No, that email to Jason was good news, but not nearly enough to stop from going ahead with what he’d planned.
**********************
At 10:15 Nick pulled his car back into the driveway. He’d already let the office know he’d be out for the morning. His plan had been to surprise Emily as she was dressing to go off to meet Pritzker, but she’d canceled that meeting. Instead he found her on the phone, probably to her sister.
She turned to him in surprise. “Hi, Nick—uh, give me a sec.
“April, Nick’s come back home; how about if I call you later? Ok, bye.”
She hung up and came over to Nick. “Is everything okay, honey? I didn’t expect to see you this morning.”
Nick gave her a serious, troubled look. “Em, just come sit in the living room with me, okay? I need to talk to you.”
She sat on the couch and watched him pace, acting uncertain. He saw her worried look. Finally he sat in a chair across from her.
“Emily, I … I was gonna, um, talk to you about this tonight. But I thought about it, driving to work, and I—
“Well, I just realized there was no reason to wait. No good time to say it. I’m moving out—I think I’m going to be getting a divorce.”
He watched her. Nick had never seen a person’s mouth hang open like that, as though her jaw muscles didn’t work. She stared at him, swallowed hard.
“Nick, I—Why?! We love each other, we have a great marriage—why?” She started to cry. “Why would you do this, walk out on me, on Charlie and Ben?”
He got up and paced the room, delivering the words he’d been thinking about ever since Friday.
“There’s just no spark anymore, Em. Married life is so damn repetitive! I go to work, I come home, I play with the boys and get them to bed, you and I watch TV, we kiss each other good night and go to sleep. Then the next day we do the same thing.
“I need … a little excitement. Something new, something that makes me tingle, gets my blood racing.”
He stopped and looked over at Emily. She had gone utterly pale—he wondered how obvious it was that he was throwing her own words to her sister right back in her face.
“I’ve met someone who—”
“No!” she shouted, looking desperate. She jumped up. “No, please, Nick, please tell me you’re not—” She broke down, sobbing.
“I’m not having an affair, Emily. I wouldn’t do that to you! I haven’t even kissed her, even touched her yet. And I won’t, not while you and I—”
He stopped, watch her cry, her whole body shaking. Then he spoke his final sentences.
“But I want that spark—I want someone who will want me, make me feel attractive. Make me feel like a man again, instead of a drudge who’s getting old before his time.
“Listen—I’ll be away on a business trip until Friday. I’ve got a motel room reserved for when I get back. I’ll call you and we can find a time to talk, figure out how we’re going to settle things. If you want to speak to a lawyer that would probably be a good idea.”
She gazed at him in horror as he pulled out the suitcase from behind the couch.
“No, Nick, please—honey, can’t we—”
“I’m so sorry, Emily.” He turned and headed out the door, listening to her sobs of despair behind him. As angry and hurt as he was, he still felt for her. She was in agony, and the part of him that thought “serves her right, the bitch!” battled with the part that wanted to come back into the house and hold her in his arms, kiss away her tears and tell her everything would be all right.