The Porsche, The Beetle And How I Got Here

Chapter 22

By telling Richard that you have to protect the ones you love, I didn’t indicate that there was some kind of supernatural force that would kill my family if I didn’t make a distance between the two of us, I meant that it would be the safest for all of us if we stopped and lived on as we would have about a year ago.

When I said I wanted to protect “the ones I love”, I was talking about him and his family. The girls deserves better than a dad showed in the media as a giant perv who got a girl pregnant behind his wife’s back. Mindy deserve better than Richard having two families. The child deserve better than having to grow up, being frowned upon, since he or she broke up a family well known and loved by the media. I deserve better, and Richard does too.

What I said, wasn’t meant in a the sense of life or death, it was meant in a way, indicating that too much would be ruined if he reached out and helped. And that was what I spent the rest of the night explain to him.

I know that a lot of it doesn’t make sense, but I tried my best to do what was best, which Richard after hours of talking, finally seemed to understand.

As he left my place that night, he was, at least according to what he told me, on the same page as I.

Some days later, we all met up at the studio, to finish of the final plans for the shows, that we would start filming in a week.

Richard was late, which was really unlike his usual behaviour. When he finally turned up, he seemed both relieved and troubled as he joined us at the office. He looked like someone who’d spent the night on the backseat of a car.

I quickly noticed something different, apart from the obvious things I’ve already pointed out. He wasn’t wearing his ring. His left ring finger was stripped bare of the usual metal band.

I looked at the others, and I knew that they’d all noticed it. We didn’t say anything about it, at least not for the first couple of hours, as we planned and discussed the show, but then the break came.

“What’s happened mate?” James asked caringly, as the four of us sat down in the corner with some coffee and sandwiches.   

“Mindy and I are getting divorced.” He replied.

“Finally..” Jeremy sighed.

“Jeremy!” I yelled at him, as James gave him a warning look.

“Come on, we all knew it was only a matter of time.” He defended, “They have been lacking their glow for at least three years now! If you ask me it’s for the best.”

“Could you be just a little less sensitive?” James asked him in an annoyed tone.

“No, he’s right James.” Richard interrupted before the two of them would start fighting. “Things hasn’t been right between Mindy and I for a long time.”

“So what was it that made you realise that it was over?” James asked.

Richard turned his head slightly, so he was looking directly at me. “I feel in love with someone else.”

“With Karen?” James asked, stunned as Richard nodded in response.

“You told her?” I asked under my breath.

“Like you said, she deserves better.”

“How did she react?” Jeremy asked quietly.

“She said she already knew. And that I wasn’t the only one.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” James asked.

“She was having an affair too, which is good really, it puts us in the same boat.”