A New Normal || ClarksonHammondMay

Chapter 3

After three hours on the road, Richard arrives back at his house not long before James and Jeremy both turn up after stopping off at their own houses first to grab a few bits and pieces. Which he's glad about. Gives him the chance to tidy up a little bit, because quite honestly, the house is a bit of a mess right now. Since Mindy and the girl's departure, he's not had much motivation to do much of anything around the house, or anything at all really.

But now that James and Jeremy will be turning up soon, he's got to do stuff that he doesn't entirely want to do. Including cleaning up the house. Not that he really wants to clean up though, quite honestly, after the three hour drive to London, with small stops every so often to allow Blea to go relieve herself, then being out all day at the office, and then another three hour drive back home, also with stops every so often much like the drive to London, all Richard really wants to do, is get drunk, not clean. But he's got to make the house look at least somewhat presentable before James and Jeremy get here

Quite honestly, he just regrets offering up his place for the three of them to drink at, partly because it's the furthest to drive, but because he's not sure how to explain this to James and Jeremy. But despite literally only being about a half hour drive from London, and the most logical place to head to, James's place was clearly out of the question, and chances are Clarkson's is too. And offering up his place was really the only way to get the pair of them to stop arguing, or to prevent the little argument from becoming worse.

He's still not sure how he's going to explain Mindy and the girl's absence to them, as they'll no doubt notice it as soon as they step inside.

Maybe he could just lie and say that they're off visiting Mindy's family for the week?

No... he doesn't think that'll work. Not with the obvious absence of the majority of Mindy's belongings. Or at least the ones that formerly took up space in the front room. Particularly all the photographs of her that had been up on the walls, including wedding photos of the both of them.

James and Jeremy will absolutely notice. They're rather observant when they want to be (James in particular), and he'll have to tell them.

Maybe after many, many drinks....

Blea hangs around near him as he continues to tidy up the house and get everything more presentable for when James and Jeremy get here. Though honestly, now that he thinks about it, there isn't really much point in making things look too tidy and presentable for them (for Jeremy at least anyway, James is the one that prefers things to be more clean and tidy). Knowing his mates, if they end up drinking too much, something is bound to end up trashed.

At least he won't get yelled at if that's the case. Well, it wouldn't have been so much yelling from Mindy, more or less her just being a little annoyed at three grown middle-aged idiots making a mess while shitfaced, and that she'll no doubt have to do most of the clean up afterwards the next morning. Richard will freely admit that he can be a little bit difficult to deal with while hungover when it comes to getting him to do stuff (especially when it comes to cleaning). He'd always make it up to her later on though.

He doesn't think that that had anything to do with the lead up to the divorce. Mindy would've said if it did. He's not even sure if there were any problems at all in their marriage. None that he can think of anyway, and Mindy never minded about him sometimes being away weeks on end due to work.

As far as he knows, the only reason for the divorce, was that they just fell out of love for one another. Well, they still love and care deeply for each other, but not as much as they once did. He's just not sure if there's any other underlying factors that resulted in the split. And honestly, he's not sure he's brave enough to ask Mindy, in case he doesn't like the answer.