Page 11 of Someone Like You

Casimir

Two Weeks Later

S itting in my dark office all alone, I listened as the sound of clicking heels on the teak floors drew closer to my inner sanctum. I picked up the shot glass of whiskey and downed the remainder of the drink to calm my nerves.

I loved peace, yet I had somehow lost that in this marriage. It seemed as if I was carrying negative energy with me as often as my wife did these days. Peace was a foreign entity for me, an elusive stranger.

The steps slowed down just outside my door. The lights in my office were turned off. The only lights were from the full moon outside of my window and the lights that lit up the front yard.

Five years of my life had come down to this. She was probably hoping I was upstairs asleep. I should have been, but then again, she should have been home at one thirty in the morning. I had no idea where my wife had been, and the sad part about it was that I did not care.

Standing from behind my desk, I pushed my chair back and walked to the door, opening it just as she began to ascend the stairs a few feet beyond my doorway.

“Beth.”

She froze on the stairwell, shoes in her hand, caught mid-creep. “I thought you would be asleep.”

“I’ve been up waiting for you,” I stated in a resigned tone.

“Casimir, it’s late. Can we wait until the morning to do this?”

“There’s nothing I want to do, Beth. I just want to talk to my wife. Something I need to share.”

She turned around, facing me for the first time. I could see the puzzled look on her face as she stared back at me. Looking at her watch, she glanced back at me. “Really, Casimir? Can’t it wait until the morning?”

“I’ve waited for you for the last two weeks, and every time, there’s something else.”

Beth and I slept in separate bedrooms. She was usually asleep when I left in the morning, and when I returned in the evening, she was gone. She wouldn’t come back until the wee hours of the morning, like this, when I was generally asleep.

I knew that she was doing it on purpose.

I was very particular about how I kept my things, especially in my office.

Beth was more careless and didn’t always place things back where they should be.

I knew that she had checked my calendar because the paperweight wasn’t in its original place.

On the calendar, I penciled Broadnax. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it was Darren Broadnax, a famed divorce attorney.

He came with a high price tag, but he was reputed to be well worth it.

That meeting was two weeks ago. I hadn’t spoken with my wife since, at least not in private. When I saw her, there were usually other people around, like her family and friends. These days, Beth seemed to be surrounded by people all the time, making it impossible for us to talk.

Beth turned away from me and continued up the stairs. I followed her and spoke halfway up the stairwell.

“I filed for divorce two weeks ago.”

She paused again at the top of the stairs, and I saw her shoulders drop.

“I know.” Her voice was soft and depleted of energy and the fiery animosity I had come to know. She turned around briefly and looked at me before she asked, “Why?”

“You know why,” I answered and followed her into the master suite.

“You really like her, don’t you?” she asked as she unzipped her dress.

I leaned against the doorframe, dropped my head, and sighed.

“This isn’t about a woman.”

“This is about a woman. It’s about Dr. Champagne.

You think that I’m stupid, Casimir? I see the way that you look at her.

I saw your fucking dick grow hard one day when she was wearing that short yellow dress with the white flowers.

You know the one. You complimented her on it that day and those cheap-ass heels that she wore. ”

I shook my head and smirked. “It’s always that with you, isn’t it? You never take self-responsibility. It always has to be someone else’s fault or problem, never Bethany’s.”

Bethany walked to the fireplace and turned a sad look in my direction. “You’re leaving me for her.” She sobbed.

“I’m not leaving you for anyone, Bethany. I’m leaving you because we don’t love each other. We never did. We were infatuated with each other; we made a good pairing after your family finished making me over, but you never loved me. You didn’t even know me, so how could you love me?”

“Are you saying that you don’t love me?” she asked.

“I’m saying this is about me taking my life back. I’m saying this is about me being the man I was destined to be, not the one your family created. You never gave me a chance to love you, Beth.”

“Then why have you stayed in the marriage this long?” She cried.

“Because once I agreed to be married, I was determined that I wasn’t going to walk away without giving it everything that I had. I tried. You didn’t want this.”

“I did. I do.” Beth sobbed, jumped up, and ran to me.

Beth lowered to her knees and tugged at my hands, begging, “Please don’t leave me.”

My mind was already made up. There wasn’t anything that I could do.

Whether Giselle Champagne ever existed or not, I wouldn’t continue with this farce of a marriage.

I needed more than what Beth was willing to offer, and she deserved more than what I could offer.

She was right; I never loved her. I had love for her.

As a person, as a human being, I loved the woman.

But I wasn’t in love with her, nor did I desire her anymore.

“Get up, Beth,” I whispered.

“No. You can’t leave me, Cas.”

“I can’t stay either.”

“Please. Oh God, please don’t leave me. I have nothing else. No one in this world who cares about me and will tell me the truth about me but you.”

“And yet, none of that has mattered in the last five years. You didn’t listen. You didn’t give a shit, Beth. Why now?”

“I did. Oh my God, I did. I tried to change my ways, but it’s hard . . . You don’t understand what it’s like growing up in this family with the expectations that I have on me.”

“What do you want from me, Beth? We tried counseling because you said that you wanted to get us the help we needed, but you only wanted me to change.”

“I think we would have done great if we had gone to another counselor. She was never the one we should have gone to. I’ll bet she got her degree online.

She was no good. I saw how she watched you, how she wanted you, and how she always made it seem as if everything was my fault.

All the questions, the insinuations, the demands were all to point out my flaws! ”

I was fed up with Bethany’s theatrics and, I wasn’t in the mood to listen to her blame Giselle for everything that was already wrong in our marriage long before we met Giselle.

“That’s not true. She was trying to—”

“I knew it! You want her. I hate you! I hate you!”

She began to beat me with her fists as she screamed and called me every word in the book. She threatened to have Giselle’s license suspended, and then she threatened to sue her.

I grabbed her and carried her to the bed.

“Stop, Beth. Stop with the antics. You need to relax and get some rest. You’re upset; you’ve had too much to drink, and you were right. It’s late. I should have waited until the morning to have this conversation.”

“Noooo.” She sobbed.

“Yes, please, just go to bed. Get some rest, Beth. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“Please don’t go, Cas.”

“What?”

“Stay here. Hold me for the night. Please?” she asked and looked up at me with those teary, catlike green eyes.

I sighed.

“Beth, you forced me out of here and into the guest bedroom three months ago.”

“I don’t want to be alone. Just for the night, please.”

“Why didn’t you put this care into the marriage long before now, Beth?”

She sniffled.

“I’m sorry. I just always seem to be making so many mistakes.”

“Why try to go to counseling if you weren’t going to put the work in?”

“Maybe we could try it again? There’s got to be another doctor that we could see. A therapist who we could both relate to and feel comfortable with.”

“I don’t think it’s about who the therapist or doctor is, Beth.

There are deeper issues that we have to address.

An arranged marriage was the wrong thing for either of us.

We’re both deeply passionate, emotional people with strong personalities.

Forcing the two of us into something that our fathers wanted more than we did was the wrong move. ”

“It didn’t have to be.”

“Do you remember the man you met, Beth? I’m nothing like him anymore.”

“But you’re even better. You’re the COO of a very large and prominent company. You have business constituents around the world. People know your name, and they respect you.”

“As Bethany Huffington-Bradwell’s husband.”

“That’s not true. People respect you and know who you are as your own person.”

“We were never on the same page, Beth. I don’t expect that to change now.”

“What does she have that I don’t?”

“Why do you keep making this about someone else?”

“I know that you have feelings for her. You don’t have to lie to me.”

“I’m not lying to you. This divorce was brought on by the fact that I want to be free. It’s time that I started living my life and stop living in the shadows of others.”

“What is it that you want?” she asked.

“To be happy.”

“You have millions in the bank, and you’re worth even more than that. How could you not be happy?”

“Happiness isn’t all about money. Is it nice to buy things that I want without worrying about sacrificing other shit? Yes. Is it cool to be able to pay my bills without worrying about where the money’s coming from? Hell yeah, but that’s not what life is about to me, Beth. You never got that.”

“You only wanted to hang out with those hoodlums you used to run with.” She sniffled.

“Those hoodlums were my friends. They were people who got me.”

“Even your dad didn’t care for the crowd that you ran around with. He always said that you didn’t come from that.”

“Maybe I didn’t, but they were the people who I chose to be around. They were the ones who understood me. For my father’s dream, for your father’s beliefs, and your persistence, I turned my back on all that shit. I’ve regretted it every day since.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way, Cas.”

“Go to sleep, Beth,” I replied and headed to my suite.

Before I cleared the doorway, Beth threw her shoes at me, and I ducked, but one of them hit me in the head. I rushed down the hallway after her as she ran to her room. I caught up with her moments after she cleared the French doors.

Beth grabbed the fire poker from the fireplace and swung it at me.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” I growled.

“I will not grant you a divorce. I will have your ass tied up in court so long that your nuts will shrivel, and your semen will be so dried out you will never have kids. And I’ll have that bitch’s job!” Beth shrieked as she thrust the fire poker out at me.

“And I will destroy you,” I growled.

“You don’t have the power to!” she shouted, thrusting the fire poker again.

I timed my movement perfectly and grabbed her around the waist. I threw her on the bed, grabbed both her hands, and held them above her head. I refused to let her go but squeezed her wrist until she released the fire poker, and it clattered to the hardwood floor.

“Watch me,” I snarled.