The Divorce

  The

  Divorce

  By Nicole Strycharz

  “Love must be bottomless, you fall in and you fall out. Either way there’s no catching your feet.”

  First Book in The Relationship Quo Series

  Text copyright © 2016 by Nicole Paulette Strycharz

  All rights reserved. No Portion of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Nicole Paulette Strycharz.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  ~Acknowledgments~

  A Major thank you to my readers. Every book you buy, every word you read and every review you leave good or bad, is a constant motivation for me. I send love and luck your way every day because without you my books wouldn’t have soul.

  I also want to send love out to my book family, my “Write or Die” crew. You guys know who you are, you’re encouragement and understanding is like sunshine to my inspiration.

  A Big hug that squeezes the life from you, to Martha Sweeney. Lady you are a constant light of knowledge and friendship. I’m so glad our passion for the pen brought us together!

  To mom, because you know you are in this book like all the others you wreaking ball of magnificence. Your opinion is gold, and your love is everything.

  To Jon, because your friendship, is my life line. I need you in my life like my son needs peanut butter. Jk but not really, I love you.

  And To someone in Europe…

  Chapter One

  JENZY

  It was Valentine’s Day in 2015 when I realized for sure we were drifting apart. Six years together since college and a holiday about red hearts and candy was the mark of our doom. Chris Clark never forgot Valentine’s Day.

  Still, I got home from work, more stoked than ever to search for my gifts. He normally hides the candy, stuffed animal and flowers in different locations and I have to find them while going about my business. I didn’t find them that morning so I figured they were going to be there later.

  When I finished turning my closet inside out I sat back on my heels and sighed. “I give up,” I said when I heard him come into our bedroom. “I fully surrender, now where are they?”

  “Where’s what?” he asked distractedly.

  I turned to look over my shoulder and found him on his phone texting with one hand while drinking coffee. His tie was hanging open under his collar and his first few buttons were undone.

  He stopped when I didn’t answer and looked up. “Oh my God Jenzy! What the hell are you doing?”

  I looked down and around at my mess…Chris really liked order. This was like nails on a chalkboard to him. “Well, if you hid my gifts in plain sight we could avoid messes.”

  “What gifts?”

  I rolled my eyes and smiled. “Ha, ha, very funny.” Then I mocked his deep voice, “What gifts?”

  “I don’t sound like that and I don’t have time for this, what are you talking about?”

  I opened my mouth to rail at him for being stubborn but then I saw how serious he looked. Granted, Chris was a master trickster, he could hold face like no one’s business but he’d been different this past year, getting more and more distracted by work and less so with me. Actually, we fought more than we talked.

  “Did you really forget?”

  He shook his head and went back to texting. “Never mind, when you feel like telling me what the hell you’re talking about feel free.” He walked to his side of the room and fished out a watch from his top drawer.

  Meanwhile, the lump in my throat was making it hard to say anything. I heard him go into the bathroom as I started to shove stuff back in my closet.

  “Jennifer!”

  Uh oh… he never used my whole name unless I was in trouble. Like a parent but he was only two years older. “Yeah?”

  He came back in holding his razor up. He used the hand holding his phone to point to it with wide eyes. “What did I tell you about using my damned razor? It’s one thing to use it, it’s another to leave it all messy and not where I left it. It took me two whole minutes…just to find it. Two minutes I don’t have.”

  “You already shaved.”

  “That’s not the point! Put it back and clean it, or don’t use it. They make razors for women you know.”

  Then I computed something. “Wait, are you going out?”

  “Yeah, few of the corporate partners want to discuss stuff with me. We’re going to dinner. They like my ideas for sales on that mansion on James Way Street.”

  Wow, more gut wrenching sadness. He really did forget but this was big for him, so there was no point in bringing it up. “That’s great! You think they’ll take the ideas? They sound so solid.”

  “I don’t know that’s why there’s a dinner.” His sarcasm stung. “Can you stop playing with herbs and crystals long enough to put our room back together while I’m gone?”

  I nodded, “sure.” He went to tie his tie and brush his teeth. At first, I’d thought all this was a bad mood but after a year and some pocket change of time, you have to fess up to yourself that the mood has elongated into a steady disposition. “When do you think you’ll be home?” I called back.

  He gargled and spit, “Whenever they finish I guess.”

  I stood and forced my closet closed. Then an idea yanked me from my boredom as he came out of the bathroom. He looked amazing like always. My husband is built like a romance book cover model. Broad shoulders muscled chest and torso and arms that show he lifts. He’s also inked up but no one outside our inner circle knows because he wears suits that cover it all up. He has hazel eyes that shimmer and dark sandy hair that glosses into gold in the light. Hottest guy in California. No, scratch that. Hottest guy ever.

  He’s owned my heart since the day I saw him but now I think it’s as important to him as one of his ties.

  “I’ll wait up.”

  His phone rang and he picked up. While he talked he put on the last of his things and I handed him his wallet, keys, and jacket. He kissed my cheek before leaving but it was a habit not heartfelt. Then he was gone.

  Hours later as we closed in on eleven-thirty I heard him come in. I burned myself with the curling iron in our bathroom when the door downstairs closed. I’d spent every minute he was gone making this magical. All those years of having the pressure of making a perfect Valentine’s Day, maybe it was my turn to do it for him. Between candles lighting our entire bedroom, incense burning, a new negligee on my body, and The Weekend playing on my phone in the portable speakers I felt like I had this pretty down.

  We hadn’t had sex in months since he’d been coming home so dog tired, but maybe I wasn’t setting the mood?

  When I heard his feet on the stairs I primped a final time in the mirror and gapped the transparent black robe I was wearing so my cleavage showed. My teddy was made of nothing but clinging black lace that ended high across my thighs. The underwire gave me Victoria’s Secret boobs, which I greatly appreciated and there were pink mini bows lining the bodice. My dark chestnut hair fell in waves and curls and I had on that Vanilla scent he loved.

  The door to our bedroom opened and I almost couldn’t contain the excitement. I’d run out to get Valentine candy in a heart-shaped box and it was sitting on his pillow with a card. I took a deep breath and opened the door at the same time as he yelled.

  “Jenzy, that incense gives me headaches, you really had to light it tonight?” I opened my mouth to make him look at me but then, “Son of a bitch!” He shouted and rushed to the window where one of the curtains had caught fire. It was dangling too close to the candles and he had to yank them down and stomp the flames out. They hadn’t to
tally ignited yet but it shook me up to think I could’ve missed it.

  “I didn’t even smell anything,” I said as we stood over the damage.

  “Because you don’t pay attention to anything! A bomb could drop when you’re in the clouds and you wouldn’t notice.” He bent to gather the ruined curtains and I swallowed the scolding. I deserved it. I did almost burn the house down.

  “I’m sorry Chris, I was-.”

  “I warn you about your candles and your incense and your wax warmers all the time. Yesterday it was your damned curling iron. It’s like you want to burn to a crisp.”

  I sided a glance at the bathroom trying to remember if I unplugged the curler. While he bagged the curtains I back stepped into the doorway and jerked the plug out without being noticed.

  “I’m sorry, I really am, I was trying to make tonight special and I just didn’t see it.”

  He grumbled as he took the bag downstairs and I fought for a way to regain the night. When he came back he was set for pissed. “I have a freaking headache now. Feels like a high school band on crack are in my head.”

  “I have stuff for headaches, I’ll grab something.”

  “I don’t want herbal shit. I want painkillers.” He started blowing out all my candles and turned on a small lamp by the door. “I just really need to go to bed. We’ll talk about it later.”

  He turned down his side of the bed and didn’t even see the candy box or the card until it fell near the toe of his shoe. “I’ll get it,” I tried to beat him to the stuff but he picked it up and turned it over like he didn’t know what it was.

  “What’s all this?”

  “Well, it was for you. It’s just little stuff…”

  He stared at the heart box forever. “Oh, right, Valentine’s Day. Is that-? What’s today?”

  I felt a spark of hope. I would actually prefer to think he forgot than to think he didn’t care. “The 14th.”

  “Is that what all the candles were for? Wow, okay. I didn’t…really think we were doing all that stuff this year. We aren’t teenagers, it’s just another commercialized holiday.”

  I wasn’t sure how to even respond. “Yeah…that’s true...it’s not important or anything.”

  “Especially not if it involves burning the house down.” He tapped the top of my head with his card then dropped it and the candy on his nightstand like it was junk mail before undressing. Ouch, ouch, ouch! I could actually feel his shoe on my heart.

  I went around to my side and turned down the bed in a haze. What just happened to this night? He sat up instead of lying down to look over his notes and I groped for a new way to redeem this. “How did tonight go?”

  He took forever to answer since he was on his phone again. “Fine. The commission if it sells is astronomical.”

  “Chris,” I sat up, “that’s too much greatness! Congrats babe.”

  He nodded while he texted and I set my chin on his shoulder to look down at his notes. “You’re just getting better and better, I’m very happy for you with this.”

  “Yeah, all we need now is to find you a real job.”

  There went his foot stomping the hell out of my heart again. “I have a real job.”

  “You work for that cranky quack at a holistic clinic, where he treats colds with leaves. You need to finish school for nursing; you’d be good at it.”

  “I like natural healing and Dr. Mouser isn’t a quack he went to medical school and was an MD for years before becoming an ND. He uses both ways and that’s what he’s teaching me.”

  “You’re twenty-five Jenzy, it’s time to do something steady.”

  I came off his shoulder and looked up at him. “Twenty-seven.”

  “What?”

  “I’m twenty-seven, not twenty-five.”

  “No, your birthday is in-.”

  Yeah, jerk, do the math. His eyes flashed with a little ping then recovered. “December…” he murmured. I scooted away a little and lay down on my back. Still in this useless nighty that he didn’t even notice. “How did I miss that?”

  “You were in that meeting. It’s okay. Just another, ‘conventional holiday,’” he reached out and gave my hand a squeeze and even in my sadness it excited me to be touched by him.

  “Sorry, I’ll make it up okay? We can go do that star gazing museum thingy you like or something.”

  He took his hand away to keep working and I missed the heat. “Linda Goodman says that Leo men are very busy thinkers so I understand. Can we-.”

  “Yeah, she’s a real genius. She sells millions of books to people that think the stars have something to do with your personality.”

  “I’m one of those people.”

  “Yeah, and every book of hers on your shelf is paying her way to vacation in Cuba.”

  “She’s not living anymore.”

  “Did the stars warn her about an oncoming bus or did she read a sign telling her to jump in front of it.” He smirked at his cleverness.

  “You don’t have to agree with how I think or what I believe but you don’t have to be an asshole about it either.”

  He didn’t answer like he thought I was just being stupid. Wow. This was a far fall from two people that needed each other like air. He used to think my ‘hippie ways’ as he called them were cute, now he thinks I’m annoying.

  I rolled to put my back to him and struggled with that cold feeling you get when you feel utterly alone. Sometime after his stuff was closed up and his phone was plugged in, the soft rhythm of his breathing told me he’d fallen asleep. I snuck out of bed. I made my way silently to his side and even though it was totally wrong and totally a breach of trust I opened the passcode on his phone and checked through his messages for signs of an affair.

  I just needed to know. Like knowing he was screwing around would mean I just need to step up my game or something. I could fight for him if I had to. There was nothing in here though. Only work people and nothing remotely personal. He never smelled like some girl’s perfume, he didn’t have lipstick stains on his collars. There was no gap between home, work, and the gym.

  I looked in our messages and saw how flat they were. We never said I love you any more or I miss you. All couples have to find a settling point, we found one, years back and it was great. Best friends, that find each other sexually attractive, that was our marriage for years. Now we were roommates and I think he’d almost love seeing me move out.

  But I’m going to keep trying. I’m not giving up. This is Chris. I looked down at him and gently brushed his brow with my fingertips. Chris was and always has been the keeper of my everything. My body, my heart, my soul, and my love. I just have to work harder to remind him. I just have to be better. I can do that.

  Chapter Two

  Little Over A Year Later

  April 2016

  Coming home from work at Dr. Mouser’s I stopped at a New Age bookstore and took a look around. I love this shop and I’ve been coming here for years. Besides, it’s an excuse not to go home directly. Chris is going to freak when he sees my Crystal collection on the window sills. They’ve been proven to be more powerful under moonlight, though.

  I browsed the spines in the astrology section and found a good one on discovering more about your sign. Nice! This bookshelf was from floor to ceiling against the far wall and it was decorated with all kinds of new agey stuff, candles for sale, sage bundles, rocks, crystals, feathers…I was dying of happy.

  “Ma’am,” someone said from behind me. I ignored it because there were plenty of people in the store on the other side. “Hey!”

  I looked up from my book with a frown in time to see the bookshelf was leaning forward enough for a book or two to fall out. By time, I saw the danger it was too late, but then someone slid their arm around my waist and yanked me back. We both fell just out of reach of the massive shelf when it landed with a scary thud that shook the floor. The weight and solid force of it definitely could’ve potentially killed me. I took in ragged breaths as the possibilities went thro
ugh my mind. Then I realized I was lying between a guy’s legs.

  I looked back into the eyes of a very handsome man, with browned skin and a short kept beard. His hair was dark and cut close to his head. He had a Scorpio symbol tattoo on his forearm and even in plain jeans and a T-shirt he was pretty hot.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  I looked back at the shelf and hugged myself. The top of the shelf was just below my brown boot.

  What if my leg had been under there? “I think so.” I said.

  “I told my dad to anchor that thing to the wall a thousand times, he said he did.”

  A crowd was forming to see if we were okay. He got up from behind me then helped me up.

  “Thanks,” I shouldered my purse, “that could’ve been serious. I’m still freaked out. I really can’t thank you enough. That was…so scary.”

  He smiled and touched my upper arm, “you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah.” I walked further from the shelf like it was going to drag after me. Never know. “I’m Jenzy Clark,” I offered my hand and he took it.

  “Moses Livingston.” He rolled his brown eyes. “I know my parents were high when they named me. We aren’t even Jewish.”

  I laughed and it relieved the near death experience tension. “You make the name work.” Oops. Was that flirting?

  “What’s Jenzy stand for?”

  “Jennifer. I hated people calling me Jenny, though. So I made everyone call me Jenzy. Funny thing is, my nephew who’s like four years old, he can’t say Jenzy. He actually says Jezzy. My mom started calling me Jenzy first. Anyway, now my friends call me that. I don’t…” I pursed my lips. “Wow. I just gave you my life story.”

  He laughed. “I don’t mind. Sagittarius right?”

  I lit up inside. “Yeah what gave me away? The non-stop talking or the clumsy?”

  “I was going to say the hand talking and the little Sag symbol on your wrist.”