Mollie McQueen is NOT Getting Divorced Page 8

  ‘It won’t be easy.’ Evangelina continued, seemingly reading Mollie’s mind. ‘But if you’re both prepared to put the effort in, it will be worth it.’

  Mollie closed her eyes and considered the option of therapy. Would it merely delay the split further? Would it be a complete waste of everyone’s time? Would it simply reinforce to Mollie there wasn’t anything left worth fighting for?

  ‘Please, Mollie.’ Max begged, taking her hand. ‘Just do this one last thing for me, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll sign the separation papers without hesitation.’

  Mollie’s head told her to decline and walk out of the office without looking back, but her heart whispered to give it one last shot.

  ‘What exactly would we have to do?’ Mollie asked, already resigning herself to the fact that she was going to do this.

  Max flashed Mollie a grateful smile and she automatically returned it.

  ‘The course I am going to recommend involves a lot of homework. Some of which you might find uncomfortable, but discovering where your unease lies is the main objective of the tasks I am going to set for you.’ Evangelina said slowly, reaching into a cabinet behind her and producing two glossy folders. ‘The initial part of the course is concentrated to just one week. In that time you will have regular counselling sessions and daily tasks to carry out in your own time. After seven days, I will be able to recommend whether you should continue to phase two, or whether I don’t believe my services will benefit you further. However, in order for this to work, you will have to commit to being totally honest. Both with one another and with me. Do you think you can do that?’

  Max and Mollie nodded simultaneously, both wondering how this woman could wave a magic wand over their relationship in just seven short days.

  ‘Okay.’ Evangelina said, her voice more serious than it was before. ‘I am going to need you to fill out these profile packs. If there’s anything you don’t wish to answer, simply put an x in the box and move along, but as I said earlier, honesty is the best policy.’

  Pulling one of the folders towards her, Mollie raised her eyebrows at the mountain of paperwork and accepted a pen from Evangelina.

  ‘We have a meditation room down the hall on the left. Please take your time and tap the touchscreen once you’re finished.’

  ‘Meditation room?’ Mollie repeated. ‘Don’t you mean mediation room?’

  ‘No.’ Evangelina replied breezily, handing Max a pen. ‘Don’t forget to tap the touchscreen once you’re finished.’

  Taking this as their cue to leave, Max and Mollie gathered their folders and retraced their steps along the hall. Coming to a stop in front of the only other door in the lobby, Mollie held back and waited for Max to push his way inside. A seductive scent of bergamot filled the empty room as Mollie copied Max’s actions and took a seat on one of the two plush sofas. Calming spa music made the palatial room feel peaceful and comforting, disguising the real reason why they were there.

  Without saying a word, Mollie flipped open her folder and tapped her pen on the arm of the sofa. The questions started simple enough, but as Mollie worked her way through the pages she started to falter with her answers. Just what was the correct answer to… How do you feel when you see your partner naked?

  Frowning at Max, who was frantically scrawling on the page, Mollie shuffled closer and tried to get a glimpse of what he was writing.

  ‘The opening page clearly explained there is to be no conferring.’ Max said seriously, shielding his folder with his hand. ‘There’s no point in doing this if we aren’t going to do it properly.’

  ‘Oh, come on, Max!’ Mollie scoffed, trying to wrestle his hand away. ‘You can’t really be answering some of these questions?’

  ‘Of course I am.’ He replied firmly. ‘This is the final roll of the dice for us. You said so yourself.’

  ‘Why are you taking this so seriously?’ Mollie asked. ‘Last night, you didn’t even believe I was going to go through with the separation. Why the change of heart?’

  ‘Just like I explained to Evangelina, I’ve started to come around to your way of thinking. Maybe we would be happier with other people. Maybe we wouldn’t. This course will help us to discover our fate...’

  Hearing Max talk about being with other women gave Mollie a rush of envy she didn’t expect. She hadn’t thought as far as picturing herself with another man. All she knew for sure was that she didn’t want to be with Max. Well, that wasn’t technically true. She didn’t want to be with Max as he was now, but she had little faith in Evangelina reintroducing her to the man she fell in love with.

  Grudgingly picking up her pen, Mollie lowered her eyes to the questionnaire. After dedicating over a decade of her life to their relationship, she decided the least she could do was give it one more week. After all, just how much could happen in seven short days?

  Chapter 13

  While Mollie sat behind her desk in the Payne and Carter offices, Evangelina’s initial task played heavily on her mind. It sounded simple enough on paper, but trying to answer the questions in front of her was proving more difficult than she anticipated. She had been with Max for more than a decade. She knew him better than he knew himself. So, why was she finding this so very difficult? She knew his star sign, she knew what he ordered from the pizza place, she knew his favourite football players, and she knew the real reason he spent so long in the bathroom. What she didn’t know, it would appear, are the five things that she loves about Max now compared to when they first met.

  Ironically, the first column, which asked for five reasons why Mollie fell in love with Max all those years ago, was overflowing. Once she started writing, she just couldn’t stop. Mollie could list a million reasons why she fell for Maximilian McQueen, but none of those reasons were valid now. No longer did he leave little notes under her shampoo bottle when she took a bath. No longer did he make her pancakes in the shape of hearts. No longer did he kiss her goodnight and actually mean it. As a result, despite her staring at the paper for more than an hour, Mollie hadn’t written a single thing in the specified box.

  What did she still love about Max? It certainly wasn’t his immaturity, his ridiculous business ideas and ability to stroll through life without a care in the world. Turning to look around the office, Mollie wondered if Max was having the same trouble completing his own questionnaire. Knowing Max, he probably wouldn’t give them a second thought until five minutes before they were due to be returned to Evangelina tomorrow. Leaving things to the last minute and hurriedly rushing through the motions was a habit of his.

  Deciding she would come back to the troublesome question later, Mollie turned the page and studied the next question carefully. List three things you would change about your partner. Immediately picking up her pen, Mollie started to scribble in the box. Work ethic… refusal to display affection… not leaving wet towels on the…

  ‘Hey, Molls!’

  Quickly closing the folder and kicking it beneath her desk, Mollie looked up to see Tim striding towards her.

  ‘Hi, Tim.’ She stammered, pretending to be engrossed in her emails. ‘What can I do for you?’

  ‘Now there’s a question with a million answers, Molls!’ Tim chuckled, leaning against her desk and pointing at the folder by her feet. ‘Oops! Looks like you’ve dropped a file.’

  ‘It’s not important.’ She replied quickly, kicking it further away.

  ‘Don’t let James Payne hear you say that. Everything’s important in this place! Here, let me get it for you…’

  ‘Tim!’ Mollie yelled, roughly grabbing the folder and stuffing it into the bottom of her handbag. ‘I’ve just told you it’s not important!’

  Holding his hands up in his defence, Tim started to back away and stopped when Mollie groaned.

  ‘I’m sorry, Tim.’ She said apologetically. ‘I’m just having a bad day.’

  ‘Well, it’s just a bad day, not a bad life.’ He responded merrily. ‘We all have them.’

  Despite Tim not bei
ng high up on her Christmas card list, Mollie felt bad for snapping at him unnecessarily. Watching him walk away, she cursed herself for allowing her frustration with Max to spill out onto other people. It wasn’t anyone else’s fault that she made the bad decision to wear a wedding dress three years ago. Nor was it anyone else’s fault that Max hadn’t matured like the fine wine she was promised he would.

  Mollie looked down at her handbag and wondered why she was being so secretive about the marriage therapy. She instigated the split, so why did she want to keep it close to her chest? Before their visit to Evangelina, Mollie wanted to shout it from the rooftops, but hearing Max admit that maybe separating wasn’t a bad idea after all changed something for her. The power had shifted. The tables had turned. Mollie was no longer in control, and it made her feel a little nervous.

  Spotting a flurry of people heading into a meeting room at the opposite end of the office, Mollie whimpered and grabbed her notepad. Her weekly summit with the powers that be was generally something Mollie looked forward to, but today, her mind could only focus on the impossible questionnaire in her handbag. Standing up, she followed the rest of her colleagues into the boardroom and took a seat at the round table.

  The Payne and Carter offices weren’t like anywhere Mollie had ever worked before. Whereas most places of work were stale, stereotypical offices, Payne and Carter was the love child of Willy Wonka and Lady Gaga. Every surface was either neon green or vivid orange. The artwork on the walls resembled firework explosions and the ceiling was littered with an array of multicoloured umbrellas. Mollie couldn’t have designed it better if she had done it herself. It was eccentric, it was unique, and she absolutely loved it.

  Over the years, Mollie had spent more time in the Payne and Carter offices than she had at home. She was married to the job, as Max so often reminded her. Although, married probably wasn’t the right word. Her eyes sparkled at the mere mention of the place. Her adrenaline would surge the second she stepped over the threshold, and her heart would race like crazy when she presented new ideas to her superiors. She wasn’t married to Payne and Carter. She was having an affair with it. She lusted over it, and lust was sadly something that was missing from her relationship with Max.

  As Mollie proceeded to ponder the many different ways in which her marriage was lacking, she fixed her gaze on James Payne and Austin Carter. Both wearing slick suits and commanding authority from the rest of the room, they emulated everything Mollie wanted Max to be. Sinking into her seat, Mollie studied James Payne’s face and tried to picture herself with someone like him. Something told her a man as suave as James wouldn’t sit on a PlayStation all day long eating Coco Pops straight from the box. She couldn’t imagine him frying vegan burgers in his underpants and covering the kitchen in an organic grease that was impossible to remove. No, James Payne was the epitome of debonair. He would eat croissants and smoked salmon for breakfast while sipping coffee made from the finest beans. Cooking for his wife would involve chateaubriand and lobster, and the only games he would play would be on FTSE 100…

  ‘Mollie?’ Austin Carter said suddenly, snapping her back to attention. ‘Do you have the figures from the Vibrant Blue presentation on Friday?’

  Struggling to find her tongue, Mollie nodded and searched through her notepad frantically. It wasn’t often that she was speechless, but the guilt over fantasising about her boss was radiating to her cheeks.

  ‘Here they are…’ She stammered, handing over her notes and shrinking back into her seat.

  Despite working there for many years, Mollie hadn’t ever looked at her bosses in that way, or any of her workmates, for that matter. Regardless of the growing wedge between her and Max, extramarital relations had never crossed her mind, until recently.

  Before she gathered the courage to tell Max of her desire to separate, Mollie was ashamed to admit the idea of an affair became quite tempting to her. She read so many articles online written by married couples who openly admitted an affair fixed their relationship. One husband went as far as to claim a one-night stand reignited the fire in his marriage, but something inside Mollie stopped her from going any further than a quick Google search. Yes, she longed to feel wanted by a man, and a small part of her wondered if throwing caution to the wind and having one night of passion would get it out of her system, but she knew their problems went deeper than their non-existent sex life. Much deeper.

  Trying to concentrate on the presentation, Mollie got to thinking about the lifecycle of a marriage and how it resembled a pack of cards. In the beginning, all you need is two hearts and a diamond, but if you marry the wrong one, you will wind up wishing you had a club and a spade…

  Chapter 14

  ‘Have you reached page seventy-one yet?’ Max asked, shuffling into a sitting position on his beanbag. ‘It’s quite a thinker, isn’t it?’

  Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, Mollie flicked through the workbook until she reached the specified page and placed her chin in her hand.

  ‘Thinking about your own behaviour, list three areas you could address to help your marriage flourish.’ Mollie read aloud, taking off her glasses. ‘It sounds simple enough to me.’

  ‘Do you really think so?’ Max asked in surprise. ‘I’ve been staring at this one question for over half an hour and I’m still drawing a blank.’

  Mollie laughed and waited for him to say he was joking, but of course, he didn’t.

  ‘You’re kidding, right?’ She said dryly, putting down her pen. ‘You really can’t think of just three things you could change about yourself to fix our marriage?’

  Looking up at the ceiling as though deep in thought, Max exhaled loudly and shook his head.

  ‘Nope…’

  Biting her lip to stop herself from saying something she would later regret, Mollie took a deep breath.

  ‘In that case, why don’t you let me complete it for you?’ She offered, smiling through clenched teeth. ‘I’m sure I could come up with a few things.’

  ‘Lifesaver!’ Max exclaimed, holding out his booklet. ‘I can do yours, if you like?’

  Exchanging their papers, Max and Mollie got to work at completing each other’s questionnaires. Unsurprisingly, writing down one another’s faults seemed to be a whole lot easier than listing their own. Finally dropping her pen, Mollie looked up and frowned when she saw Max was still scrawling on the page.

  ‘Do you think it’s okay to come out of the box a little?’ He mumbled, turning the page in search of additional space.

  ‘Why?’ Mollie said sarcastically. ‘Are there just so many things I need to change about myself?’

  ‘Yes…’

  ‘Just give it to me, Max!’ She demanded, tossing his own paperwork at him.

  Reluctantly handing over the folder, Max quickly added a final scribble in the corner of the page before Mollie snatched it out of his hands. The air became thick with tension as they each took a moment to read what the other had written about them.

  ‘Mollie, I am not lazy.’ Max said haughtily. ‘Just because you can’t always see the work I do doesn’t mean I’m not doing it. When you’re an entrepreneur, everything you do counts as research for an upcoming project.’

  ‘Please…’ Mollie scoffed, rolling her eyes.

  ‘Look, I don’t expect you to understand.’ He said, in a voice so patronizing it made Mollie’s blood boil. ‘You’re analytical and I’m creative. Our brains are wired completely differently. You have to make lists and spreadsheets. You need facts and figures. Me? It’s all up here.’ Tapping his forehead, Max flashed her a wink. ‘I don’t need to put things on paper. I can compartmentalize. You can’t. You might think I am playing video games, listening to music or ordering pizza, but it doesn’t reflect what’s going on upstairs. I’m always working, Mollie. Just not in the traditional way that you do.’

  Rubbing her throbbing head, Mollie let out a scornful laugh. It seemed the therapy wasn’t making things better for them. It was simply reminding Mollie ex
actly why she wanted to leave Max in the first place.

  ‘So, tell me, you big entrepreneur…’ She mocked. ‘After all these hours you have put in, just how much money have you brought home this year?’

  ‘That’s another thing I need to add to your list.’ Max replied seriously. ‘You’re obsessed with money, and if I am being completely honest, it’s quite vulgar.’

  ‘I have to be obsessed with money because I am the only one who earns any!’ She cried furiously. ‘If it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t have a single penny to our name.’

  ‘Life isn’t about materialistic things, Mollie.’ Max sighed dramatically. ‘As long as we have a bed beneath us and the stars above us, what more do we need?’

  ‘There’s a big difference between materialistic and homeless, Max.’ She seethed. ‘And homeless is exactly what we would be if it wasn’t for me.’

  Closing his folder, Max pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the fridge.

  ‘I think I’m starting to realise why we were supposed to complete these ourselves.’ He said, attempting a laugh. ‘Let’s just stick to our own questionnaires from now on.’

  ‘Truth hurts, doesn’t it?’ Mollie snapped, taking a sip from her bottle of water.

  ‘I think you’re confusing fact with opinion.’ He said knowingly, stretching his arms over his head as he studied the contents of their sparse fridge. ‘But it’s okay, you’re entitled to an opinion.’

  Shaking her head, Mollie returned to her paperwork.

  ‘I’m cold?’ She said in disbelief, glaring at the list Max had composed. ‘Cold? Really?’

  ‘Do we have to do this?’ Max groaned. ‘Haven’t we just discovered that talking about the questionnaire isn’t a good idea?’