All Things Ex

Josh took a deep breath and sighed, “The judge was old-fashioned, believed that a child should be with their mom and the fact that she was still pregnant with him made it almost impossible to rule otherwise.” I felt like such an idiot when he answered, I had sort of forgotten that he told me she left when she was four months pregnant. “Custody of Jess was the only thing I wanted out of the divorce; he was the only good that came from our marriage.”

Partly because he said I could ask him anything but mainly because I was nosey, I found myself asking, “What did she want in the divorce?” He stared at me for a moment, and I thought I made a mistake asking. “Josh, I’m sorry that’s really none of my business.”

He shook his head, “I never realized how much she hated me until we got to discussing who would get what. I knew that I didn’t want anything but custody of Jesse so I was prepared to give her everything; the house, the cars, any and all money that we had in the bank. I was so sure that she would want the money that I already had a plan in motion to help me get back on my feet after it was all said and done.”

“I take it she didn’t want the money?”

“No,” he scoffed. “That would be letting me off too easy. Instead she showed up at the meeting with her lawyer, who was the guy she left me for in the first place. When we got to splitting the assets, she gave me this sly grin as Phil produced a piece of paper, and told me that Carol didn’t want anything material possessions. ‘All my client wants is listed here on this document,’ he said.” I watched Josh’s face as he recalled the events of that day. I saw his anger and felt the tension returning to his body.

“You don’t have to tell me any of this if you don’t want too,” I told him.

“I don’t want you to think you can’t ask me about anything, even if it is something that I like to avoid even thinking about.” His arms tightened around me as he leaned in to press his lips against my forehead, “Anna, I want you to know.”

“So I grabbed the paper from him and begin to read it,” he continued. “Basically it said that Carol wanted none of the material possessions that we required during our marriage. She didn’t even want any of her personal possessions that she left behind when she walked out. All she wanted was custody of Jesse.” I gasped. He gave a little snort, “Yeah, she also wanted me to sign away my paternal rights.”

I stared at him in shock; I couldn’t wrap my head around what he had just said. “How do you think I felt?” He asked, “Up until that point, I thought I knew her. I thought for sure that I would get custody of Jess; she didn’t really want children, something she told me almost every day after she found out she was pregnant. After that there was no sense in continuing with the meeting, there was no way I was signing anything and I told her that. She just laughed and told me to give up, that there was no way I was going to get the baby, she would make sure of that.”

“Did she really want custody?” I had hoped that he would say ‘yes’ but he told me that she admitted to him, that she had no desire to have his spawn but ‘screwing you over, is so much fun.’

Just the idea that she could use a child to hurt someone she didn’t like, pissed me off. But to know that she was using sweet, innocent Jesse like some pawn made me want to rip her stupid head of her shoulders. “That bitch!”

Josh looked up at me, his brow raised. “That’s much nicer than anything I’ve ever thought,” he joked.

“How can you joke about it? She used him, and still is using him. It’s not right.”

“Of course I know it’s not right, I’m not stupid Anna.”

“I never said you were!”

“I-” He stopped what he was going to say, “Are we seriously arguing about this?”

I looked at him and smiled. “God I hope not.”

He returned my smiled, “Good I don’t want to argue with you.” We sat there smiling at each other for a long time. I started to think how funny we would look to anyone if they could see us and I chuckled. He asked me what I was thinking and I reluctantly told him. He sat back against the couch and shook his head, “Only you would think about something like that.”

I laughed and kissed his lips, “Is that your way of telling me I’m special?”

“Oh you’re special alright,” he grinned. “Sometimes a little too special.”

“Hey!” I slapped his arm playfully, “Come on admit it, it drives you insane.”

He nodded slowly, “Insane? I guess you could say that.”

I sat there looking down at him and I found I couldn’t say anything. My gaze rested on his handsome face and I couldn’t help but wonder how I got so lucky to have a man like him interested in me. I truly felt like crying from pure joy but I knew that would probably make him think I was really crazy. I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face against his neck. I could’ve stayed like that forever but my stupid cell began to ring.

I pulled away from him and gave him a funny look, “Who could be calling me?”

He gave me a look that made me shiver, and not with desire. “My money’s on Jordan.”

I leaned to the left, stretching out to grab the phone which was resting on the nearby table. Looking at the caller ID I saw that it was Jordan, what did he want now? I flipped my phone open to answer it when I saw Josh’s expression out of the corner of my eye. Crap, I thought but it was too late to not answer it. “What’s up Jordan?”

“Hey babe, I was just wondering if you were coming home soon.”

Josh’s hands slipped to my waist and he moved me off him. “I don’t know, why?” I didn’t really care why he wanted to know, I was too busy watching Josh as he stood up and disappeared down the hall.

“I was hoping you’d stop at Sev and pick me up something before you came home.”

“Jordan,” I got off the couch and peered around the corner. There was a little bit of light coming from his doorway which gave me hope that he didn’t completely close his door and that he wasn’t too upset. “Listen, I don’t know if I’ll be coming home,” I whispered. “Josh and I have a lot we have to talk about and well,” I scoffed, “Why am I explaining this to you?”

Jordan laughed, “I don’t know Anna. I was just hoping that if you were you’d grab me some wings, I’m hungry.”

I quickly told Jordan there were wings in the freezer and how to cook them. He told me to have a good night and hung up.

Tossing my phone on the table again, I slowly made my way towards Josh’s room. As I neared his doorway, I realized that the light must have been coming from a lamp because his door was wide open. I wish I could say I walked into his room confidently but I didn’t. Hesitantly, I edged my way into his room. Straight a head of me was one wall, to my right another and to my left was a corner. I poked my head around that corner, “Holy crap!” I jumped back with a start, my heart racing a million miles a minute.

Josh, who was standing just around the corner at his closet looking for something, looked around the corner at me. “Are you ok?” I nodded; my hand was still on my chest and my heart was still racing from the start he gave me. “Good,” he said turning from his closet. “I think it’s time we talk about your relationship with Jordan.”