The Divorce

45

Fern and Gabriel had been locked in his office for over two hours. I was thankful for being left in peace, in that time I had made good progress with my work load, almost bringing it back to a manageable point.

I stapled the last piece of document and placed it at my desk. I sent Gabriel and email, advising him that the minutes for all  the meetings he asked for were attached, as well as printed and stapled on my desk.

My desk didn't have many things on it, it generally had my custom mouse pad of dog faces, something to cheer me up during the day. On the far right corner from my viewpoint were two trays, one tray for Gabriel to collect things from, and one  tray for me to get back stuff from him.

On the far left I had a little calendar, a paperweight and a pen holder with no pens in it, because Gabriel always took mine.

I had two coasters for my water bottle and a coffee cup, the rest of my junk hid in my draws or under my desk, so it was always neat for guests and clients when they walked in. Gabriel was a stickler for a clean desk policy.

He couldn't say the same for his desk. It was messy but organised. There were stacks of paper organised in a method only familiar to Gabriel.

He had multiple bookcases, all filled with books and they were not organised by height, colour or even alphabet. Which meant every time he asked me to get something, it was like trying to find 'Where's Wally?. 

I opened my calendar scheduling the pending appointments for Gabriel, praying my phone wasn't going to ring for the rest of the day. Next week was busy and I couldn't squeeze any more 'urgent' meetings. Every meeting was urgent for Gabriel since he had been on the break for so long.

And I had to be the fairy godmother that put them all away, but still gave him an hour for lunch, fifteen minutes every second day for a coffee catch up with his Directors, and then an early company dinner so he could take the team of the week out. Gabriel liked to reward his high working staff but taking a team out every week to dinner so they felt appreciated. So every year a team would generally get one or two dinners, in addition to the EOFY and Christmas functions he hosts.

I, thankfully, didn't need to attend these (and I wasn't invited). What would I even do there? Something about Gabriel's vibe would tell me that even if you went out with a dinner or lunch with him, he was still going to talk about work with you. I couldn't imagine him being social at all. 

And I, apart from the high level knowledge from listening in and taking minutes, wouldn't have much insights to add.

The phone vibrated and I groaned, can this damn phone stop ringing? I  leaned over grabbing it, "Gabriel Parish's office, Aurora speaking."

There was silence. I gave the line a few more seconds but it was still silence. 

"Hello?" I asked into the quietness. The sound of vibration was still echoing in my ears, or maybe.

It took me a moment to realise that this phone would ring, not vibrate.

"Oh shit," I muttered slamming the phone into its socket and grabbing my bag from under the table, it was my phone ringing.  

I rummaged through it till I found it at the bottom of my bag squashed between two mandarins.

Wiping off the bag dust I hoped he hadn't hung up by then.

"Kyle!" I whispered, "Everything okay?'

"Hey,"

"What's happening?" I asked, he never calls me during work hours, especially at this time. Kyle would normally text me and then I would call him back during his lunch hours.  

I looked over at the door, that was still firmly shut and turned around in my chair, "You never call me at work," I whispered.

"Oh, I forgot. I thought it was the weekend."

I frowned, it was a Wednesday, we were no where near a weekend but I guess he has been really busy lately.

"So I spoke to my sergeant about leave and it was denied."

"He said no?" I asked.

"Well,  I didn't push for it."

Well that's a different thing then, "Why not?" I asked. 

'"Works just been really busy, and-,"

"Kyle," I cut him off, "I told you a year ago, I thought that you were calling me with good news."

There was a little bit of silence on the other line before I heard a deep sigh.

"Look, I just have a lot to think about. The last few weeks haven't been easy have they?"

"What do you mean? Are you talking about my work trip with -,"

"No, just-,"

"Is it me?" I asked.

"No, I just...have a lot of thinking to do."

"About what? If its not my work trip, and its not me, sounds like you problem," I muttered. 

"Yeah you're right it is a me problem. Look I'll talk to you later?

"Kyle, you called me, and now you want to talk later?"

"Yeah you're right,"

"Are you going to say anything else but 'yeah you're right?'" I was getting a little snappy, which was not fair but I was getting really annoyed with the fact that he called me with bad news.

Ferns idea was sounding more and more appealing now. 

"So you're definitely not coming?" I asked.

"No."

"Great, this is a bit of a let down Kyle."

There was silence.

"Well, I have to go, I'm at work," I hung up, even  thought it was Kyle that was the one that wanted to hang up.

Just on cue the door opened and I threw my phone in the bag spinning around in my chair as those two walked out.

"Were you talking to someone?" Fern asked, looking around.

"Nope," I scrolled on my emails.

"Are you...okay?" Fern asked. 

I looked up at him and Gabriel, and shrugged, "Yes, why are you asking me?"

I was greeted with silence and a glance exchanged between both of them. 

"Alright well I better get going," Fern said bye to Gabriel.

"Actually," I paused scrolling, "Did you mean what you said before."

"Yeah it's a good idea, I think hir-,"

"Well do you want to do it?"

"Do what?" Gabriel asked.

"Sure, it'll be fun!" Fern said, "So am I me or am I-,"

"Let's talk tomorrow," I cut him off, "I'm going to go home now too Gabriel if you don't need me."

I was really not feeling like being at work now. I grabbed my bag before he could reply and started walking past them.

"Am I missing something?" I heard Gabriel ask.

"Don't worry about it," Fern said waving as I walked past. 

I needed to have a think tonight about what I was going to tell my family, was I bringing Kyle or was I bringing 'Kyle'. 

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