Favorite Record (a.i.)

4 AM

Nothing good happens at 4 AM.

4 AM is when Ashton finally stumbled into the apartment, the blonde on his arm.

Calum jumped up from where he'd fallen asleep on the couch, Caroline next to him.
She stayed asleep, thankfully, because the situation was bad enough without her being involved.

Ashton stumbled on the suitcase and Calum shook his head.

"What the fuck is this, Calum?"

"Get out." Soft, but stern, Calum's voice left little room for arguing, but Ashton tried anyway.

"What? I'm not leaving."

"You can leave in an Uber or I can call someone to forcibly remove you from this apartment, but you will be leaving. I suggest you do it before you wake up my wife, because she really hates you right now."

"Taking her side, yet again? Got it."

"She's my wife. When I took my fucking vows, I'm pretty sure I literally included the words I will always stand by you. I don't want to argue with you, Ashton. I want you to get out and take whoever the fuck this is with you. I don't want you to wake up my wife." Calum paused for a second. "Are we clear?"

"Understood." Ashton's voice dripped with venom as he dragged the blonde model behind him out the door.

"I thought this was your apartment?" She said, looking at Ashton as she was being dragged unceremoniously outside.

"No, sorry, this apartment belongs to my wife and I. Nice meeting you, goodbye." Calum stood straight and watched them leave.

With a chord of finality that filled Calum with cold tendrils of dread, the door slammed shut behind them.

A hand came to rest gently on his bicep and he looked down to see Caroline, wearily rubbing sleep out of her eyes. "Was that him?"

"He's gone now, let's go back to bed, canary." Caroline frowned, but followed him to the bedroom.

Sliding into bed next to him, she gently caressed his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

He turned around to face her, his eyes sad. "I just hate that it had to be this way. I can't support him acting like that, but he's still my best friend."

She sighed, biting her lower lip. "I know this is hard for you. I support whatever choices you make, darling, even if that means mending things with Ashton when he's still acting like a prick."

Calum nodded, his eyes softening. "How did I get so lucky?"

"I still think I'm the lucky one." Caroline held on tight to Calum, trying to hold him together as much as she could.

They fell asleep faster than usual, the day taking so much mental energy out of them.

Meanwhile, Ashton stumbled into an Uber, cursing under his breath.

He looked up a nearby hotel and called ahead to book a suite for himself, while the blonde kissed his neck softly.

"Sorry, honey, you're gonna need to find somewhere else to sleep tonight." He motioned for the Uber to pull over and all but pushed her out.

"Call me!" She squealed and flounced down the street toward a nearby club.

Despite it being 4am, Casen hadn't yet slept.

She was sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by paperwork, the most important  paper in her hands.

Her prenup was still in the original envelope they'd put it in after filing it, the seal still firmly pressed closed.

With a deep sigh, she gently slid a silver letter opener through the envelope, breaking the seal.

The papers were stiff when she unfolded them carefully and began to read.

As she read, she began to make two piles of documents on the table.

The beach house deed went to the left, their main house deed went to the right.

She separated the bank accounts into the piles.

The cars all went into the right pile, but the private jet went into the left pile.

Her jewelry all went into the right pile, along with the deed and the inventory for her boutique in Calabasas.

Ashton's 5SOS masters went into the left pile, while her own went into the right pile.

The boat title went into the right pile and the jet skis into the left pile.

Every art piece that they had purchased together went into the right pile, along with the antiques they had collected.

Ashton's musical instruments all went into the left pile.

The paperwork for the cemetery plots they had purchased, just to be on the safe side, stumped Casen and she made a third pile in the middle.

The thoroughbred horses Casen boarded at a high end stable went into the right pile, while the expensive, custom golf clubs went into the left pile.

Finally, she pulled three sticky notes off the pad and labeled each pile.

Left, was assets that were Ashton's.

Middle, was assets not laid out in the prenup.

Right, was assets that were Casen's.

She sat back and looked at the piles that represented all of the worldly possessions they had acquired during their time together and wiped a few tears from her blue eyes.

She never thought that the end for her would be so quiet and lonely. The end, being 3 piles of paper she carefully arranged while her husband was running around town with a model 10 years younger than her.

The three piles were gently put into separate manila envelopes and purposefully hidden inside one of her many large purses in her closet so the girls wouldn't find them.

Carefully, she typed a note into her phone to remind her to call a divorce lawyer in the morning and then went to bed, tossing and turning for the rest of the night.
Nothing good ever did happen at 4 AM.