Brian´s POV
As soon as we had arrived at the Phoenix airport, Matt had taken control. No that is a lie, Matt had taken control ever since he picked me up in the goddamn early morning. This whole thing had been a sort of a out of body experience for me. I saw myself do every action, but I didn’t have any control over it. I didn’t want to be here, but I knew me not being here would be even worse.

If I hadn’t agreed on going over, there was no doubt in my mind Larry would have taken a plane to get Amy himself, then I would’ve really been screwed. Not that I was in a party right now, but I wasn’t allowed to think about how fucked all of this was. At least, that was what Matt had told me in the plane, but there was no way he would fucking know what was going on in my mind.

I watched him rent a car and flipped him off in my mind, a smirk broke through on my face, that felt good.

“So how are you going to do this?” Matt broke the silence as he drove us over to the address Amy had given me. I kept my mouth shut, I didn’t want to talk about it, hell, I didn’t want to do this. “Brian. Come on. You need to have a plan by now, we only have 30 minutes left in this drive, you need to bring your A-game, man” Matt was too damn cheerful, what the hell was wrong with him?

“I don’t know, I’ll just wing it” I grumbled. Matt shook his head, he was disapproving, it was all over his face, but what could I say? I had no idea how I was going to do this, for two weeks my charm had made her weak in the knees, my charm had brought me everything I wanted from her, but I wasn’t so sure if the Haner charm would still work on her, or if it had been a Bahamas thing.

Matt pulled up to a small apartment building and parked the car. I got out with heavy feet and looked up, silently counting the numbers of where Amy’s should be. I couldn’t make it out. Even though small, it looked nice, it seemed like a nice spot to live. As we took the elevator to Amy’s floor I wondered if she liked it here. When we reached her apartment, Matt turned to me “You want to do this together, or do you want me to wait downstairs?”
“Should have thought about that before you came up here, asshole. Now you are going to fucking stay too” I snapped. Matt held up his hand in defense and then moved his finger to the doorbell.
“You ready?”

No
“Sure”

Matt pushed the doorbell, and again, and then knocked, but no one opened. Did she see us here and decided not to open the door or was she not home? Would she already be back at work? Would her beloved James already had his claws on her? I frowned at the thought and felt anger well up inside of me. She was still married to me, he had no right! I shook my head. What the fuck was I doing?

“Are you looking for Amy?” an old woman stood in the hallway, looking at us with a smile. Matt turned to her, smile wide, dimples blazing “Yes we are, but if I had known a pretty lady like you living in the same building I would have definitely rethought”
The woman laughed and shuffled her way towards us, patting Matt’s arm as soon as she could reach him “You are quite a charmer huh? Amy is at work, she just came back from a holiday, but that girl loves her job with that Morris man”
“Don’t I know it.” Matt smiled again, his voice friendly “We wanted to try and surprise her, but I guess we will have to wait until she gets home.”
“Oh that won’t be necessary, I have the address for you. I wouldn’t give it to anyone, but you are two fine gentlemen, she will be pleased to see you”

“Not so sure about that” I muttered as Matt noted down the address that the woman recited.

The drive over to Amy’s office wasn’t long, it was far too short as far as I was concerned. It would have been hard enough to convince her to come back with me at her apartment, but it would be impossible if that asshole boss of her would be near. He would probably convince her to not do it, advice her against it. I knew I would if it had been the other way around.

The receptionist at the big business building send us straight to the 5th floor when we asked for James Morris. The way up with the elevator seemed to be over in the blink of an eye and before I could even prepare myself the elevator binged. I couldn’t bring my legs to move forward when the doors opened. There she was, there was a closed of space with large windows right in front of us and Amy sat there, her back to us. My insides tumbled as I looked at her back alone. I couldn’t do this. I just couldn’t. Matt pushed me out and dragged me over to Amy’s office. With a short knock he opened the door and stepped in.

“Hello Amy”
“Matt! What are you doing here?” She gave Matt a quick hug “Is Bri-“ She stopped midsentence as she saw me standing behind Matt.
“Hey” her voice changed to soft and unsure as she looked at me through her lashes. She moved forward, but then stopped again, and then came forward again. I could see her debating on how to greet me and I didn’t really know either.
“Hey”

The door behind her opened, revealing a tall man in a suit “Amy, can you… oh hello, did I forget an appointment?” he turned a questioning gaze to Amy.
“Uh… no… This are-”
“Brian” I regained my posture and stepped forward to shake the man’s hand, squeezing a little too hard. The man winced as he confirmed he was who I thought he was. “This is Matt” I motioned next to me.
“They are my friends, James. It’s such a surprise you came and visit” Her look wandered between Matt and I, but I wasn’t done with that asshole yet. “We are friends of Amy’s, we just came in from LA and we thought we’d come and say hi” I turned to Amy and pulled her to me, giving her a tight hug. She was still mine asshole, eat this!
“Brian… let go of me” Amy said, only noticeable for me.
“We need to talk” I hissed back.

“Eh… Amy… Is Sara at home?” Matt’s voice broke the awkward hug.
“Yes.. she is…” Amy removed herself from me and seemed a little dazed and confused. She looked from me to Matt and then scribbled something down on a piece of paper. Matt took it and before I knew it he had slipped out and disappeared. Fuck!

The asshole boss was looking uncomfortable between his office and Amy’s desk.
“What did you need, James?” Amy turned to him fully now, ignoring I was even there.
“I.. I just..” He put his hand through his hair, but then he put on a smile “It’s nothing that can’t wait. Maybe you should go and catch up with your friend for a bit? I think the conference room is available” he nodded encouragingly to Amy and then turned to his office again. What did he mean by that? Did he need me to sign the divorce papers right away? Not wasting any time huh? I could just-

Amy’s hand in mine startled me at first but then I smiled. This was nice. But then she started pulling. Hard. She dragged me into a large room with a table and chairs, this was a conference room alright.
“What are you doing here?!” She snapped as soon as the door fell shut.
“Nice to see you too” I snapped right back. Amy leaned back on the table, her arms crossed over her chest, shooting daggers at me “You said you didn’t want to meet up to sign the papers, you say there was no need and now you are here?! Hand delivering to me? You must have paid some fucking hard cash to have them draw up papers this fast. But hey, that is probably what that mysterious Larry is all about right? Arranging your dirty work, making sure your little ‘errors’ are erased as soon as possible. Is he trained in getting rid of ‘summer flings turned wives’?”

She ranted on and on and I could only stare at her with open mouth, she was so far off it wasn’t even funny, where did she get all this crap? And how had she become this nasty woman? This jumping to conclusions woman? This as a whole different Amy than I had gotten to know. Was this the real her?

“You are so damn wrong” I shot back as soon as she gave me a chance to say something too. “Speaking of wrong?! Didn’t your smart, lawyer boss need to know that I’m your husband? It would made him handling the divorce so much easier!”
Amy looked at me confused, but I continued quickly before she would throw in some new untruths.

“For your info, Larry isn’t mysterious! He is our manager, he arranges what needs to be done, but he certainly isn’t the person you think he is. You have no clue at all!”
There was no right way to do this, so I would just throw it in “Larry has something to do with this though, but he didn’t give me the divorce papers for you to sign. He wants to meet you. He ordered me to bring you back to LA, we have an appointment with him tomorrow morning”

Amy stared at me, her mouth wide open. For a moment there was nothing to hear but the ticking of the clock. The she began to laugh.. Loudly… Uncontrollably….

“You are crazy Haner… Fucking crazy”

And with that, she left the room, leaving me baffled.

I sighed “That went well”

Sara’s POV“That’s for sure Laura, I can definitely advise a holiday to the Bahamas, it will relax you, it’s beautiful” I was on the phone with one of my most loyal and oldest customers. She let me come in twice a year to check on her company processes, and it worked, she was one of my success stories, no troubleshooting anymore, just preventing. We had been talking about my holiday, and I told her all about it, in generalities of course and I was waiting for her to come to the point.

“How about the men, Sara? Come on, don’t keep it from me” I recognized that tone, she wouldn’t let go. She would never come to the point if I let her.
“If I tell you will we talk business right after?” I playfully chided her.
“Sure, sure, come on spill the dirt”
“There are plenty of hot and exciting men to lose your head over, I promise you that” I let a short silence fall, but before she could shoot me anymore questions I continued “So, let’s talk business, when do you want me to come in? Am I doing the full scan or will we limit to a specific department?”

While Laura told me what her wishes were, I noted down some of the high level demands. Laura knew exactly what I needed to make a plan of approach for her. We had done this trick for years and we had perfected our cooperation.
“Good, I have everything I need, I will draw up a plan and send it to you in the next week, you will have it in your inbox next Friday at the latest”

We said our goodbye and I hung up with a smile, immediately adding the notes to my to do list. I had a good day so far. I had called back most of the customers on voicemail and the outlook was good. If I played my cards right I would be able to be working for at least the next 3 months, there would even be some assignments on which I didn’t need to be on location, at moments like this my job couldn’t be any better.

My phone rang again and I smiled “If it isn’t my favorite customer in the whole world”
“Awh Sara, you are my favorite trouble maker”
I laughed, this has been a running gag between me and Carson. The first time I came to his company, the teamleader that I had to evaluate called me a trouble maker instead of a trouble shooter and that had given me the nickname.
“What can I do for you, Carson?”

As Carson started to explain what he needed from me a firm knock on the door sounded. Expecting it to be a messenger with information on a new assignment I opened the door while still talking to Carson. As soon as the open door revealed the person on my doorstep I froze for a split second, before immediately throwing the door shut, but I was too late. Marc’s foot was already between it and before I could stop him, he was inside my house.

“I’m really sorry Carson, but I have to call you back, something nasty landed on my living room floor and I will have to clean it out immediately”
Carson chuckled and bid me goodbye.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I gritted through my teeth. Marc had a smile on his face, I was pretty sure it was fake, but wasn’t that all of him? He took a step towards me and I took a step back.
“Ah come on S, we have such history, why are you backing away from me? Are you scared of me?”
“The hell I am, I just don’t want to get contaminated with whatever disease you are carrying around with you. That is why I would like you to leave my house right now, it will be hard enough to clean it of your nastiness as it is”

Marc was still closing in at me, and part of me hoped he would get close enough so I could punch his face, but there was a larger part of me that knew he was unpredictable. I wasn’t scared of him, but I rather not find out what kind of trouble he would cause.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk Sara don’t be like that, we have been together for a long time, don’t you think I deserve a little more than you not even wanting to greet me?”

“Are you crazy? Did you really lose your mind? I own you nothing. What are you doing here, Marc? I’m not asking again” I leaned back on the back of my couch and crossed my arms over my chest.
Marc faked a shy posture, but he forgot I knew him like the back of my hand, especially the lies.
“You didn’t answer my calls, and I needed to talk to you, so I decided to come over.” I raised my brows at him “There was a reason for me not answering your calls, it’s not an invitation to come over”
“Sara…I just… after you send that picture… It made me realize I missed you. I was thinking about you for a while again and I thought of what we had. Our life together was so much more than a half naked picture and I thought… You are not finding what you need, neither am I, we were always best together”

“No we weren’t. Does Carla know you are here?” I bit back
“She doesn’t have to know. We could be good together Sara. You deserve so much more than fake passion for a picture”

That pushed all the wrong buttons with me. He could lie all he wanted about the relationship we had and that apparently only happened in his head, but he was not allowed to downgrade the holiday I had, what Matt and I had “Are you done?”
“Yes, it’s clear enough, we should get back together”
“I will tell you once again, in simple words. You listening?” I continued, looking at him with intent “We. Are. Not. Getting. Back. Together…. Ever.”
“Sara…” I held my hand up to stop him.
“No. This is the last of it. Now get the fuck out of my house before I call the police”

He seemed remorseful for a second “Okay”
I was waiting for what he would do next, it couldn’t be this easy. And indeed, that’s when the other shoe dropped.

“Can you give me a last hug? So I can close what we had? Just one hug and I’ll be outta here”
“If I let you give me a hug, you will finally leave?” I asked, tired. I didn’t want to deal with him anymore and this conversation had taken long enough. I was so done with him and I just wanted him to leave. “If I let you embrace me now, will you get out of my life and never ever try to get back in?”

Marc nodded with a smile on his face, knowing he would win this round, but I hoped by letting him have this round, I would win the war.
“Promise”
“I promise.” His voice was silky smooth and I recognized that voice. He had seduced me with that voice so many times, but now it made my skin crawl, right now I couldn’t even imagine being attracted to him.

Marc stepped into my personal space and I had to keep myself from cringing, I didn’t want him to touch me, but if this was with it took, I could get through a few second hug. Marcs arms encircled me and I immediately planned on taking a scorching hot shower as soon as he would let go of me. I would use all the scrub I needed to get rid of him completely. I shivered in his arms and tried to get out, but he kept on holding me.
“Just 10 more seconds and then I’ll walk right out of your life… come on, put your arms around me, you can hardly call this a hug” he whispered in my ear and I hesitantly did what he asked me to.

In a need to get through this without kicking him in the groin I tried to focus my attention elsewhere. I looked up over Marc’s shoulder, trying to look at the door through which Marc would soon disappear from my life.

The door was open. And in the opening was the reason Marc wasn’t good enough anymore.

“Matt!”

Notes

Yay! The guys are here!
Or maybe not yay! Or Yay?

Brian is had a great conversation with Amy, didn't he?
And what about Matt? Finding Sara in a compromising situation with The Ex?

Dear readers, you will have to wait for after the weekend before we can answer you ;-)