Like Real People Do

25. Dog Days Are Over

Happiness hit her like a train on a track. Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back. She hid around corners, and she hid under beds. She killed it with kisses and from it she fled. -Florence and the Machine

Saturday, July 3rd

The unopened manila envelope from Natalie's attorney had been collecting dust in Shane's bedside drawer. He knew that he couldn't ignore it forever, but he hadn't even been able to open it until now. Natalie had said that she was hoping for this process to be painless, but the divorce complaint was anything but. "Irreconcilable differences," it said. A "No Fault" divorce. It was all so distant, so clinical. Everything they'd been through, everything Jas had been through, that's what it boiled down to at the end. "Irreconcilable differences."

"Plaintiff lawfully entered into a marriage with the defendant, Shane Callaghan, on 6/20/2011 in a Civil Ceremony." He almost laughed at the idea of it. The ceremony they had, both only 18, Natalie nearing 8 months pregnant, and Shane sweating booze beside her hardly felt "lawful." The hint of amusement at the document's language faded as he read further down.

"Plaintiff and defendant have experienced irreconcilable differences for a period of six months or more."

"There is no hope of reconciliation between plaintiff and defendant."

"It appears to the plaintiff that the marriage should be dissolved."

Beneath was a list of requests, almost all of which were left blank. She didn't ask for alimony, she didn't ask for custody of Jas, the only thing she wanted was for this nightmare to end.

Shane wasn't even sure what had taken him so long to finally get to it. Every time he went to pull the drawer open, his heart would race and his body would refuse to budge. It wasn't until today, nervously anticipating Rhiannon's arrival, that he managed to get his arm to move. The contents of the envelope seemed sparse, just a packet containing the bare bones divorce complaint and a "notice of acknowledgement and receipt." He cursed himself for not hiring a lawyer, but a quick online search informed him he would need to sign the second paper and return it to prove he received the materials at all. So long as he didn't do that, he could brood for as long as he wanted, but that would surely lead to another unpleasant phone call if he put it off much longer.

Given the confusing circumstances with Rhiannon, he had to deal with it sooner rather than later. The second she hopped out of his car earlier that week, he wasted no time buying two tickets to the first professional soccer match he could find as a birthday gift, and had since been wrought with guilt. Though those eyes may have belonged to Rhiannon and Rhiannon alone, whenever he thought about them for too long he still couldn't help but agonize over what kind of "irreconcilable differences" might take them away from him too.

He ran his finger over her signature at the bottom. In all the years they'd been apart, he never once thought that her handwriting would be the thing that did him in. The loops of her letters glided into one another gracefully, producing her name, Natalie Weiss. Still with his fingers over the line, he wondered how long it had been since she stopped signing as Natalie Callaghan.

***

With the manila envelop returned safely to his bedside drawer, Shane had begun taking orders from a frantic Marnie to help prepare for Jas's impromptu birthday party. She scurried around the kitchen, pulling things out of the oven and arranging small, handmade decorations while Shane opened a bag of chips and dumped its contents into a plastic bowl.

"Hey, Marnie, I forgot to ask you something." He hadn't forgotten, he had been actively putting it off all week. The very concept of Rhiannon being here today squeezed the air out of his lungs, and Marnie's reaction wouldn't do his anxiety any favors. As much as he loved his aunt, she had too many questions and not enough boundaries.