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“Oh, what’s this? A party?”
“Something like that,” I said, gesturing to the baby. “Just meeting the newest member of the family.”
Trevor took one look and then nodded. “Adorable. So, are we ready to sign some papers?”
“Sure, just give them a second.”
He shrugged and went around the corner into the office. Nicole and the secretary wrapped up their conversation and I snuck between them to pick the carrier back up. A few minutes later, we were heading towards his office.
We arranged ourselves comfortably once we were inside. Or as comfortable as we could be considering the situation. There was a whole lot of paper shuffling and clearing of throats, until finally Trevor spoke.
“So, as you see here, I have the divorce declaration here, as well as a several other tidbits. All you have to do is sign all of these, initial where I marked, then I’ll send them to a judge and we’ll get confirmation in a couple of weeks.”
“So, it’s that easy?” I asked, tension building in my middle.
“That it is! Luckily you guys did all of the hard work at the beginning of this, so now all that’s left is smooth sailing.”
“Wow,” Nicole murmured. I noted she didn’t sound exactly pleased beside me. “So, this is it then, isn’t it? The world’s strangest marriage is about to become the world’s strangest divorce.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say either of those two statements are true,” Trevor interrupted, handing us both pens. “I’ve had a lot of clients and believe me when I say you don’t even rank in the top ten on the worst or strange list.”
“That’s good to know, I suppose.”
Suddenly my heart was racing and I could feel sweat start to creep up onto my skin. Sure, while I had been planning for this moment for the past two weeks, suddenly I couldn’t believe it was here.
I sat there, a bit stunned in my realization, but Nicole took the pen and leaned over. I watched, taking in every iota of her reaction. Her face was stalwart and responsible, like she knew that she was doing what she thought was right but didn’t like the consequences of that. Or maybe I was projecting my own feelings on her in the hopes that what I was about to do wasn’t totally idiotic.
“What’s wrong,” she said, noticing my stare.
“Everything about this,” I answered matter of factly without answering anything at all.
“What-”
But I was already on my way to my knee, kneeling before her in the overly expensive chair she was perched in. “Nicole,” I said, pulling her hand into my own. She stared at me like I had grown another head, her face pale and her eyes wide, but I persisted. “I know that the only reason I came to this city was for this particular moment, but I have found so much more along the way.”
“You’ve given me an entirely different life, a purpose, and I am and always will be grateful to you for that. You’ve shown me emotions I never thought I could have and also helped me see life from a perspective that I never would have known on my own.”
“You’ve changed me irrevocably for that, and I never want to go back. In fact, I only want to go forward.” I reached into my suit jacket’s inner pocket and pulled out a medium sized, flat velvet box. Holding it out to her, I opened the top to reveal a bright, sparkling ring and a tiny baby charm-bracelet for Kireina. “So please, go forward with me into this next phase of our life as real husband and wife, because I don’t think I can live without either of you in my world.”
“Oh my God!” she cried, hands over her mouth. “Oh my God!”
“This was certainly unexpected,” Trevor said. “I guess you guys might have just made that top ten list.”
“But what about your job?” Nicole asked, ever the practical one. “I’m not sure I want to move that far from my mother, and my job is here, and-”
“Don’t worry about that,” I said, shaking my head. “After a lot of moving and shaking, we managed to work out a great merger deal with a company here in St. Louis, so we’re going to be opening another branch here, that I’ll be heading for two years to help it get on its feet and moving like a well-oiled machine. After that, we can discuss where we want to go.”
“Oh my god!” She repeated again. “Those were the details you meant before! You… you planned all of this!”
“Of course, I did,” I answered blithely. “I’ve known I was in love with you for months, but it took seeing Kireina’s beautiful face against your own to force me to be brave. So please, I feel like I’m being pretty brave now considering you haven’t said yes yet.”
