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ChapterOne
Beck
“How much beer did you bring?” I ask Dean as he loads box after box into the back of Steve’s truck.
“What? It’s a long weekend. I wanted to make sure we were stocked up.”
“For what, an apocalypse?” Steve asks.
“Shut up. What did you bring?”
Steve holds up two bottles, both Scotch. “Much more compact. I assumed Beck would bring the bourbon.”
I hold up the one bottle of bourbon by the neck before loading it into the truck. It’s a long weekend, but I plan to enjoy it, not drink so much that I forget it. I think Dean’s trying to forget his divorce more than anything.
I try not to judge. I’ve been there too. I guess the difference was that my divorce was mutual. Kim and I didn’t fit. We tried to make it work, but it just didn’t. She hates my cabin. She hates camping and being in nature. For me, that’s my happy place, where I truly relax.
Don’t ask me how we thought that would work. We ended up spending most weekends apart, her going out with friends while I ended up at my cabin to fish or mountain bike. The only biking Kim does is in an air-conditioned gym for spin class. So she’s in great shape, but not the one for me.
Her kids were more interested in spending weekends at the cabin than she was. Lia and Adam loved coming up here. When we got divorced, I gave Kim the mountain bikes I bought for them so that they could at least get use out of them, since I wouldn’t.
Kim told me to keep the bike I bought for her and save it for when I found someone who wanted to use it. It was still in the garage of the cabin, collecting dust.
Still, my divorce had been a breeze compared to Dean’s. Amber has never been one of my favorite people, but she was dragging out the divorce and we all knew it. Every time they reached an agreement, she’d ask for more.
Dean makes even more than I do, but I have a feeling he’s going to walk away with less. Then again, Kim has her own career and her own money. She wasn’t interested in mine.
Amber has spent the last five years maxing out Dean’s credit cards as she tried to become a social media influencer. She bought new clothes and purses and jewelry and was always dressing Dean up for pictures.
Finally, he refused to be trotted around like a show pony. Amber was more concerned with the fact that her ten thousand followers would think he left her because he wasn’t in her ‘grid.’ So she left him for some bodybuilder she met at the gym who had his own following.
Guess they combined their following. Unfortunately, neither of them make enough to actually support themselves, so adding them together doesn’t really change much.
“Let’s head out,” I say as I close the tailgate of Steve’s truck.
I’m pulling the boat, so we load Steve’s truck down with all the other supplies. Dean hops in the passenger seat of my truck, beer already in hand. Good thing I was planning on driving the whole way. It takes less than two hours to get there.
“Rough week?” I ask as we get on the highway.
“You have no idea. Though I finally figured out what it is Amber wants.”
“You mean besides money?”
Dean snorts. “She wants the house, so technically, she wants more money.”
“The house? No way. She’s got guts, I’ll give her that.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.”
“So she asked for the house? Didn’t her lawyer tell her she couldn’t have anything in the trust?”
“She didn’t ask for it. I caught her doing a photo shoot in the front yard like she still lives there. And the funniest part, she was pretending to be gardening.”
I chuckle at that. “I can’t imagine Amber getting her hands dirty on purpose.”
“Exactly. I’m saving money since we’ve separated. I’m probably saving enough to pay for the divorce.”
“As long as you don’t give her the house.”
