Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Danika
Lainey shows them to Alan’s spacious corner office. He waves them to a table and pours them each a glass of water before removing the jug to a shelf.
He sits and waits. The asset lists aren’t in sight. It’s just Alan and them.
“Thank you for waiting,” Danika says. She moves her chair around the table until she’s close to Kim. Now the two of them face Alan.
Alan nods, slants a glance at Kim. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He looks at each of them in turn. “Are we continuing?”
“We are,” Kim says, “but there’s been a change.” She sets out what she now wants: money for Bella, none for herself.
“I don’t agree,” Danika says. She sets out her position: Bella to receive equal money to Cami, the rest divided equally between her and Kim.
Alan raises an eyebrow. “Just when I think there is nothing a client can do to surprise me, I’m proved wrong.” He turns to Kim. “You are entitled to that money in law. You are not taking from Danika anything she is not bound to give.”
“I know.” Kim clasps her hands on the table, leans forward. “But I don’t want it. And I don’t need it. But I won’t speak for Bella, which is why I want her to have the same as Cami.”
“You’re passing up on potentially”—Alan rises, picks a sheet from his desk—“$348,067.”
“I know,” Kim says steadily. “It’s what I want.”
Alan turns to Danika. “And you, while what you’re proposing is legally the right thing, as this is a mediation, the parties can agree on whatever terms they want.
If you hold your position, you’re giving away the same amount, and from your submission, you’d have to sell your house to raise the money. ”
“It’s the right thing to do. Kim is entitled to it, and I want her to have it.”
Alan pours himself a glass of water and takes a sip. He leans back in his chair, regarding them both. For a few minutes he says nothing.
“This is a mediation. So we can mediate. I can suggest Danika pay a smaller sum to Kim. If Danika agrees to that—”
“I won’t.” Danika says.
“—Kim can accept or refuse.”
“I will refuse. And I will go on refusing, whatever compromise you come up with.”
“I can’t remember the last time I had clients as stubborn as you both,” Alan says. “And both arguing against their best interests.” He strokes his chin. “It is a big decision to make spontaneously. And if I may say, emotionally.”
“Emotion doesn’t come into it,” Kim says.
Danika nods.
“I understand. Then I have a third option to put to you, and I suggest you both give it some serious thought.”
“Okay,” Danika says. “I’m listening.”
“Me too.” Kim nods.
“I suggest we open a trust in both of your names. Danika agrees to put her home on the market within sixty days, and once it is sold, she puts $348,067 into the trust. The money sits there until an agreement is reached, whatever that may be. If after a year the trust is still in place, we again meet to try to reach a final settlement. And if you still can’t agree, then we meet yearly—sooner if one of you requests it—until you reach settlement, or die of old age.
” He looks from one to the other. “How does that sound? It gives you breathing space.”
Kim turns to Danika. “That’s okay with me.”
“And to me.” Danika smiles and touches Kim’s face. “And we can decide what we want to do over time.”
Kim takes her hand and clasps it.
Alan clears his throat. “I’ll be back shortly to go over the finer details with you.”
The sound of the door closing behind him hardly registers as Danika stands, tugging Kim up with her, and she pours her heart into a kiss.
Danika contains herself until they’re in the lift going down to street level. Then she turns to Kim. “That’s such a simple idea, but I’m happy with it. I want to jump up and down and scream my pleasure.”
“Don’t do that,” Kim says. “Apparently the lift will halt if everyone jumps together.”
“I think that’s an old wives’ tale, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing, stuck in a lift with you.” She waggles her eyebrows. “Isn’t that everyone’s fantasy?”
“Until a burly repair man sticks his head through the emergency hatch and sees what you’re doing.”
“That’s been part of some of those fantasies I’ve read,” Danika says.
“Certainly not mine.”
“Nor mine. Not now. Not now I’ve met you.” She takes Kim’s hand. “Shall we have lunch somewhere?”
“There’s a garden café in Oakleigh that’s good,” Kim says. “Good vegetarian options and plenty of choice for the carnivores.”
They take both cars. With school holidays over, they need to return to their separate homes.
They find a table where a grapevine filters the autumn sunlight, and order. It’s not until the food comes and they’ve both taken the first bite, that Danika puts down her cutlery. “There’s something about all of this that we’re still not talking about. Not in any practical sense.”
Kim sets down her fork. “Where we go from here in our relationship? Is that what you’re wondering?”
Danika nods. “It is, yes. We have a solution of sorts for the money issue. We’ve admitted we both love each other. What do we do now? Do I need to rent a U-Haul?”
“You have a fine understanding of lesbian clichés,” Kim says. “But it’s not that simple, is it?”
“Yes and no.” Danika picks a cherry tomato out of her salad and eats it. “It’s simple in that we start openly dating. We tell the girls—I think they’ll be delighted. And we take things slow.”
“What’s the complicated?”
“Time.” Danika sighs. “I need to get the house on the market, find somewhere smaller to live. And of course, still work, parent, and attend endless Saturday soccer games.”
“The clamour for them to be on the same team will only get louder.” Kim tilts her head. “Do you want to stay around Belgrave or will you look at other suburbs?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’d like a house with a yard, not an apartment. It would be easier for schools, friends, and so on to stay near Belgrave. But it would be easier for us if Cami and I moved closer to St Kilda. And of course, having promised Cami a dog for her birthday, there’s that, too.”
Kim leans across the table. “But we mustn’t forget the most important thing of all: love. I don’t want to lose you in the mishmash of a busy life. Time for us, Danika. Let’s enjoy falling in love. Let’s see how much further we can take this. Do you want that too?”
Danika stares into Kim’s eyes, darker now with the weight of her words. “Oh yes. Time for us. Time to build an us. Time for adult sleepovers, too.”
“I wish we could start that tonight.”
“I can’t. Cami’s with my mum, and I need to collect her. And I have to tell my parents what happened. I promised to ring—and I haven’t.”
“And I can’t stay over tonight, either.” Kim picks up her sandwich, takes a bite.
“Let’s enjoy the nows. This now. You, me, a quiet café.
The way the sunlight filters through the vine and picks out chestnut highlights in your hair.
How elegant that shirt makes you look. I want to trace your collarbones. ”
“Only my collarbones?” Danika arches an eyebrow.
“Maybe. Although your breasts are very tempting.”
“Not here you’re not. Our server is on his way to see if we want anything else.”
“Breasts are not on their menu?”
“They will be.” Danika stares, unfocussed, for a moment, out at the garden, the small tables set in nooks among the greenery. “It’s still all a bit unreal, isn’t it? That we’ve grown to love each other. That we can see a life together. Us and our girls—one family.”
“Our situation was never going to be easy, even at the start. It’s amazing we’ve even found a friendship, let alone anything more.”
“What were you expecting,” Danika asks, “when you knocked on my door a year ago? What did you hope to gain?”
“I honestly didn’t know. Answers, maybe. See the woman Chris loved so much that he wouldn’t leave her. Closure certainly. And, too, even though I didn’t know you, I felt you deserved the truth.”
“That’s a difficult one,” Danika says. “You upended my life. At the time, I wished you’d never come, and I would happily have remained in ignorance. Now though… I’m so glad you did.”
“Even if we’d never become friends, lovers, people who love each other, would you have wanted to know?”
Danika thinks. Would she? If she hadn’t learned the truth, she’d have gone on with Cami, eventually rebuilt her life.
Chris would have remained the loving husband who’d died too young.
The truth can hurt, of course it can, and she knows that better than many people.
“Yes, I think I would. My life was built on a lie. Now it’s built on openness and honesty. That is the best way forward.”
Kim finishes her sandwich, wipes her fingers on her napkin and takes Danika’s hand. “Bella and Cami will ask questions. Maybe not for a few years, but eventually, they’ll want to know more about themselves, about us, about Chris. Bella’s asked little so far.”
“Cami neither. But I intend to be honest, answering anything she asks. No more cover-ups. There’s been enough of them. I hope both girls have the support they need when that time comes.”
“We’ll make sure of it.”
“I don’t want to rush this,” Danika says. “Our relationship. We live a distance apart. Blending our families completely will take time—if we get that far.”
“Let’s just take it one step at a time. When can we next spend time together?” Kim asks. “You and me, without the girls. Date night.”
“Cami often sleeps over at my parents’ house. They’d love for Bella to go too, if you and she are comfortable with that. I can see if they could do this weekend? We could stay at my place.”
“I’m good with that. I’ll check with Bella though.”
A bubble of heat expands inside Danika. Here they are, she and Kim, arranging date nights and sleepovers, as people in a relationship do. As people in love do.
And they can do other things that people in love do. She takes Kim’s hand, delighting in how Kim’s fingers entwine with hers. She pushes aside her unfinished salad and leans across the table. “I love you. I’m so looking forward to seeing where our journey takes us from here.”
For long moments, they stare at each other. The events of the morning, Alan’s office, their daughters even, at this moment are all pushed to the background. There is just her and Kim, the two of them together. And a future to feel their way into.
They leave the café, walk to their cars, hands still entwined. Danika stops by Kim’s Subaru. Kim moves close, and they come together in a kiss. It’s long and slow and promises more, although not in a suburban car park, where shoppers with laden trolleys trundle past.
“I’ll wait to hear from you before I call Mum about the weekend,” Danika says. “I’m going there now to get Cami.”
“Will you tell your parents about us?” Kim pushes back Danika’s hair so she can kiss her cheek.
“Of course. They mostly know, anyway. I’ll tell them about our legal agreement, too. Take Mum’s advice on selling the house.”
“Okay. We’ll talk soon,” Kim says. With a last kiss, she gets into her car.
Danika watches her drive away, heart thrumming with the joy of new possibilities.