earned it [h.s.]

55. (*)

Hi everyone.

Before starting this chapter: I did research on divorce laws in the uk and I have read about the twenty week cooling period after filing for divorce. For the sake of this story, that will not be included and there won't be a twenty week waiting period!! Let's get this on a roooooll.

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Harry.

"H., I don't know..." Genevieve murmured as she tugged on the sleeves of her jumper. Her lips rolled inside of her mouth as she glanced around anxiously, "This feels provocative. I don't want to make things worse."

I sighed and rubbed my palm up her arm, "Baby, please... I really need you here."

"I know." She nodded, "I know. I'm just – I don't know. I don't want to see her again." She admitted and I gave her a sympathetic look, "Me neither, trust me. And thank you for doing this for me."

Genevieve gently squeezed my hand, "Of course."

We were in the courthouse today for a talk. A talk that I dreaded tremendously. It had been about a week since Diane sent back the divorce papers to Blair's lawyer, where I contested to the financial settlement and we decided to fight and not sign the papers.

As things went, we were now invited to a talk with a mediator. Blair, her lawyer and me and my lawyer. And I brought back-up in the form of Jeff and Gen. They were to sit off to the side and not meddle, but I needed to feel their support and Diane didn't complain about it.

Even she was nervous.

Her blue hair was up in a sleek bun and it was clear that she tried to look more professional than I had ever seen her before. Diane shifted on her feet, tugging on her pencil skirt a little. When I looked at her, I could see Genevieve. They were quite similar and the way she anxiously fiddled around right now reminded me of when Genevieve was about to head to Lotus to ask Ezra if she could buy her way in.

She wanted to be taken seriously, she wanted to be professional. She did it, and I hoped Diane could, too. I wanted to have faith in her, as my lawyer, but Blair's lawyer was an old cookie that knew the ins and outs of court and divorce settlements. I really hoped Diane had tricks up her sleeve or he'd chew us up and spit us back out.

In the week that had gone by, I had moved into Jeff's place. He hooked me up with a job, loaning me some money so I could get clothes – like the suit I had to wear today – and I could borrow his car sometimes when I wanted to spend the night at Genevieve's place.

We had been good, Gen and I. Living separately was the best option for now. We were a new couple, starting out, getting to know one another in a quite unconventional way so maybe we needed that, some normalcy. Nothing about us had been normal so far. It sort of felt like a step back, but not a bad one.

We talked on the phone every day, lengthy talks mostly. I had taken up her advice and had my first therapy session yesterday. Lewis was a few years older than me and I felt at ease with him, talking about my divorce freely, talking about the cheating, the falling in love with someone else, the pain and the trauma. It was necessary to talk about it, the bruise on Genevieve's shoulder was enough proof of that.

Everything had just been so busy and high-paced that we hadn't really had much time for ourselves. She was at Lotus often, negotiating with Ezra and signing things to buy her way into it. They had yet to tell the other girls, but Ezra was coming around and they were growing closer again.

On top of that, Genevieve decided to stop her pill this week to let her period come through for the first time since getting into the contract with Blair. It hadn't been fun, her cramps were quite bad and I hated hearing her whimper over the phone when I couldn't cuddle her. But the space was good, we needed it.