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Not once in all the years that I’d known her had Waverly ever steered me in the wrong direction. I’d have been a fool to think she’d start now.
“I just cried my eyes out over a man who left me to spend Christmas alone,” I pointed out. “I think I’m in need of life advice that’ll mean a big change. I’m willing to do what I can to fix this and make it work.”
Something strange washed over my friend’s face. I couldn’t quite work out what it was until she spoke. That’s when I knew the look on her face was caution.
“You have two options,” she started. “Technically, you have three, but I recommend only picking one of two of them.”
My brows knit together as I blocked out everything except for Waverly’s voice.
Following a brief pause, she shared, “This isn’t a marriage, Dakota. So, while I could sit here and tell you to stick it out, talk to him, and see a marriage counselor, I’m not going to do that. If that’s what you choose to do, you know I’m going to support you every step of the way. But I don’t think that’s the best move.”
She didn’t have to keep speaking. I already knew what she was going to say. “You think I should leave him?” I asked.
Waverly nodded. “Yes.”
Somehow, I wasn’t surprised by her response. Maybe that was because she was my best friend, and I knew she only wanted me to be happy. Or maybe it was because I was having similar thoughts in the back of my mind.
“I don’t know what to do,” I confessed.
“That’s why I’ve got two options for you,” she reminded me.
“Which are?”
Waverly took a moment to prepare herself to share whatever possibilities she believed were ahead for me. I waited not so patiently for her words.
“Tom should be here with you, sticking by your side and not off for the holidays with his family. You already know that. If he can’t be bothered to stand up to his family for you, the woman he loves, in my opinion, leaving is your only choice. I will do whatever you need to me to do to make this happen, no matter what you decide.”
I smiled at her. “I know.”
“Change the locks, call an attorney, and move half of whatever shared funds you two have to an account that he will have no access to,” she said.
“What?” I gasped.
As though she hadn’t just delivered words that had shocked me completely, Waverly added, “I’m not done.”
I couldn’t imagine what else she could possibly suggest, but the tone of her voice indicated that I hadn’t heard the most shocking piece of her advice.
Without waiting for me to respond, she continued, “You’ll then take whatever is needed from the remaining half of the shared funds to rent him his own apartment. You’ll hire movers that’ll take his things to his new place. When he gets home, he can be responsible for unpacking his bags.”
If I wasn’t so surprised by her suggestion, I might have laughed at the fact that she insisted on Tom unpacking his own bags. It was obvious to her that if he had expected me to pack them for him before this trip, he’d likely expect that I’d unpack them when he returned.
“Waverly… I… that’s really extreme—”
“He left you today to spend the holidays in another town with his parents, siblings, and whomever else they invite,” Waverly stated in a tone not to be questioned. “That’s so wrong on so many levels.”
Her reminder of just how callous my husband had been to leave me like this made my heart ache. The whole idea of leaving him, of possibly filing for divorce, was heartbreaking.
It was also not unreasonable.
But taking things to the level that Waverly had indicated I should might have been going a bit too far.
“This is his house,” I noted. “He had it when we met. I know he put my name on the deed after we got married, but I don’t want his house. I never wanted him for his money or anything like that. I wanted him. I wanted his family.”
My friend nodded her head and replied, “I had a feeling you might say something like that.”
“Let me guess. This is where option number two comes into play?”
She grinned. “Yes.”
