You Play You Pay

A flash story (This came to me when I was observing (at a distance) a fast paced negotiation that ended poorly for one of the sides.)

"Hey Chloe, before we go down to your mothers' surprise birthday party, could you step in here for a minute?" It was my husband Mark. We've been wed for a year now and it's all good. We married right after college and with his teacher's degree, he was working in what he wanted to do.

He worked since high school and into college, keeping his student loans down to $20K. We didn't have enough for the wedding I wanted. However, we ended up spending $40K for the wedding of my dreams. At 23 years old, I have everything that I ever wanted. Steady jobs, enough money, a doting husband. I could have anything I ever wanted. That's me. If I want something, I get it.

"Sure Mark." We were walking around the hotel killing time before the party. He opened a door to one of the hotel room suites. At 19 stories up with a direct view of Lake Michigan, it was beautiful. "Is this our room? I didn't think that we were going to spend the night."

He walked over to the table and we sat down. A bottle of champagne, the brand of French champagne that I love was sitting there in an ice bucket. Retail it's $40. Room service here it had to be triple that.

Mark popped the cork and filled two flutes. That's when I noticed that there were 3 champagne flutes. We had talked about maybe having a three-way once. Could this be the time? Passing one to me he toasted, "To you, to me" and he paused, "And to Kyle."

I almost choked on the drink. I needed to recover fast. "What is that all about Mark?" Even I could hear the stress in my voice. That's when he picked up a folder and placed it on the table.

"Kyle. You know Kyle. You know Kyle very intimately, don't you? Look at him in our bedroom on the nights that I had parent teacher conferences. That one was last week and this picture was the weekend I was fishing with your father..." I stopped hearing Mark.

Mark looked at me and smiled. "Nanny cams are so easy to buy and set up." That's when his cousin Maria came out of the bedroom with her briefcase. Maria was a new lawyer and was as close to Mark as a sister. Her face was stoic. I knew my marriage was dead.

"Chloe McMillian, Mark McMillion is filing for divorce. What we have to work out now is how to split the financial assets."

"YYYou ambushed me. You ambushed me."

Maria was about to say something when Mark waved her off. "Ambushed? Ambushed? Like finding out that my lovely and faithful wife has been getting some strange with her cousin's husband for...How long has it been now?"

I couldn't say a word and looked at the ground. "Come on Chloe, for how long?"

It's been months. I liked the thrill. I wanted the thrill and nobody was going to know. It wasn't going to hurt anyone. Does that ever sound hollow right now.

Mark poured himself another flute of champagne and a new one for Maria. She looked at me and said "Now on to the settlement?" I nodded yes.

Maria placed a wad of papers in front of me. She pulled out a single sheet for me to see. "This is the summary sheet. We are proposing that the current assets be split 50/50." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mark will be responsible for his outstanding student load debts and you will shoulder all the outstanding debt from your wedding. The wedding that you agonized every detail over." I gasped and she continued. "That come out to about $35K now." I've been working retail. I graduated with a degree in Art Appreciation. This is the first real job in my life, certainly not a job that will support me now.

As if reading my mind she continued. "Mark has offered 6 months of support." I was still shocked, but felt a little bit relieved. "It'll be the exact cost of the rent for the apartment for those 6 months." The lease is up in 7 months.

"TTThats not enough to live on."

Mark drained his flute and poured himself another. "It's my offer. If you didn't want this to happen, you wouldn't have been going out to get some strange." He turned sideways and spit toward my purse.

I was starting to get indignant. I knew some of my rights and I knew I could get a better deal. Closing my eyes, I started getting angry and thinking more clearly. It's over, get the best deal you can. "And if I don't take your 'generous offer'?"

"Oh Chloe, it won't be a problem. At your mother's surprise birthday party that starts in a hour, I will make the announcement that we are getting divorced due to your infidelity. Copies of these pictures will available. I'm sure that Kyle's wife and your mother will be so pleased."

My father is as straight and narrow as they come, most of the time. I've had a bad relationship with him for years. My mother always let me get what I wanted. He and I fought. We fought constantly about me getting what I wanted. He'd always warn me that it would hit the fan. Now he's right.

Maria spoke up. "We're giving you another 5 minutes to make a decision. Sign this and I file immediately, or we go public. If you sign, the divorce will be because of both of you have differences. Everybody will believe that and life goes on." She looked at me and continued, "Don't agree and we go the public route and we fight it out in the courts and..."

"So, if I sign... neither of you will say a word, you keep these pictures hidden and it's just we didn't get along?" I saw that both Maria and Mark nodded yes. I signed.

"I want you to know that I had a some buddies move me out of the apartment just before we came into this room. If there is anything that they packed that is not mine, I will return it. And by the way, in the splitting of the assets, we included the contents of your safety deposit box in the total."

"BBBut that was.."

Maria looked at her. "That was marital property. Property obtained after you married."

"BBBut that was.."

"I'm sure that Kyle will be pleased that the jewelry, the ones that fell off the truck, were valued at retail."

I was beaten. As my father kept telling me, 'Play the game. Pay the cost'.

"I'll sign." It took several minutes to arrange everything with copies made, scanned and emailed. All that technology was in her briefcase. After she finished those tasks, she turned to Mark, "I'm going to the courthouse now to file. Good luck Mark." She left and didn't look at me.

It took me a minute to look at my ex-husband. "I'm sorry, I really didn't want to hurt.." then he cut me off. "Cut the bullshit Chloe. You only love you. You only love what you want, what you can get. You were a mistake in my life. I'm leaving now. Come up with a reason as to why I won't be at your mother's party. I will be civil to you, I will say nothing about why we are really splitting. Don't ever think that I will be anything more or less than that. Goodbye." He walked out the door. I started to get up when I realized that it was going to be a wasted effort.

I spent the next 30 minutes before my mother's party draining the rest of that champagne. It tasted flat. There was no longer any spark, no longer any life in it. Nothing was going to make anything better. I came up with a story that Mark wasn't feeling well and I thought that would hold them all.

I walked into the party room and saw my father's sister start to scurry everyone to the side of the room near the door. I grabbed a double from the bar and started with the chit chat. There must have been 5 different people asking why Mark wasn't there. My story was holding up, but I wasn't doing that well.

We were shushed and the lights were lowered. Standing there in the semi-darkness, I spotted Kyle and his wife Sandy, my cousin. He was not looking happy at all. I started to get worried when the lights went on and we yelled surprise.

My mother was ecstatic and my father was pretty happy too. She made it 50 from a family that the women tended to be ill or infirm by 45. She was still going strong. I put my loss away for the moment to celebrate her joy.

The dinner was uneventful and after the speech by my father, the crowed started milling around. I was about to leave when I overheard that Sandy and Kyle were getting divorced. Unfortunately, I was at the opposite end of the room from the exit door. I saw the utility door to the kitchen open and before I could reach it, Sandy stood in front of me.

"Excuse me Sandy, I really have to go to the bathroom, if you could..."

In a loud clear voice she said "You and Mark are getting divorced too." All I could hear were the plates clanking from the kitchen.

"Listen, I'd like to talk but I really have to go to the bath..."

At this point, my mother came up to me and grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "IS IT TRUE? DID YOU DO IT?" Her eyes were wild while mine looked at the floor. When I looked up, tears were flowing down her cheeks. Dad was standing behind her and he just shook his head in sorrow. He took my mother's hand and walked away. The rest of the crowd walked away from me too.

===========================

Our divorce was uncontested. Luckily, I was able to sublet the final 4 months of the apartment and move into a studio. I did get a better job, but it's higher end retail and all evenings and weekends. Few people are around during the week and I've needed to find new friends anyway. I have no car and the debt load is near breaking me. It took months, but Mom and Dad are only starting to talk with me.

After the police questioned him about a robbery, Kyle not only left town but he enlisted in the Navy. The last I heard he was a mechanic somewhere in the belly of an aircraft carrier.

All I can hear in my mind is that line from Dad, 'You play the game. You pay the cost'.