Dani sat next to Kendall, passing her bottle after bottle, hoping she would decide on one of the designs for the new fragrance that was due out in stores within the week. Kendall felt overwhelmed by all the clutter around her and was getting very restless.
All she felt was the baby kicking at her ribs all morning long. She had not had a good night sleep in three nights. Usually Zach would be there to rub her back for her. He would help her to relax away the tension that had built up during the day so that she could sleep well at night.
She took the past three days, to cool herself down. She was outraged at Zach when he told her that Ryan was still alive and he had kept that secret from her. It took her a few days of soul searching to understand the reasons that Zach may have had to keep such information from her.
She was afraid to look at him for fear she may want to gouge his eyes out. She didn't want to speak to him either because she wanted to remain calm, not end up screaming on her end of the phone. She needed to take time to decide what she wanted.
Kendall really didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything as far as thinking about what step to take in her marriage to Zach. Greenlee had just invited herself to stay indefinitely in her home.
At first, Kendall didn't mind Greenlee being there. They watched The Joy Luck Club that first night. Kendall stayed home the next day, and together they watched season two of Nip/Tuck while Kendall stuffed her face with Cajun crawfish as Greenlee watched both her and the DVD in disgust.
Nightfall came and Kendall was sick. That three pounds of crawfish sure did taste good going down, but when they came back up… Zach would not have let her sit there and eat all those crawfish at one time; Kendall had thought to herself and cursed Greenlee for not stopping her.
That night, Kendall thought Greenlee was going to go home, but she plopped down in the bed right next to her. Kendall was hoping for some time alone. She would have felt guilty making Greenlee go home. Greenlee was in pain too, she thought. She had dusted her home twice and actually started organizing the clothes in her closet according to style and color; she had done the same with her shoes.
Kendall had pried herself out of bed earlier on this particular morning so that she could come to Fusion. She insisted on going in early even though Greenlee said she was going to go in herself at noon.
She had different shaped perfume bottles piled all around her and different designs to go on the boxes for each different bottle. And Dani insisted on going through the different models much too quickly for Kendall's liking. All the different colors and shapes and the glare from the light was starting to get to her.
Then the phone rang and she just about jumped out of her skin. Dani grabbed the phone and spoke into it and then gave it to Kendall. Kendall grabbed the phone and put it to her ear. She managed to get out only a "Hello" just as Simone came in shoving more designs in front of Kendall.
"I've had enough!" Kendall snapped and slammed the phone down without bothering to find out who it was on the line. She stood up and four of the glass bottles that were in her lap fell to the floor and broke.
"Kendall! You just broke those sample bottles, what are we going to do now?" Simone fussed waving her arms in the air.
"Well," Kendall started, "I guess that's four designs we won't be using." She told them and then looked to find a path out of the large mess she and Dani managed to make that morning.
"Kendall, you didn't speak to Zach. You're still not speaking to him?" Dani asked as she stood up to help Kendall out of the mess.
"That was Zach?" Kendall said looking at the phone on the OTHER side of the huge pile of clutter.
"Don't tell me you actually WANT to speak to that man," Simone chimed in as she put her hands on her hips.
"It is her husband, Simone," Dani said, "and she should speak with him when she's ready."
"Quiet, Dani," Simone exclaimed. "This is Zach Slither we are talking about. Husband or no, he kept the secret of Ryan's not so dead death away from her and Greenlee for months."
"And Zach is still her husband, she loves him," Dani argued.
"Kendall LIKES him," Simone corrected, "Although I don't understand why."
"I'm not stupid, I know what I see," Dani said stepping up to Simone.
"Well, you must not see much of Kendall, kiddo," Simone insisted.
"She is pretty hard to miss." Kendall looked at Dani.
"All you see is this monstrous baby belly coming at you," Simone said as Kendall snapped her head back to her.
"Could give a person nightmares," Dani stated as Kendall looked at her with her mouth open.
"I'll say. And I actually saw a footprint on that thing when she had her top up the other day." Simone said and Kendall stared.
"When the thermostat went nuts and was set on 'heat'?" Dani asked.
"Ok, STOP it." Kendall yelled at the two. "I hate it when you talk about me like I'm not even in the room."
"Sorry," Simone and Dani said in unison, "We'll make sure you're not in here next time," Simone added, Dani nodded in agreement.
Kendall grabbed her purse and waved goodbye to her two employees. She drove along the highway and decided to pick up some lunch at BJ's. She also made a mental note to break everything down to Greenlee when she got home that she had to go back to her own apartment.
She appreciated Greenlee wanting to look out for her, but things were getting a bit awkward. All she needed was her mother accusing her of being a lesbian again since Greenlee found a reason to spend every waking and sleeping moment with her.
Kendall ordered lunch to go from BJ's and then tried giving Zach a call at his office finding that all the calls were being forwarded to his cell phone, which happened to be not in the service area at the moment. She called his condo and all she got was more ringing. That was unusual. She figured he must be at home on the phone since she wasn't getting the answering machine. He would have gone to the casino by now. Then she thought to herself if he was at home, why then was his phone not in the service area?
When she pulled up in the parking space, she looked around to see if Zach's truck was still there. No truck; she must have missed him. She did spot a moving van though. Two men were loading what looked like the body of a piano onto the truck. The legs and stool were being carried by a third man. Kendall wondered who was moving.
She got out of her car and overheard the men talking to one another. As she got closer to the moving van, she got a good glimpse of the belongings inside just before the door was slammed shut. She thought the things in the truck looked a lot like Zach's. She started to get a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach.
When she got to her building, she saw a woman standing in the courtyard speaking with the president of the homeowners association. She smiled and gave him what looked like a small envelope and a business card. They shook hands and the woman started walking out of the complex, towards Kendall. She smiled at Kendall and nodded a quick good afternoon. Kendall slowly followed the woman back out to the parking lot and saw her signal to the men in the moving van. She watched as one of the men she had seen earlier hold the door to an SUV open to let the woman in. Kendall noticed there were three other men inside, all dressed like the first set of men she saw with the moving van. They all pulled off and Kendall felt like her heart was about to stop.
She turned quickly walked toward the condos. She tossed the food she was carrying onto the table outside her condo and fiddled with the keys on her key ring, searching frantically for the one to Zach's condo. Something wasn't right. She knew it. It was confirmed when she finally found the key and pushed the door open.
Eerie silence hit her like a slap in the face. The condo was empty. It only lingered of the medley of scents of sage, Zach's cologne, and the heavy leather of the couches that were once there. Kendall looked down and all that was there were the imprints in the carpet from where all the furniture had been.
Kendall closed the door and stood outside in the courtyard. She closed her eyes and prayed that he just decided to renovate the condo or something. Then she saw the President of the homeowners association come back. "Afternoon, Mrs. Slater," he said and smiled at her. "Will you be selling your condo as well? Or will you and your husband be keeping that one?"
Kendall couldn't answer him. She could only stare. He took a step closer and asked her if she was ok. She nodded and then picked up her bag of food and went inside her condo. She turned back to see that the man had put a lock on the handle of the door and then put a Realty One sign in the flower bed. He turned and saw Kendall standing in her doorway, nodded and bid her a good day and left.
Kendall closed her door. She turned around and saw Greenlee standing in front of her. That's when she noticed the smell of cake and cookies and pie in her home. "Hi, Kendall, I have some thrilling news for you!" Greenlee exclaimed jovially.
Kendall watched as the woman scampered over to the coffee table and picked up what looked like legal papers and hurriedly bought them to Kendall. "He signed them, isn't that great? I didn't know he was as smart a man as he is, and he didn't put up much of a fuss either." Kendall looked at Greenlee and snatched the papers out of Greenlee's hands. "Kendall, I know you are not in the greatest of moods, but I would really appreciate it if you would refrain from snatching things. I dismissed Zach from doing it earlier because I won't ever have to be bothered with him again."
Kendall felt panic rise higher and higher, and her breathing got more labored. She scanned over the document and realized it was a divorce decree, and that it was signed on the last three pages by her husband. She looked at Greenlee and yelled, "Where did this come from?"
Greenlee looked at Kendall and asked, "What do you mean, where did they come from?"
Kendall closed her eyes and said calmly, "These are not the divorce papers that Zach had drawn up when we were married."
"Well, of course they aren't, silly goose," Greenlee said and smiled at Kendall, "I told you that I would take care of everything for you. And I have. Cake? Pie?" Greenlee walked into Kendall's kitchen and picked up plate of cookies. "How about a cookie?"
"Get out, Greenlee."
"I'm sorry, I misunderstood you, I thought you just said 'get out.'"
"I want you out of here, Greenlee."
"Are you making me leave? After all I've done for you?"
"You are fucking up my life! I want you gone! Get your pies, cookies, and cake and get the hell out of my dammed home!"
"Kendall, you don't really mean that. You are pregnant, it's your hormones talking-"
"Just get out! Please, go!" Kendall begged as she slumped against the wall and slid to the floor and started crying.
Greenlee slowly walked up to Kendall and bent down to her, "I can't just leave you like this, Kendall." And she put her hand on Kendall's shoulder.
Kendall looked up at Greenlee and started hitting her, and screaming profanities at her at the same time. She wanted Greenlee to leave. She was hurting, and this time it was Greenlee's fault. Greenlee couldn't get away from Kendall fast enough. She grabbed her keys and ran out of the condo, leaving Kendall in a heap on the floor screaming and crying for her husband.