Contracted To Love

She’d just spent another long week without seeing her daughter and it was going to be another long week before she got to see Andrea again. So, who could fault her for wanting to spend some time with her daughter that morning? Even if it meant that she was just going to be spending a little less than half an hour as she drove Andrea to school, she was not going to allow Jean to rob her of the chance to be a mother. She was going to fight him as hard as she possibly could. She could tell by the way Jean was staring daggers at her that he wasn’t impressed, but then again it wasn’t like she was trying to score any points with him.

“This isn’t in the agreement,” he said as he looked at her.

“Oh really?” Michelle mused. “So, you living in my house and having sole custody of my child is acceptable? Is that what you learned from the school of ripping off loved ones that you went to?”

Jean shook his head. “What is that supposed to mean?” he asked and she rolled her eyes.

“I’m not getting into this with you. I’m here. I’m taking my daughter to school since I never got to spend the weekend with her and, according to you, I can’t even have her this coming weekend. So, back the fu*k away from my car and let me take my daughter to the school that I’m paying for her to attend..”

“Is that always going to be your go-to move?” Jean asked in a condescending tone. Michelle was confused.

“What are you talking about?”

“Always making me feel like less of a man because you have always made more than I have… because I believe in making an honest living rather than living off the backs of other hard-working citizens?”

Michelle frowned.

“What the hell are you talking about?’

“You’re a one-percenter and I’m not, and you’ve always held that axe over my head—”

“What axe are you talking about?” Michelle asked, cutting him off. “You’re the one who sued me for half of my assets.Thankfully the house is the only asset I got during our marriage. Otherwise, I shudder thinking about just how much….” Her voice trailed off. She couldn’t go on. This whole thing was exhausting. The whole conversation was taking everything out of her. She needed to relax, and talking to him was only agitating her. That wasn’t the mood she wanted to have by the time her daughter came running out. “All I want is to drive her to school. Is that too much to ask?”

                                                            *****

After the eventful morning that Michelle had had, she was only too happy to drive away from her old house. She got Andrea to school and caught up on how her weekend had been on the way. Dropping her off was a bittersweet feeling for Michelle. The excitement she had when it came to school was simply adorable but at the same time, letting her go after just a few minutes was breaking Michelle’s heart. She was still thinking about how she was going to get custody of her daughter, or at least shared custody, when she got to work. She had two hours before filming an interview that was going to be aired that evening. The interview was going to get her mind off everything. It was the kind of hard news she lived for. Nail biting stuff. Wars and foreign policy and America’s role in the mess that was the warring world.

She already knew the interview questions by heart and having studied her panel’s former interviews, she knew what kind of answers to expect and penciled in some follow-ups. The expected punchlines…. A smile played on her lips. This was going to be an amazing interview. It was just what she needed to get her mind off the unpleasant morning she’d had with Jean.

She was still looking at her questions when her phone rang and she frowned.

It was the last person she expected to hear from.

It was David Favre.

                                                            *****

David Favre had carefully weighed his options ever since talking to his father. It was quite clear that he wasn’t kidding about David settling down. He’d been thinking about getting another chance with Michelle for a while but he just didn’t know if he could redeem himself after the last meeting. Or was it Michelle who needed to redeem herself? There was no clear way forward. All he could think about was losing everything he’d worked so hard for just because he didn’t marry the woman suggested by his parents. They knew as well as he did that relationships weren’t his forte. It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried. He’d done everything he could to have relationships, but it was just not in him. The weight of his father’s words was weighing him down harder and harder and without realizing it. He wasn’t even as productive as he usually was in the office. Hell, he wasn’t productive at all. After hours of watching cat videos and panda sanctuary live streams, he wondered what the hell he was even doing in the office in the first place. It would have been better if he’d just stayed home in bed or at least caught up on some gaming, because clearly, going to the office had been a big mistake.

He leaned back in his chair and wondered if he should just call it a day and head home when he heard a knock on the door. He looked up and lit up almost immediately when he saw his mother standing in the doorway.

“Mother?” he said, surprised. “What’s going on?”

“Can’t a mother just show up at her son’s office for no reason?” she asked and he shook his head as he got up. He walked up to where she was and kissed her cheek.

“Depends. Is the mother in question on the way to Tiffany’s?”

She smiled.

“Maybe. And a bunch of other places, but most importantly, I got you something.”

He led her to the small sitting area in his office designed to look over New York City. Well, it wasn’t really small. Not to most people anyway, but it was a modest size for David’s liking. The white walls of his office made the space even bigger, which was why he chose to contrast the space with black and grey furniture.

“Exciting,” David said and she smiled as she reached into her bag and pulled out a small velvet maroon case. “What’s this?” he asked as she handed him the case.

“Why don’t you open it?” she said.

At the back of his mind, David knew what it was but the new case totally threw him off. A part of him wanted the whole thing to remain a mystery but another part was urging him to open the case.