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She stuck her cherry-red lip out and flipped her blonde bangs out of her eyes. She’d gotten her hair cut since I last saw her, and it was angled around her chin. I tried not to look lower than that. She’d picked her outfit with purpose, and I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of assessing it.
“Do we have to talk about that silly document you sent me?”
My anger flared. “I’m at work. Either you’re here to sign the paperwork or you’re going to leave.”
She hopped off the desk. The Louboutins I’d bought her for her birthday last year clicked as she hit the ground. “I flew all the way here, and you’re kicking me out?”
“Yes,” I said bluntly.
“I thought we could talk.”
“Please, just stop this, Miranda. Just sign the divorce forms and get this over with.”
She strode toward me with a feline’s prowl, and it took everything in me not to shudder and back away from her. She trailed her French-manicured nail down my tie and smirked, as if she thought she would get a reaction, as if she had some sort of control over me. But she didn’t.
At one point, I’d loved this woman. And seeing her here like this made me wonder how that had ever been possible.
“But I don’t want to get this over with. I want you, Landon.”
She leaned forward against me, and I took a step back.
“What part of divorce are you not comprehending?”
“The part where we got married and said our wedding vows. I took those seriously, Landon. I guess you didn’t.”
I sighed. This was a conversation I did not want to have. “I took them seriously,” I told her. “You know I meant those words when I said them, but things have changed. We’ve changed. I think it will be better for both of us if we move on with our lives.”
“I can’t just stop loving you,” she said, her voice soft and hesitant.
An act. I saw it for what it was. There was nothing soft or hesitant about Miranda. There never had been. She was commanding and fiery and filled a room. It was what had endeared her to me once upon a time. But our fairy tale wasn’t ending in a happily ever after.
“We’re not having this conversation.”
“Yes, we are,” she snapped back.
“I’m afraid not. I have work to do. And you should go home.”
“How can I go home to an empty house?” Miranda demanded. Her hands were on her hips, and she’d gone from pouty to angry in the blink of an eye.
“Why should I care?”
“Because I’m your wife!”
“And, soon, you’ll be my ex-wife.”
“How can you be so uncaring?” she asked. “How can you just throw me aside like this? Is there someone else?”
My face pinched at just the wrong moment, projecting that I was seeing someone else…Heidi. And Miranda knew me too well not to judge my facial expressions, my annoyance with her question, as anything else but the truth.
She gasped. “Who is it? Are you cheating on me?”
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “I have never cheated on you. And I can’t currently be cheating on you because we’re separated. And, if you’d just sign the paperwork, we’d be divorced.”
“So, you are seeing someone then?”
“This conversation has no purpose. If you’re here to annoy me, then congratulations. You’ve succeeded.” I held my hands up in frustration.
There was no way in hell I was going to tell her about Heidi. No way that I would ever mention dating someone else until the divorce was completely final. Nothing would make Miranda drag her feet more than knowing I had already moved on. No matter that I had checked out of my headspace with Miranda a year ago. I did not want this to last any longer than it had to.
