The Ache Between Us

Chapter Twenty-Six - Iris

My eyes couldn't believe the papers that were sitting on my desk. I had Elle pinch me twice because I thought that I was dreaming. Even when the yellow folder arrived with the postman, I had no idea what the contents were.

I assumed they were just more pending paperwork for yet another trial or another pending lawsuit or some shit that Ali would send me to delay the process further.

It wasn't. It was the divorce papers from The Supreme Court of California, and he had signed them. He finally signed them. I wasn't married to this man anymore. After months of exhausting waiting, endless nights of crying, and pure agony knowing I was still tied to him.

I was free, like a bird who could fly and soar wherever she wanted without having this suffocating chain around her neck holding her back.

I was free.

I wasn't Mrs. Moradi, wife of Ali Moradi. I was Iris.

Just Iris.

Being just Iris never sounded this good, this liberating. The invisible noose around my neck vanished, and I felt like I could finally breathe. It wasn't just a divorce or finally getting myself back.

It was closure.

I was finally getting closure from that part of my life, and knowing I wasn't anchored down to anyone, had my heart bursting in my chest. I could feel the tears falling down my face, and they were happy tears.

Joyful tears. I read the paperwork in front of me too many times, looking for some hidden clause or some fine print that he might have written in, but nope.

Nothing.

I was finally a divorced woman, and the happiness that I felt inside me was overwhelming and had my hormones acting up. Elle held me in her arms as I sobbed pathetically over a measly piece of paper, brushing the back of my hair and squeezing me tight.

And even though she was my best friend, all I could think about was calling Rafael and telling him. I wanted to run over to his house right now, jump his arms, and tell him that I was a free woman.

I wanted him to hold me, to kiss the tears away, to kiss me. I missed him more these past few weeks than the ten years we spent apart.

The whole office wanted to celebrate the good news, so we all went out for dinner and drinks. We ate until I couldn't breathe anymore, and we drank until Elle and I was a giggling, blubbering mess.

I couldn't stop smiling, my face splitting in half and aching from all the laughing I did with my colleagues, my friends.

Even Arnold and his wife joined us for a few rounds before grumbling that they were too old to keep up with us, then ditched us to eat some chicken pot pie at a local diner.

I don't think I've ever consumed this much alcohol in my life, but the feeling of getting my wings back, my air right back in my lungs, had me wanting to do everything and anything before time ran out.

My goal is to be with you forever, one day make you my wife, put a baby in you, and worship at your feet until the day I die.

Rafael's words popped back into my head for the millionth time since I last saw him. Marriage was supposed to be one-and-done. It was supposed to be for life.

Not a one-stop destination on the highway. The thought of doing it again felt unnecessary, but the thought of marrying Rafael, of being his wife...turned me on.

It shouldn't have, but it did. That whole line was enough to get me off that night and, well, a few nights after that. He wanted to put a baby in me. Jesus, I've never in my life thought about kids, but if it were with Rafael, I'd give him a hundred.