The Empty Nest Pt. 04

Five minutes later Jacques appeared followed by Rachel. Obviously I was the last person they thought they would see and when I walked up behind Rachel and called her name she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Come to gloat, have you," she snarled after she'd recovered from her fright.

"No, no I just wondered if I could talk to you for a minute." Jacques had stood beside her and placed a protective arm around her shoulders. "Alone." I added.

"You've got one minute," Rachel said before turning to Jacques. "Organize the bags and a taxi please. And get it right this time."

I smiled on the inside. Pointing to the table I'd just left I led her to it. She waved the waitress away when she approached and then looked sternly at me.

"Well, what is it? I've got a plane to catch."

"I just wanted to say goodbye and... I'm sorry for the things I said in France."

"No, you're not." Rachel said brusquely.

"Actually I am. At the time I was very upset, but you know... the children and everything. I didn't ever want it to get that ugly."

"Well it did, and now you've won, so congratulations." She began to stand up.

"Come on Rachel. Can't we just let this go?"

"What do you want from me Jeffrey? Do you want me to say it's alright? You've left me on the rubbish heap but you're riding off into the sunset with your new little tart?" She shouted.

"You and I have very different definitions of a rubbish heap!" I replied getting to my feet as well.

We stared at each other for a moment as the security staff gathered discreetly nearby and other patrons swiveled in their chairs.

"Goodbye, Rachel," I said bitterly, and strode out through the lobby.

In the back of the taxi on the way back to the bar I reached into my pocket and pulled out an envelope. On the front it proudly stated it was supplied courtesy of Pepper's Gallery Hotel. Opening it up I pulled out a cheque made out for Rachel to pay her two and a half million dollars. I stared at it briefly before I began tearing it into tiny pieces and putting them back in the envelope. I'd tried, but her anger had buried my sympathy and beaten my sense of fair play.

As I walked to the table I could see that Charlie and Jackie were onto a second bottle of bubbles. Charlie saw me approach and jumped up to give me a drunken cuddle.

"You okay now?" She whispered into my ear.

"Yes."

"How did it go?"

"Not as well as I hoped but probably as well as I should have expected."

Charlie pushed back and held me at arm's length so she could look at my face.

"What's that mean?"

"Hmmm," I thought for a moment. "Let's just say that little bit of me that might have still had some feelings for my ex-wife died and maybe that's about the best closure I could hope for."

Charlie watched me warily.

"Where's my glass? We're celebrating aren't we?" I said smiling broadly.

The girls squealed loudly and filled the empty glass on the table.

"A toast," I held my glass up. "To the future."