Carlton strolled into the large, splendor living room at dawn, and dismissed the maids that had come around to welcome him as he made his way upstairs. He pushed the door to his room and slouched onto his bed heavily, as the memories of the previous night came flooding into his head.
He thought about the outcome of the party he ended up attending, even if it was unintended in the first place. The second encounter with his ex-girlfriend, and the words she said to him when they went outside together.
The fact that he did the opposite of what he swore to do if he ever met her, and his vulnerability that she used to her advantage to apologize. The kiss. The unplanned sleepover.
'Shit! He shouldn't give her a chance to come back to his life. He was done with her the moment she left him at the altar, so he shouldn't allow her tactics to try and come back to him. He really shouldn't.'
As soon as he lay there thinking of how messed up things could become, the realization that his wife had not come to his room since he had come home hit him, as he sprang up immediately and looked around to be sure he was not confused.
He stood up from bed even though he was tired and dazed, and sat on his balcony for almost thirty minutes till it was time to start getting ready for work.
'She was probably sleeping,' he concluded.
Carlton took more minutes than he usually did in the shower, with his mind thinking of quite some things that were not exclusive to office work. Everything revolved around his life for the past few days and his decisions too.
He had come out of the bathroom fully dried and draped in a black bathrobe, when it dawned on him that something was different in his routine than other mornings. He looked around and figured out what.
Usually, every custom-made suit to be worn for each day by him would have been arranged in order with the perfect shoe, and Stacy would have been waiting to help him knot his tie perfectly. Then she would pass everything to him in perfect unison before he even asked.
That was when he realized. He had not heard her voice since day break.
His brain calculated what could have happened so fast, as he struggled to find the right trousers and shirt to put on after wearing his favorite combination of cologne from the ones which were neatly placed in front of the dresser.
Stepping out of his room half dressed without a tie or proper shoes, he pushed the door to her room open, and entered to confirm what was truly going on.
That was when he realized that the folder of the file which had been presented to her was on her dresser, and that the room looked somewhat more empty than it usually was.
'She was gone. She truly left. He thought it would take longer for her to accept reality, and sign the papers, but she actually left without picking up any further fights. They were truly divorced.'
Carlton's mind wandered back to the last conversation they both had on the phone, and how pissed he was when she kept texting nonstop while asking about his whereabouts. He felt somewhat guilty that he was probably harsh to her.
However, all that didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was that she had signed the papers.
'He was finally free from his fake marriage.'
The morning went more hectic than Carlton planned. He couldn't find the right tie after changing it almost ten times, and was not pleased with every shoe that he had chosen to go with his clothes. He had no idea where his socks were arranged, or in the order in which she had set his cufflinks for each day.
Vicious rages flew everywhere in the mansion. The maids were confused as they ran around, thinking of what they could do after they just found out that their boss and his wife were divorced. It came as a shock to them, and her sudden packing of boxes made sense.
His assistant, James, was clueless, because he had never been in charge of picking out the right clothes for his boss.
To make things worse, breakfast was awful for Carlton. No one knew where Stacy had placed her menu book for Carlton's food arrangements, and they had no idea how she made the food so palatable and delectable with cute designs that made the food look like art for him.
Irina was confused as she tried to call Stacy's phone several times to no avail, hoping that she would give them some pointers concerning how she managed every morning regarding her ex-husband. Everything seemed to fall apart one morning without her.
The ride to the office was suffocating and overbearing, with Carlton getting pissed off at every little thing that got on his nerves. The workers at the company as well as others in other branches were all on edge till the end of the day, because the boss was in a grouchy mood till the end of the day.
The board executives had it worse. Every business improvement proposal was disapproved with shredding words to accompany it, and every meeting for the day was rescheduled for another time.
Nothing suddenly felt right.