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“What the hell, Olivia?” he hissed, bolting toward me from around his desk. He looked into the hallway, shut the door and leaned toward me. “Where’d you hear that?” he whispered.
“Is it true?”
He looked me up and down. For all his lack of expression, he wasn’t hard to read. He was frightened. “Whatever I did, it was to keep a criminal off the streets,” he said quietly. “I’ve never done it before, but you have to understand, Lou Alvarez deserved the maximum sentence.”
“I know you’re an honest lawyer and that you must’ve had a good reason. But it’s still wrong.”
“So what’re you saying? You’d rat me out?”
“No. I don’t want to hurt you anymore. But if you go to the press to tarnish David’s name, I won’t hesitate.”
His jaw set, and he cursed. “Throwing a drink in Dani’s face, blackmailing me. I don’t even feel like I know you anymore.”
“I want you to drop the adultery charge. And I want the divorce in six months instead of two years.”
“Why would I agree to that? So you can run off and marry him?”
“No. I don’t want to drag this out. I want us all to move on.”
“Move on? It’s only been weeks. Well, weeks for me, but I guess you’ve been planning this for a while.”
“You know that’s not true. This is all new to me too.”
“What’s messed up is that even with what you did, I could still get stuck paying alimony.”
I sighed deeply. David’s love was doing something to me. In the little time we’d spent together, I was realizing his love was real and that I not only had it . . . I deserved it. It was a small bud blossoming inside me, but it was there. It made me realize that there was no victim, no villain here; Bill and I had both made mistakes, and we were bother suffering for them.
“I’ve put you through a lot,” I said, “and I’m sorry. I really am. But I think one day you’ll see that this isn’t all my fault.”
“I don’t think – ”
“If you agree to the six months, I will waive the right to alimony. Not only that, but you can keep the car and everything you didn’t throw in those boxes. The only thing I want is what I contributed to the savings account.”
“Are you crazy?” he asked. “Why would you do that?”
“I have my reasons.”
“He put you up to this?”
“It’s my decision.”
“Your share of the savings isn’t much. Not enough for legal fees or anything really.”
“I know.”
“So I get everything?” he asked warily.
“Yes.”
I read the pity in his eyes clearly. He was thinking that David would leave me with nothing. He knew, as a lawyer, the risk I was taking, and I’d figured he’d try to talk me out of it. But he didn’t.
“All right,” he said slowly. “If I am completely exempt from alimony, I will agree to six months.”
I nodded.
“And I have one more condition.”
“Okay,” I prompted.
Hesitation crossed his face, but it was fleeting. “Beyond the divorce proceedings, you and I no longer have any contact whatsoever.”
And just like that, in a matter of weeks, our relationship had come to its abrupt end. It had never occurred to me that Bill would one day be just a memory. Something that had happened but was no longer. And one day, these years with him would seem like so little time.
I knew it was Bill’s anger speaking, but, regardless, he was right. I looked at him with sadness and regret; not for losing him but for the pain I’d caused him. I now knew that we were wrong for each other, but it didn’t change the fact that we had loved each other. And I didn’t want to hurt him anymore. For that, I knew the only way to make things right was to cut him free. So I said, “Agreed.”
~
Everybody else had been in Florida since the day before, so they were settled by the time I arrived. Brian’s parents’ house was just outside Miami, a four-bedroom place on the water that comfortably fit the group of us. Brian showed me to a room upstairs. We had plans for a sunset dinner, so I dropped my things and changed into a navy shift dress and knee-high brown boots. I was curling my hair when someone knocked at the door.
“Ready yet?” Gretchen asked, poking her head in.
“Almost, but can you curl the back of my hair?”
She assumed position behind me to fix the pieces I’d missed. “So,” she started, “I have something to tell you that you’re not going to like.”
“Already?”
“You know Greg is still close with your ex, Jordan.”
“Of course, he introduced us freshman year.”
“And you know Jordan lives in Miami.”
My eyes cut to her in the mirror. “He didn’t invite him tonight,” I stated.
She cringed. “I’m sorry.”
“Gretchen!” I squealed. “David won’t like me having dinner with my ex-boyfriend.”
“I know. I tried to tell Greg, but he’s like making up for lost time or something. He thinks us hanging out will be like ‘the good old days,’ which, by the way, is his favorite phrase and I swear if I hear it one more time, I’m going to strangle him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“I just found out. He knew we’d make him cancel.”
“Well, he can cancel now,” I said resolutely.
