32. Quinn
Quinn
I’m having a hard time sleeping when my phone goes off on my nightstand, so I’m not lying when I say it didn’t wake me up.
“I’m sorry to call this late,” Ashley says, and while it sounds urgent, she doesn’t sound the way she did the other day when we met.
“I was just wondering…is there any way you could meet with me?” she asks.
“Now?” I ask, sitting up. It’s an odd request. Oddly enough, I wonder if something is wrong and I’m just too worn out to detect it.
“If that’s okay. Honestly, it’s perfectly fine if not. It’s not an emergency, we just…I just…”
“No, you know what?” I ask as I throw the blankets off the bed and come to my feet. “I will head to the office right now.”
“Are you sure?” she asks with a lilt of anticipation in her voice.
“Absolutely,” I say. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Fifteen minutes later, I am unlocking the door to my office and closing it behind me.
I go through the typical rituals, turning on enough lights so that we can see but keeping it dim enough not to be overwhelming.
I put some bergamot and vanilla in the infuser, purposely choosing cozy scents over anything relaxing, like lavender, because at this point, it would probably put me to sleep.
There’s a sudden rapping on the glass door, and I pad over to open it. “Sorry, I’m in my pajamas. I was already winding down for the evening, but please come in.”
I trail off and my smile filters only slightly. But it’s because Ashley is not alone. There is a man with her. And guessing by the looks on both of their faces, it’s not just any man. It’s her husband.
“I hope it’s okay that I brought my husband along,” she says meekly as they step inside.
I find that I have to force myself to blink, and I shake my head with a smile.
“Of course it’s okay,” I insist. And it truly is. I am just a little shocked, is all. “Please come in,” I invite them, moving out of the way.
It’s interesting the difference in her persona standing here with Michael versus the way she was the night I met her.
Based on the schedule, I think they’ve been to therapy with Allegra twice by now, and as cliché as it sounds, I see a difference.
In her anyways. I don’t know him very well, but I think that might be about to change.
“Thank you again for agreeing to see us on such short notice,” Ashley says.
“And so late,” Michael adds.
“Of course,” I nod. And I truly do mean it. Then I gesture at their outfits. She is wearing a red dress, and he’s in a three-piece. “You look nice. I feel underdressed.”
“We just came from the House of Hemingway,” Michael says, referring to a speakeasy about thirty minutes from here known for literary-based cocktails, high-end small plates, and, of course, poetry readings.
He doesn’t strike me as a poetry man. But as he sits here in front of me, his hands on her knee, he does strike me as a man who is still in love with his wife, no matter how bumpy the road has gotten.
“Oh, I’ve heard that place is amazing,” I say. “Are you poetry fans?”
“She is,” Michael says with a smile.
“I was an English major before…life happened…” she says.
“I just love the vibe. And the food. The ahi nachos are unreal,” he says and they both smile.
“Well, it sounds like you had fun,” I say, and they smile again. “So…”
“So we wanted to meet with you,” Ashlyn says. “Because after going to therapy…”
“We don’t want a divorce,” Michael states, and I have to resist my urge to jump up and down.
“That’s…great…” I laugh and they do too.
“Now, all that said,” Ashley says. “We know now that we need help. Obviously, we wouldn’t have ended up where we are if we hadn’t. So we are going to continue therapy.”
“Your friend Allegra is amazing,” Michael says.
“She’s my favorite,” I agree. “But I am biased. And I think it’s great you want to keep doing therapy.”
“But there’s one other thing,” Michael adds, and I study them both. Then I get up.
“Hold, please…” I say as I walk over to the cabinet. “Now Michael, you can’t tell anyone about this.”
“Although I already know what she’s doing…” Ashley says.
“Well now, I’m a little worried.” Michael says as he watches me. But when I produce a bottle of wine from the cabinet, he doesn’t look too upset. “Do you always drink with your clients?”
“Only the ones that passed the first test,” I tell him. “That test being the one that decides whether therapy is a better route than divorce.”
“Cheers to that,” Ashley says, and I poured the glasses of wine. Then I sit back down and look at both of them. My tone grows a little more serious.
“So, as much as I am excited that this is the route the two of you have decided to go, I do have some concerns. Sometimes therapy can seem like the fix-all solution at the very beginning, but like anything else, the magic can wear off. Chances are, you’ve only scratched the surface of your problems at this point.
But eventually, you’re gonna get down to things that neither of you really want to address or discuss.
Now, I’m not saying that you should go through with the divorce, but I do want you to keep in mind that whatever brought you through my door is going to have to be dissected. And it’s probably going to be painful.”
“We are aware of that,” Michael admits. “In fact, it’s kind of funny because Allegra said the exact same thing.”
Of course she did. It would make sense that my best friend and I would say the same thing.
“But the thing about that,” he goes on. “Because it doesn’t intimidate me. I think it’s safe to say that it doesn’t intimidate either of us, especially since my wife never wanted the divorce to begin with.”
“But what about you?” I ask as I take a sip of my wine. “No offense, but it’s not a secret that you were the one that wanted to end everything. How did one therapy session change that?”
Michael takes a moment to think about that.
Then his eyes come back to me and he says.
“Fear mainly. I think when things got hairy, I just didn’t know what to do.
And more so, I realize something. When women are unsatisfied in marriage, they will pull the plug if they have the means to do so.
And despite her modesty, Ashley is more talented than she lets on.
Maybe she never finished her degree, which is my fault.
And she never sought a career either because she was too busy following me around the country.
But all of that said, this woman could be anything she wants to be.
And she wouldn’t need me to accomplish it.
And as a man, that is very intimidating. ”
I listen to Michael talk, and I have to admit.
I’m very impressed. Not many men are willing to be this vulnerable.
And that tells me one thing. He really doesn’t want the marriage to end either.
And I take a sip of my wine because if I don’t, they will probably notice that my eyes are filling with tears.
Of course, when I look back at Ashley, it doesn’t really matter anyways.
“I definitely think that the two of you have the potential to figure things out,” I tell them.
“Absolutely,” Ashley agrees.
“Once I heard that she got a lawyer, it also kind of lit a fire under my ass. Especially considering the lawyer she hired.”
I chuckle at that. “He really is the best.”
“Honestly, when we went to mediation, I realized just how good he was. And just how much I have to lose,” Michael goes on to admit. “I chose one of the most solicited and well-known divorce lawyers in the state of New York.”
I stop at his words. Because despite the fact that I asked my dad the other day, just who is representing Michael in the case, he didn’t tell me. But there’s nothing wrong with me asking the man himself. Especially if the divorce is not going to go through.
“Might I ask who you hired?”
“His name is Remington,” he tells me.
“That’s his last name…” Ashley says.
“Remington,” I echo. “I haven’t heard of him.”
And it’s true. For a moment, I wondered if perhaps his lawyer was Reid.
But I guess that’s not very likely. Despite the fact that he labels himself the most skilled divorce lawyer in all of New York, I think he thinks he’s the most skilled everything in all of New York.
Some of those statements might be true, but that’s beside the point.
“I think he’s Italian,” Ashley states. “At least that’s what the name would imply.”
“Either way,” Michael says, taking his wife’s hand in his own. “I don’t think it matters anymore. Because as far as both of us are concerned, the divorce is off.”
“Well, I love to hear that,” I say, raising my glass to cheers both of them. We all clink them together and then they share a kiss.
Suddenly, Ashley turns to me. “All of that said, letting you know that we want to try to make things work isn’t the only reason we wanted to meet with you tonight.”
“Oh?” I asked, my brow arching in curiosity.
“As we were having dinner, we came up with this thought. And while it might be a little bit premature, we wanted to run it past you. Seeing as how your life's work is making sure that people who need counseling for their marriages have access to it,” Ashley says.
“I realize something…” Michael goes on when he can tell that I am still in the dark here.
“In the middle of our mediation, we had one hang-up. A piece of property that I hadn’t mentioned to anyone, including my own lawyer.
A vacation home. Ashley knew about it, of course, but she didn’t know that I was hoping to keep it for myself.
Despite wanting to split everything else. ”
“Okay…” I say, waiting for him to go on. I’m not so sure where this is going, but at the same time, the smirk on Ashley’s face tells me that it’s going in a good direction.
“We are going to continue therapy, of course,” she says. “But we’ve also agreed to something else.”
They weigh a beat mostly for anticipation, and I have to admit that I am on the edge of my seat here.
Finally, Michael, let’s go of the big reveal. “We want to renew our vows,” he says. “At the vacation home.”
“Well, that’s lovely!” I say, and I truly mean it. Though, if I’m being honest, I don’t see how that merits asking me to come to my office in the middle of the night.
“And after the big vow renewal,” Ashley says, and they pause again to look at each other with a smile before giving me the rest of the puzzle in unison. “We are going to sell the vacation home.”
“Oh,” I respond because I’m not really sure how else to respond. I’m not under the impression either of them is hurting for money. And I don’t really see why selling a vacation home is anything a right home about. That is until Ashley‘s next sentence.
“And all the profits we get, we want to donate to We Still Do,” she says, and for a moment, I have no idea how to respond. I am simply sitting there, clasping my wine glass in my hand somewhere between the table and my mouth, my lips parted and my eyes unblinking.
“You what?” I ask because at this point, I’m not sure that I heard them right.
“We are going to put some funds into seeing to it that the hurricane damage is taken care of,” Michael explains.
“And after that, the home should honestly triple in value. Considering when we bought it and the rate we bought it at. And then we are going to sell it, and any profit that we make off of it we are donating to your nonprofit.”
“But… why?” I stutter because I don’t know what else to say.
A vacation home in Manhattan. Regardless of when they bought it or what they bought it for; chances are that home is going to run several million.
The idea of zeros like that being behind the charity that I put my heart into has me on the verge of tears.
Ashley reaches across the table in response, clasping my hand in hers.
“Because you save marriages. Because you believe in love more than the people who supposedly feel it. Because if it wasn’t for you, we would’ve made the biggest mistake of our lives.
Giving up on the most important relationship either of us has ever known. ”
And with that I do cry because what a wild thing.
We finish our glasses of wine and the couple leaves.
As I lock the door behind them and tend to the diffuser and the lights, I still can’t believe what just happened.
Granted the two of them definitely have a lot to work out, the idea of them being so generous towards the nonprofit as a gift for their success is mind-boggling.
Obviously, I am not an eggs in one basket type of person, so I don’t fully invest in the idea of it.
But like anything else relating to love, I do put hope in it.
I hope that things work out, not just so that I can have the money.
But at the end of the day, there’s nothing that I love more than seeing people who truly love each other finding a way to stay together.
Now, if only I could figure that out in my own life.