Recipe for Disaster

"Cat, I love you. I've loved you for the last twenty-six years. But I'm going to leave the house for a few days because otherwise, we might say things that we cannot take back. But you can write this down, until I get a meaningful apology from you, don't count on me to help your career anymore."

Cat was hot. Who did he think he was, insinuating that she couldn't make it without him? She didn't need his help and was about to tell him so when she thought better of it. She had opened her mouth to speak but the venom she saw in her husband's eyes surprised her. It was the first time she had ever seen that look coming from him. So, instead, she stopped and let him leave. She thought it would do them both some good to calm down. She knew that with the help of Sheila and Felicia, she would get her national show sooner rather than later. Hank would see that it was worth it.

Cat was gone a lot more and was worn out most of the time. Her schedule was crazy busy, either filming shows in her barn studio, meeting with existing or new sponsors, or traveling to New York to chat with network executives. Hank barely saw her.

When he tried to ask her if things would slow down anytime soon, she could only promise that things would get better. She said, "Once I get to the top of the mountain, then it will be all downhill. I'm almost to the top, Sweetie. Just bear with me a little longer."

He would try.

With her gone so much, it no longer bothered him if he needed to travel. On the few nights when she was home, she complained that he wasn't there for her. Her self-centeredness was getting worse.

Eight weeks ago, which was almost nine months after the confrontation that birthed their big blowup, Hank still didn't have his apology, and their relationship hadn't improved. They did their best to try to avoid the elephant in the room, but it never really went away.

In Hank's mind, they no longer had a real marriage. She couldn't be brought to care about what was going on nor did she seem to care how what she did was also impacting Hank and their family's lives. Their kids were missing her, too. She and Hank no longer talked about their work. They barely talked about their children. While the kids tried to stay caught up with their mother, they knew that if they really needed anything important, it was their father that would actually help them.

So, Hank would try one final time to get Cat to come around. He didn't hold out much hope. He made plans to travel to their plant in Hendersonville, North Carolina, near Asheville, for a week and then to Australia and Singapore for three weeks on business so that he would be gone well in advance of her leaving to start filming in Spain. If she changed her attitude and offered him an apology, he could still cancel his plans and go with her, but he expected he would still be going to Asia.

It was a Sunday morning after the two of them had attended a Pirates game the night before in a luxury suite hosted by one of her sponsors that he confronted her.

He said, "Cat, I need to talk to you for a few minutes. It's important."

She sipped her coffee and raised her eyebrows like she expected him to continue while she looked at her phone.

"Can you put the phone down, please?"

She sighed and said sarcastically, "I'm all yours."

He said, "I'm not going with you to Spain."

THAT had her attention. "What! Why not? Can you not get off for all four weeks? You have plenty of vacation. Why can't you get away?"

"It isn't the vacation, nor the work. I simply don't want to go."

"I'm repeating myself, but why not?"

"I never got the apology from you for what happened last year, and I won't be made to look like a fool a second time."

She huffed out, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. We talked about that. It was nothing."

"It was something to me. Even Robert, you know, the CEO, asked me a few months ago if I was going this year. He advised me that if I decided to go, I should ensure that the episodes didn't portray an executive at the company in such a poor light."

"No way! Don't tell me that he doesn't understand reality TV either." She was shaking her head. "What is it with you people? Besides, why does it matter if other people don't understand that it isn't real? It doesn't impact your job."

It was his turn to shake his head. "Do you have any idea what I do, Cat? Do you understand the scope of what I'm responsible for? Ever heard of SOX or Sarbanes-Oxley? That means that I, the CFO, and Robert, the CEO have to PERSONALLY sign off on our company's financial statements. We can be put in jail for filing fraudulent or even erroneous statements. So you can imagine that neither he nor our shareholders like seeing the man responsible for the financial management of our company being portrayed as a fool on your show.

"You may not have meant to, but you hurt me personally and professionally. I won't allow that to happen again. I have to protect myself, even if my wife won't."

She replied, "I can't believe this. You are supposed to be part of the cast. How are we going to replace you on such short notice?"

"I'm sure you'll manage. This is why I'm giving you a month's heads up and not springing it on you at the last minute like you sprung those episodes on me last year."

She was finally beginning to see that he really was hurt. She would have to think about that. Still, he was taking a chance on hurting her show. How could he do that?

"I can't believe it. All these years we worked on my shows together, and you're just walking away?"

"That isn't all, Cat." He pulled an envelope from his messenger bag which he had in the living room where he worked some the previous night when he couldn't sleep. "In this envelope are copies of some papers that my lawyer is holding for me. In Pennsylvania, unless both parties want the divorce, we have to be separated for twelve months before I can file papers for a contested divorce. Our separation date starts today.

"If we aren't working to fix our problems by the time we hit twelve months, I'm going to file. If you don't want to wait that long and we can agree to a consensual divorce, then we can file sooner. You should have an attorney look at these for you. They are very fair and don't touch your business at all."

"Are you shitting me? After twenty-six years, you're just going to walk out and not try to fix our marriage?"

"No. I want to fix our marriage. I've been trying to get you to engage with me for the last ten months for you to realize that it needs fixing. You still don't seem to think anything is wrong. Honestly, Cat, I think we just want different things out of our life going forward."

"That's not true. I want you and I to keep working together on our marriage AND my career. How are we going to work on those if you don't come with me to Spain?"

"How will there be anything left if you allow Sheila and Felicia to make a fool of me, again."

He could see her jaw tensing over that statement. He guessed she would never see his reality, only her own.

He continued, "We aren't a couple anymore. We're barely friends with benefits. What was a joint effort on our part has become your solo act. I don't begrudge you for that, because it is your career, not mine. I don't expect you to provide daily guidance on my job either. No, it's that our entire lives are consumed by your career. The publicity, the social media, now with a lot more travel. How many nights have we even been in the same house together in the last six months?

"We rarely talk and when we do, you're usually distracted because someone or something is demanding more of your time. Like now you are just itching to pick up your phone rather than talking to me."

She said, "You could quit your job and come with me. We could work together all the time. I make as much as you make now. When I get my national show, we won't need your salary. Even if I don't get my own show, we'll still be fine, especially when you start cashing in all of your options in a few years. We're socking away money at an incredible pace, and we could both retire in a few years if we wanted to."

"Except we both know that you don't or won't want to."

"Honey, I'm in demand right now. I don't expect it to last forever, so I'm trying to maximize what I can while my face and body are still decent. I'd love for us to do this together."

"Cat, up until the last year, we have been doing this together. You've had your entire family, all your friends, plus Tina and Scott supporting you. But somewhere in the last twelve to eighteen months, something has changed. I suspect it is Sheila and Felicia, but maybe it's you. I loved working with you while you built your cachet around here. I support you trying to go national, but I cannot get behind how it's being done.

"I'm leaving in a few minutes to go to North Carolina for a week at our factory there. Then I'm going to Australia and Singapore for three weeks. Then you are going to be in Spain for four. That will give us two months apart. I hope you'll miss me while I'm gone, and when you get back, we can work on trying to get our marriage back on track."

Defiantly she asked, "What if I discover that while we are apart, I no longer need you? Don't you think you are taking a chance that is what will happen?"

"Actually, I'm fairly confident that you already feel that way. I was hoping that this conversation and those papers will convince you that I'm serious about this and want us to find our way back. I love you and want us to be together, but it has to be as equal partners on a team. We aren't even close to that right now. Oh, and one more thing, we are still married. You don't have permission to cheat on me while we are trying to work things out. If I find out that you have, then we are officially through."

That got her riled up. "I have never, ever cheated on you, and I've had plenty of opportunities."

"Should I congratulate you for doing the right thing? Or are you saying that it will eventually happen?"

"Oooooooh! You can be so frustrating sometimes. No. I don't want to cheat on you, but you have been making me so angry. Why can't you be a little more accommodating with my career?"

He just looked at her while thinking of the last thirteen years working together. How obtuse could she be?

Shaking his head, Hank stood from the table and walked to the guest bedroom. He had no problem packing everything he needed over the last several days because she was gone from the house so much, that she never noticed the two bags packed and in the guest closet.

She followed him and watched him get ready to leave. It only took a few minutes. As he prepared to walk out the door the last time, she said, "I do love you, Henry."

"I love you too, Catalina. I really want us to fix our marriage."

As he drove away, he said to himself, "I just wish you loved me a little more than your career."

As she watched him drive away, she knew he would be back. She wasn't really worried about the divorce papers. He'd never leave her. She was even more stunned that he was planning on not going to Spain, but she was certain he would be waiting for her when she returned. In the next second, she was thinking about how she was going to structure the shoot without him as part of the cast.

________

Back in the present.

Now, after speaking with Scott and Tina, and not having heard from her in four weeks, he assumed that when she came home, they would decide to go their separate ways. Or not. Hell, he didn't know. He would probably try one more time to convince her that they should fix their marriage. That is unless she does something really stupid. Then again, maybe he was the stupid one. He didn't think so, but he could be wrong.

He hated the waiting. After over two and a half decades, she deserved a couple of more weeks until she left Spain. He felt terrible for not wanting to think about his wife and their marriage. Then when he did think about it, he felt nothing but anguish. At that moment he understood how people could lose themselves in a bottle.

He was glad that he had chosen to lose himself in several miles of running.

When he got home, he checked Cat's social media accounts for the first time in a while. There were pictures of her on set, with Sheila, shopping at various stores and markets, a few pictures with tourist sites in the background, one of her and Marelys, and then came the clubs.

Those pictures angered him. Her dress was showing too much of her overabundance of cleavage and was definitely too short. It was the kind of dress someone in their twenties would wear, not someone that was in their late forties. Oh sure, she could pull it off and looked damn good doing it. But she was married and was wearing that dress while being surrounded by half the FC Barcelona soccer team.

Her caption said, "My mom, who lives nearby, will be so jealous."

He was sorely tempted to forward it to Marelys and ask, "Jealous yet?"

But he didn't want Cat to know he was checking up on her. He also didn't think it Marelys' responsibility to save their marriage. He was fairly certain that Cat no longer wanted it saved.

But he wanted it saved, dammit. At least he would be able to look in the mirror every day and say that he tried...even if she didn't.

So, he typed "Jealous yet?" and hit 'send,' and wondered if he would get a reply.

The next morning, he saw Marelys' reply. It said, "Not jealous. Furious. She and I are not happy with each other."

_____________

Chapter 3

Hank drove to Morgan and Bill's place for breakfast, and it was special. Julia and Morgan had gone all out preparing a big spread for everyone. Hank knew how nice it was to be married to someone who didn't mind putting forth effort in the kitchen. He thanked her and Morgan profusely for their efforts.

Morgan made them some sandwiches and had some chips and granola for them to take with them. Hank put them in his backpack that would carry all their things for their short hike. They loaded the girls in his SUV and drove to the parking area for the Black Balsam Knob hike, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway southwest of Asheville.

At 1.5 miles roundtrip, it is a very short hike, but with Bella being only eight years old, he didn't want something that was so taxing that she lost interest. It is a wonderful hike once past the initial stand of large fir trees and opens into a long, open path through a meadow along a ridgeline towards the 'bald' summit. At 6,200 feet the rise was only three hundred feet in elevation during the hike.

Currently, in the height of summer, the path was surrounded by wildflowers, wild blueberries, and blackberries. Mixed among the craggy rocks were bunches of blooming rhododendron and mountain laurel. The honeybees and bumblebees were merrily working their way from flower to flower.

Whereas many other hikes in the smokies could be quite strenuous, this was merely a spirited stroll along one of the most beautiful paths in the mountains. At the rocky summit, they could see for miles and miles as they sat on the rocky top and ate their sandwiches and snacks.

On the way up, the girls stopped frequently inspecting every little thing, stretching out the length of time it took to arrive at the top. They took many pictures along the way, including all the ladies together on top. On the way down, they were very content at a relaxed pace, with fewer stops. Many people they met coming up the path smiled at them and said 'hello.' And why not? The four of them looked like a normal family. Julia noticed that too.

Julia's breath was almost taken away when she saw Bella reach over and take Hank's hand for a portion of the way down. It nearly brought tears to her eyes, but it also made her realize that while she appreciated what Hank had done for her girls, she might need to put some limits on things for now if he wasn't going to be around for much longer. Still, for just a moment, she caught herself wishing that he wasn't married.

The girls were happily chattering away on the drive back. Even though they hadn't exerted themselves very much, Hank had expected them to sleep in the back seat. They didn't. Julia was quiet though, having to be brought into the conversation rather than initiating discussion herself.

They arrived back at Morgan and Bill's mid-afternoon, and Julia told him to be there at 6 o'clock. While Hank wasn't certain what to make of Julia's behavior, he could tell that the girls had an enjoyable time. At least there was that.

Later that afternoon, Hank returned with a cooler full of beer and a couple of bottles of chilled wine. He even brought a decent bottle of Macallan single malt scotch to share amongst anyone that wanted a sample. When he arrived, there were over a dozen cars parked along the long driveway leading to the house. He could see kids running around and adults standing around talking. A few wafts of smoke could be seen floating from the backyard.

Bill saw him and waved for him to come back. He was introduced to a bunch of their friends and neighbors. One of the women even worked at the same factory where Hank had been working. He was eventually introduced to Bill and Morgan's kids and spouses who drove up for the occasion. Bill's grandkids were running around with Amber and Bella. Overall, he was made to feel quite welcome. When Bella and Amber stopped mid-run to give him a hug, everyone within eyesight noticed.

Eventually, it was announced that dinner was served with a big spread of food from fried catfish, crappie, and shrimp to baked pecan encrusted catfish. Several different salads and slaws were prepared along with a succotash made of lima beans from Bill's garden, served beside the heirloom tomatoes that he grew. There were plenty of other sides including hush puppies & jalapeño cornbread. There was another table nearby packed with desserts.

Hank was always with Bill or Morgan sharing a chat about Pittsburgh or what was going on in the Asheville area. When dinner and dessert were finished, Hank went inside to help wash dishes, which was a normal thing for him. If someone is gracious enough to cook, then the least he could do was to help clean up. Morgan let him help for about fifteen minutes before she had Bill pull him back outside. Bill said, "You're going to make the rest of us guys look bad." He was only half-joking.

As the sun dropped down low in the sky, some of the adults were watching the Atlanta Braves game inside, some were out back pitching horseshoes, but most were just chatting. The kids were still running around, and Bill had Hank engaged in a conversation with a few of his neighbors.

Julia approached holding three beers and proceeded to bump her hip into Hank's, then she handed Bill and Hank a beer and asked Hank if he would join her for a moment. She had a couple of lawn chairs sitting underneath an oak tree where they could watch the backyard without being mixed into all the activities.

After they had been seated for a moment, Hank said, "Thank you for the beer and cooking. I don't know how much you cooked, but everything I ate was very good."

"Thank you. I had a lot of help and truly it was Aunt Morgan that planned and did most everything. I only cooked three things."

Hank chuckled at that. "Only three things. Ha. But I've seen it done before, so I have some idea how you do it."

She said, "I wanted to thank you for this afternoon. As much as I enjoyed the hike, what I think I enjoyed the most was seeing how relaxed and happy Amber and Bella were. They are happy. This is the best summer they've had in a long, long time."

"I'm glad. They're great girls."

She girded herself for the next part of the conversation. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure."

"Why such an interest in the girls? I know you're not a stalker nor a child molester. It was pretty easy to check up on who you are. Which surprised the hell out of me! You look a lot different without the goatee you had on your wife's show."