Sandy Cohen hurried out of the apartment he shared with Rebecca in Berkeley. They had had another fight. The divorce was near; it had been for the last five years. Sandy had no idea why they were still married, when it obviously didn't work anymore, but whenever he suggested a divorce, Rebecca said she wanted to try again, that they would try to save their marriage, although Sandy felt like he was fighting for a lost cause, he felt like their marriage was impossible to save, but she always claimed that they were just going through a rough time, that things would work out, she refused to get a divorce.
Dinner time was worst, the whole family in the same room, Sandy, Rebecca and their seventeen-year old daughter Stephanie. But sometimes Sandy was in no mood to argue, he went out and ate instead. This was that kind of day. He waved at a taxi and it stopped to let him in. Sandy told the driver where he wanted to go and the driver took off. While they were driving it started to rain heavily.
After a few minutes a blonde woman waved at the taxi and it stopped to let her in.
"Thank you" she said as she climbed in.
"Where do you want to go?" the driver asked tired. The woman looked at Sandy with the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen.
"Ehm…I'm new in this town, I'm looking for a restaurant" she said, she sounded a bit unsure.
"The man here is going to a restaurant; shall I drop you off there too?"
"Sure" the woman said and the driver started to drive.
"Hey I'm Kirsten Nichol" Kirsten introduced herself.
"Sandy Cohen" Sandy smiled at her. "So what brings you to this town?" he asked her, trying to have a conversation.
"I'm visiting my daughter, she goes to collage here. Do you live here?"
"Yeah I live here. So your daughter goes to Berkeley, huh? I went there too." He said and looked at her, she was dressed in a brown leather jacket and jeans. Her long blonde hair was wet from the rain.
"You did? So did I! Do you have any kids, Mr Cohen?" she asked. 'I love his eyes...' she thought before she abruptly stopped her thoughts. 'God Kirsten, what are you doing? He's a complete stranger, who knows what he's up to!'
"Yeah, I have a daughter - -" was all he had time to say before the driver interrupted to tell them that they had arrived to the restaurant, they had been so wrapped up in their conversation they had noticed it.
Kirsten took out some money to pay the driver, but Sandy was faster.
"I'll pay for both of us" he said and handed the driver the money before Kirsten had a chance to argue. They got out of the car and it drove off. It was still raining, so they took cover inside the restaurant. Kirsten stopped just when they got through the doors.
"You shouldn't have done that, now I owe you money" she complained, she didn't like to owe people something, whether it was favours or money.
"No you don't owe me anything. It was a long time ago I paid for someone else, the pleasure was all mine" he smiled. Kirsten frowned; she had just noticed the ring on his finger.
"How come? I thought you were married? Or don't you pay for your wife when you're out?" she asked, judging by the look on his face, this was a subject he didn't like. "I'm sorry, it wasn't my place" she started to apologise, but he just shook his head. She looked at him, waiting for an explanation.
"Why don't you join me for dinner and we'll talk about it?" he suggested and she smiled and nodded her head.
"Follow me" he said and walked towards a table for two next to the wall. He offered to take Kirsten's jacket and hung it over the back of the chair, and then he pulled out the chair so she could sit down. She smiled at him.
"Well aren't you a gentleman, Mr Cohen"
"Please, call me Sandy" he said as he sat down. He looked at her face, once again he felt drawn to those beautiful blue eyes, she had a cute little nose and perfect skin, and she blushed a little when he looked at her like this.
"So, my marriage, huh?" he said, he felt like wanted to share this with Kirsten, he was in desperate need of advice and he was hoping she could help him.
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to…" she said, but he quickly interrupted.
"No, I wanna talk about it, I need a little advice" he said as they got the menus, but neither of them bothered to look at them. Kirsten felt a bit pressured.
"I'm not a marriage councillor…" She began, but got interrupted by his laugh. 'He has a nice laugh' she thought.
"I don't think even the best marriage councillor can help us, we're beyond that. No I need your help with coming up with the best way to convince my wife to divorce me." He said and she looked at him shocked.
"What? You want a divorce? Why?" she was totally confused.
"We've been married for twenty years, the first fifteen years went great, but the last five years have been, how can I describe it? Weird. We barely talked to each other. We've been fighting a lot lately, that's why I often eat out by myself and my daughter Stephanie is almost always out with friends, she can't stand it at home. Me and her have a good relationship, but she doesn't get along with her mother, whenever she comes home Rebecca says something to her that starts a fight. I don't think she ever loved Stephanie the way I do" he explained, he couldn't believe he just told a complete stranger all this, he must be out of his mind. No, there was something about this woman that made him trust her.
Kirsten looked at him with such understanding that made him shiver.
"Why don't you just tell her you want a divorce, it can't be that difficult" she said, she didn't see the problem…yet.
"Well, the problem is that I have, several times. But she always says she wants to try again, to make it work, and I believe her. At least I did at first, but now I've realized that our marriage is beyond saving. What do you suggest me to do?" he asked. She could see in his eyes that he was being sincere.
"Well, I would suggest you to tell her that you want a divorce, that this isn't working anymore, and if she still says that you'll work it out, tell her no, it's over. You may have to keep argue to get through, and you might have to tell her things, things that might convince her to divorce you. This is not my area of expertise, but that's my suggestion. Talk her down." Kirsten said and took up her menu and looked at it.
"Talk her down, huh? Thanks, I'll try that. Hell, I'll try anything just to get this over with. I'm sick of this life, I wanna be free." He said as he too took up his menu.
The waitress came and they ordered, while waiting for the food he decided to ask about her.
"What about you? You're not wearing a ring…Divorced?" he asked and looked at her empty finger.
"Well, no. I have never been married" she said and she too looked at her empty finger. Sandy frowned.
"But you have a daughter…" he asked and when he saw the look on her face he immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean… I mean, you don't have to answer that…" he apologized quickly. She shook her head slowly.
"No, it's ok. I just wasn't ready for that question. In high school I had a boyfriend. He dumped me for some other girl and it was after the break up I realized I was pregnant. At first I considered abortion, but I just…I couldn't do it." Kirsten explained.
"Does he know he's the father?" Sandy asked, he felt compassion for her. Kirsten shook her head.
"I never told him, he looked so happy with his new girlfriend so I didn't want to ruin it. Then she got pregnant and they got married. And I thought that if I would have told him I was pregnant we would have married, but there was a reason that we broke up, it just didn't work. Oh god, I have never told anyone this before" here she was, in a town she didn't know anyone, telling a stranger her big secret. 'What the hell am I doing?' she thought. Sandy interrupted her thoughts.
"Excuse me for asking, but what did you tell him when he asked about the baby?" He couldn't really read the expression on her face, but she didn't look too happy.
"I'm sorry, it's not my place" he said quickly, but she just shook her head.
"No, it's ok. I - -I told him I had a one night stand and that I got pregnant" she heard herself saying. This was scary. She felt like she could trust him with anything, even her life. It was because of his eyes; they were so…understanding and loving. She looked down onto the table. She felt his eyes on her and she looked up into his eyes, before looking down again, blushing.
'What the hell is going on with me?' she thought.
Just then the waitress came with their food.
"So, where do you live?" Sandy asked. He realized that they had been talking about very personal things, but he had no idea where she lived. She swallowed the potato she was chewing before she answered.
"Newport Beach" she said and reached for her glass of wine. He thought for a second.
"Never heard of it" he finally said. She laughed "Lucky you"
"What kind of place is it?" he asked. She thought about what would be the best way to describe Newport Beach, she didn't want Sandy to think she was like all the other rich women that only cared about money, like the people in Newport.
"Well, it's a quite exclusive place, you know, mansions, rich people" she said and he raised his eyebrows.
"Ohh…do you like it there?" he tried to hide his surprise, he had been dealing with rich people in his job, and he didn't like them. Those he had met had been irritating, self-absorbed and only caring about money. Kirsten was nowhere near these things.
"To be honest, no. My dad is the most powerful man in Newport, he basically owns it, and I work for him at a company called the Newport Group. He's very controlling and he's often trying to control me and my life. Now that my daughter goes to collage up here I live alone in a big house, I'm very lonely and I don't have any real friends, the women there are just, you know, typical rich people. Do I need to say that I feel very out of place?" she said as she played with her fork. "What about you? Do you like it here?" she asked and looked up at him.
He thought for a few second before he answered "I guess, it's just…my problems at home and my job is very time-consuming. Right now I don't really enjoy this place as much as I used to. I'm originally from the Bronx, but I moved here to study."
"What are you working as?" she asked, she liked this man, she really liked him…
"I'm a lawyer. I used to be a public defender, but my wife forced me to go to a private firm so I could make more money, so know I work for rich people that I hate instead of helping real people." He said, and then he realized she may have been offended by his hint about rich people, but she didn't seem to mind.
"I understand." Was all she said, and she really understood what he was feeling. They had both finished their dinner and she offered to pay for it. After a short argument he gave up, and she smiled as she asked the waitress for the check.
When they sat there and waited for the waitress to come back with the check, Sandy saw someone hurrying towards their table, he knew too well who it was, and she didn't look happy.
"Rebecca" he whispered and Kirsten turned her head to look at the woman that was coming closer.
"Sandy! What the hell is going on?" she said, she wasn't shouting, but you could hear the anger in her voice. She turned her attention to Kirsten. "Who is this? Are you cheating on me?" now she was shouting and the other guests turned their heads to look at them.
"Rebecca, can you please keep it down a little?" Sandy said, he wasn't a big fan of public fights. Kirsten felt like it was time to leave, she had enjoyed the evening but she didn't want to be in the middle of a fight, but when she started to get out of the chair, Rebecca pushed her down into it again.
"Where do you think you're going?" she shouted. Now Sandy reacted, he stood up and shouted "What the hell are you doing? She hasn't done anything wrong, so don't touch her!"
Kirsten felt her heart beating faster when she realized he was defending her. Rebecca just stared at her husband.
"Are you cheating on me with her?" Rebecca said, to Kirsten's surprise she didn't sound sad.
"No, I'm not cheating on you, we're just having dinner together." Sandy said and shot Kirsten a quick look.
"I want a divorce" Rebecca said loudly. Sandy looked at her.
"Well for once I actually agree with you" he said. "But I want sole custody on Stephanie"
"Fine by me, you can have her, as long as I get the house" she demanded. "And I want you out tonight, so you better get home, pack your stuff and get out, and take Stephanie with you, we'll talk to the lawyers tomorrow"
"Perfect" Sandy said and Rebecca left the restaurant without a word.
Sandy sat down again and smiled at Kirsten. "Well, I better go home and grab my stuff" he said happily. Kirsten frowned
"You sure you're ok?" she asked.
"Hell yeah! Hey, I'd love to see you again, what are you doing tomorrow night?" he said.
"I can't tomorrow night, I'm going to meet my daughter, but maybe the day after tomorrow" she suggested, she really, really wanted to see him again. He smiled.
"Great, here is my number, call me. I have to go now" he said and stood up. He walked over to her and kissed her cheek before he gave her a note with his cell phone number.
"Good bye Kirsten" he said and walked out of the restaurant.
Kirsten looked after him, at the door he turned around and waved at her and she smiled and waved back, then he disappeared.
Kirsten paid and walked out of the restaurant and began to walk back to her hotel, she was really happy.
I know I was a bit mean to Rebecca, but I really hate her so I couldn't resist! Please tell me what you think!