice-

bitch stopping by unannounced ;)



I laugh, drawing attention from my assistant and a few coworkers outside my office as I reply. I’m not sure what prompted Amelia to start calling Gretchen the “ice-bitch,” but it’s oddly fitting and also quite funny. I’ll have to be sure to ask her later.

Locks were changed this morning,

so that’s an unlikely situation. I’ll be

finished around 2, and then I have to

stop and talk to Stephen. How’s 4?



Another minute goes by before my phone vibrates in my hand, and I can’t help my smile from widening until my cheeks hurt as I read her latest message.



Sounds great. I’ll be waiting for

you…naked.



Naturally, this message invites the memory of her naked body, and it’s all I can seem to think about. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing…until my clients show up and I have to try and think about their ad spread in several high-profile magazines and not the so-very-many positions I’d like to spread the twenty-one-year-old I’m involved with on her bed.



I’m happy that I manage to make it through my meeting and get their next campaign straightened out so we can go ahead on the project. When all is finalized, I thank them for taking the time to come down before walking them to the elevator. Once they’re gone, I grab my phone and dial Stephen’s office to see if he’s got time to meet with me before I head over to Amelia’s place.

Turns out, he has an hour free before he needs to head home, so I tell him I’ll be right over. I tell my assistant to forward any calls to my cell—unless they’re from Gretchen—and she smirks. She’s always hated my wife, but that’s probably because Gretchen is a raving lunatic and was always accusing Laura—a happily married woman with a little girl—of sleeping with me. That really should have been my first clue that Gretchen was fucking around on me behind my back. Don’t they always say that your own guilt makes you accuse others of the crimes you’re in fact guilty of?

I knock on Stephen’s office door, drawing his light brown eyes to mine, and he smiles as he waves me inside. He gestures for me to take the seat across from him, and I comply. “Hey, man. How’s it goin’? Jules tells me you’ve got her busy redoing the condo? She’s pretty excited, especially since she hasn’t shut up about Gretchen’s horrific decorating tastes in the last thirteen years.”

I laugh, running my fingers through my hair. “Yeah, I figured she’d be up to the task.” Then something occurs to me, and I arch an eyebrow inquiringly toward Stephen. “She’s going to bleed me dry, isn’t she?”

Stephen’s eyebrows pull together with confusion. “Gretchen? Doubtful. Your pre-nup was iron-clad, and she was in breach of it.”

“No, your wife,” I clarify with a smirk, and Stephen joins in on my laughter scratching the back of his blond head.

“Oh,” he gasps between bouts of laughter. “Yeah, probably.”

We sit for a few minutes, joking about my little sister’s outrageous spending habits, before we both finally cut to the chase. “In all honesty, Stephen, am I screwed?”

He shakes his head. “Not at all. Like I said before, your pre-nup was iron-clad. It laid out the result of infidelity, and she was caught red-handed. She won’t get a dime of your money. I guarantee it. In fact, I say take her car back, too. That bitch doesn’t deserve to keep it.”

Chuckling, I nod. “I already told her to prepare to give it back.”

“Good.”

“How long could everything take? Realistically, I mean,” I inquire, more-so because while I know my marriage is over, I still feel guilty that I’m legally attached to Gretchen and sleeping with another woman.

“Most of the time, about a year.” He pauses a moment and shrugs. “But given the circumstances, this could all be done in a couple of months max. You could even be divorced by the new year.”

The thought of ringing in the New Year with Amelia as a single man is liberating, and I find myself smiling.

“Jules was right,” Stephen muses aloud. “You’ve met someone, haven’t you?”

Always pretty empathetic to what others around him are feeling, it doesn’t surprise me that Stephen’s picked up on this, and I shrug. “Truthfully, I’ve known her a while, we’ve only just realized there could be more between us.”

“But you’re not telling anyone about her just yet,” he deduces, shocking me a little.