Aftermath
Kelly stared at the second hand as it made its way slowly across the face of her watch. This watch—there was some small bit of irony in that. This was the same watch Joey had given her on their first Christmas, this was the watch he handed her before her almost disastrous wedding to Max, and this was the watch that seemed to be the keeper of her fate….just as it always had been.
"An amicable divorce," she sighed, sitting down on the edge of the tub. "Doesn't sound so great now."
One. Two. Three. Four. She ran her hand through her hair, swallowing hard to fight the urge to gag. Her head throbbed, but her brain refused to stop the constant barrage of silent questions. What was she thinking? What had she done? What had they done?
She heard the footsteps on the stairs behind her.
"Hey," he said softly, his fingertips making quick work of the buttons on his powder blue oxford. "How long have you been up?"
She closed her eyes, silently chastising herself for being so incredibly stupid. "Not long," she whispered, reaching down to pick up a few of the empty bottles from the floor. "Ummm," she groaned, holding her head as the simple motion of bending over threatened to be her undoing.
"Yeah," Joey said softly. "I know what you mean. I feel like someone has been using my head as a bongo drum." He looked over at Kelly, who sat down on the couch, her head in her hands. She was tense, he could tell. She always carried her tension in her shoulders.
"You weren't were you?" he asked with a smile, sitting down beside her, lightly jabbing her side in a feeble attempt to cut the tension.
"Joey," she said quietly. "This was…."
"Don't." He lifted his hand. "I think we both know what this was. We don't have to discuss it and make it some kind of huge deal."
"But it is a big deal, Joey." She looked up at him, the sincerity in his eyes melted her. This is exactly how last night happened. She never could resist those eyes. "We are getting a divorce….tomorrow." Her eyes widened and her hands covered her face again. "My God," she groaned.
She felt his hands on hers, the warmth of his skin permeating through her entire body. "It's ok," he whispered. "It's just one of those things. It's just our way of saying goodbye…that's all it was, right?"
His eyes met hers. He allowed the question to hang in the air for a moment. As long as there was no answer, there was still hope.
"Yeah," she said quietly, watching with sadness as the light faded from his face. "That's all it was. It was goodbye.
She took in a sharp breath as she stood and walked towards the counter. Her eyes were closed tightly and she felt her hands tremble as she forced them open and stared down at the countertop. "Damn," she whispered. "What the hell am I going to do now?"