Bursting at the Seams

And I can’t believe I have agreed to go wedding gift registering with Caroline and my mother. After this.

Chapter Eight

Emanuel

Jackass.

The word stings my mind like an angry hornet, but I know I’m deserving of it. Hell, I am a jackass today. I had told myself to keep away from her until I sorted things out with the lawyers, as I hadn’t wanted to jeopardize whatever there could be between us by getting involved with her while still sorting out my divorce. But I'm a weak man, as it turns out. The slight touches to just do my job proved to be too much and fueled my heart and body with desire all over again.

And, so incredibly selfishly, I needed a distraction from the world. While I do want her, it doesn’t take the bad taste out of my mouth that I had given her mixed signals and no doubt left her feeling used.

Even as the state of my financial security hangs in the balance, it’s Wren on my mind. Her laughter, her smile— the hurt that etched into her expression the moment I changed the script on her. I'm a jackass. I either shouldn’t have let myself get carried away physically like that, or I should have just let her know what was going on.

“Do you understand, Manny?” Malaki asks from across the table.

I sigh, looking down at the papers in front of me. To be honest, I have hardly paid attention; but I picked up on the important stuff. Typically, alimony is sought at this time after divorce, and she’s submitted a good deal of evidence to prove that she has not been able to financially recover from the separation. The best we can do is try and get them to settle for a lesser percentage of my income.

“Yeah, I get it,” I mutter.

“There has to be something more we can do,” Hanna urges next to me.

Malaki shrugs, “Unless we can prove that she is actually doing fine, this is best we can do. But for right now, I have arranged with her lawyer to have a meeting in a month to discuss options before court.”

“Thank you, Malaki,” I sigh, standing from my chair. We shake hands and I look over to see Hanna fuming. “What do you expect me to do? We didn’t have a prenup or anything—”

“I expect you to try more,” Hanna snaps and storms out.

I need to go after her, but I look over to Malaki with a frown. He clasps my shoulder. “It’s alright. She’s not actually mad at you. She just wants you to be okay.”

“I know. Thanks again.”

Making large strides, I hurry after her. Sure enough, as soon as I match her pace, she is looking to me with a slight pout. Though anger still has her brows scrunched together. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get snippy with you. I just can’t believe her. You guys always split things evenly, didn’t you?”

“For the most part,” I nod. “But, I guess it is an expensive world these days. I can understand her struggling if she’s at the same job she was at when we split. It’s just some non-profit call center.”

“I doubt it. She always lusted after more, and you know that.”

It’s true. Eliza always wanted us to have more money, more success, more power. It wouldn’t totally surprise me if this is all because she found out the shop is actually worth a little something these days. However, it doesn’t make her legal stance any less valid. “We will figure it out,” I assure my sister.

When we step out onto the curb, Hanna looks up at me with crossed arms. “Want to come out for a drink with me? Let’s blow off some steam.”

“I’m not really feeling people right now,” I answer honestly. “Rain check?”

“Fine,” she muses. “But I'm going to hold you to that. Understand?”

I salute her like you would a general and she rolls her eyes, shoves me, and laughs. With that, we part ways. I head home on foot. Then again, I usually travel everywhere on foot. It’s rare that I leave downtown, considering everything I need is here. Something about that always felt right to me, not wanting to have to burn gas to get groceries or run a simple errand.

However, getting to my townhouse, I realize that maybe I spoke too soon about not wanting to be around people. As soon as the door shuts behind me, my mind is like two trains on the same track, heading right for one another. One train is Eliza coming after my money and possibly my business, and the other is the situation with Wren. And here I am, tied to the tracks I laid myself. By not getting a prenuptial agreement, and by not telling Wren the truth— or at least a simplified version of it. Instead, I chose to make myself out to be a jackass.