Chapter Five—A Possible Replacement For Juliette

            “Micky, are you in a mood? Can I help you make it better?” Aria pouted as she leaned on the glass top of his desk, knowing she gave him a full view down the top of her blouse. The woman’s loose blouse revealed everything, since she wasn’t wearing a bra. She clearly offered him whatever he wanted. 

He wanted a moment of procrastination. Maybe he could forget it was her lips wrapped around his cock? 

He was also uncomfortable with that. Lately, he’d found he wasn’t interested in other women touching him intimately. Michael would usually brush it off as some weird anomaly. He was uneasy about testing a suspicion he had.

            Either he had lost interest in sex, or only his current wife could satisfy him. That part currently bothered him. What if he found his desired second wife before the five years were over? He pondered his desires too; what if he found his next wife less enticing than Juliette? Was his desire for her stronger now? Or could Aria make him forget? She used to do it for him before this with other women.

“Are there any offers on the table?”

            “You can bet your life there are.”

“Hm… I’m not sure if I’m tempted. How about you try to give me a little encouragement?”

Aria, always seeking adventure, understood Michael’s desires. With a big bright smile on, she excitedly slid to her knees on the plush carpet and crawled under the desk.

                Michael felt her hands at his belt and was instantly regretting this decision. He rarely regretted his decisions, but lately he’d done this several times.

                She was struggling with his zipper when his phone rang. A glance at it revealed it was Leon.

                “Hey Leon. What’s up?” Saying Leon’s name did the trick. Aria’s adore disappeared instantly in a wave of guilt and embarrassment. Michael couldn’t help but smirk at her as she backed away from him and got to her feet. He waved her out of the office. 

                Aria never learned her lesson and used her father and lovers for everything she owned. The woman was shameless, and Michael, along with Leon, used that to their advantage. Even now, without her father and Leon footing the bill, her influencer style career would be nonexistent.

            They talked for a few minutes, or Leon talked mostly for that time. Then he sent a video that he insisted Michael watch. After he started it, Leon claimed Juliette insisted he show it to Michael.

            In the video, Michael saw his condo tastefully decorated in blue and green party decorations for a celebration. Party guests crowded into his condo. He recognized all the guests’ faces. Finally, he saw a three-tier cake frosted in white that read, “Happy 3rd Wedding Anniversary Michael and Juliette” in green icing with blue flowers. Finally, Juliette came into view, holding a suspicious envelope. She looked shattered as she opened it. Leon must have taken the video and ensured he captured a perfect shot of the return address on the envelope. It was from the lawyer he spoke to this morning. 

            Michael’s mind reeled, and he heard nothing she said, or what the guests shouted to her. 

He’d never seen her this lifeless. She removed the papers from the envelope. Juliette showed the first page to the guests and the camera. He assumed it was Leon. They read “Separation and Divorce Agreement.” 

Those papers should have come to him tomorrow morning. He’d not meant them for her to have.

To his horror, she found a pen and signed every spot she needed to. In front of everyone there, he could barely hear her speak, because her voice had no volume. She sounded hollow, and as dead as she looked. 

He remembered trying to explain how wrong this was, that it shouldn’t be happening, and it wasn’t his intention. Leon ignored it all, while Aria wisely left the conversation early. She’d left his office door open a crack so Leon wouldn’t know she’d been there like a coward. Michael’s negative reaction to being blindsided affected his response to everything thereafter. Aria was aware of this. She took advantage of the opportunity.

Michael tried to assure Leon, he’d fix it with her only for Leon to tell him she took a few things and left the condo. Leon added if he needed to contact her, he’d have to do it through her lawyer.

When did Juliette get a lawyer?

He sat there after his call with Leon ended and he kept replaying the video. No matter what new detail he picked up from the video; he learned nothing new. He didn’t know whether she was happy or sad. What did Juliette mean? ‘He always won and got his way.’ He earned what he got, damn it.

With Aria no longer around, Michael’s mind no longer focused on business, and it firmly planted in his personal and possibly his professional life. They both exploded publicly. He lost his hunger for food and threw the food Aria brought into a trash bin as he left the office for home. 

His personal driver didn’t take long to return him to his condo building. 

              The doorman let him into the building. The concierge stopped him to return a key card and inform him Mrs. Barron had left it at the desk with instructions to give it to him. 

This wasn’t the first time the condo’s staff encountered this situation with other residence of the building, and they knew exactly what it meant for his marriage. His wife had left him.

The elevator took him straight up to the penthouse floor. He let himself into the condo. The condo was brightly lit, revealing signs of the party throughout. No one, including the caterer and their staff, was present. It appeared as if the catering staff stopped what they were doing and walked out. The three-tier cake lay untouched on the dining table. Half-filled drinks appeared randomly scattered on almost every surface, and the silence. The silence in the condo struck him deeply.

“Juliette, where are you?” Michael yelled from where he stood in the condo’s entrance way. She must be drunk somewhere in a bedroom. Michael moved through the condo into their bedroom, expecting to see her lying on the bed. 

She wasn’t there. But the dress she wore in the video lay in a discarded puddle on the floor. Juliette’s shoes were strewn across the room. She’d kicked the shoes off with force if the way they lay were any sign.

The door to their shared walk-in closet lay open. Inside, his side of the closet was perfectly pristine. Her side showed several noticeable empty gaps, but most of her clothes were still there. She would need to return for them. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to stay without him funding it. Which he wouldn’t do.

Upon closer inspection, all the clothes he purchased for her were present. She must have brought whatever she took when she moved in after the wedding.

To convince himself she’d truly left, Michael searched the bathroom. The open door of a small cabinet revealed her limited personal care items were gone. The shelves were bare of the few bottles and pots she used. He allowed her to use only one drawer. It sat open as well and it too lay empty of her personal items. Her nightstand beside the bed was empty as well, but he didn’t notice that until he opened it when he returned to the bedroom. 

Michael tore through the condo’s other rooms and those were completely untouched, as if she knew exactly what she’d take. Juliette had taken nothing with her from the condo that he’d given her.

Juliette could have cleaned him out. Instead, she’d cleaned herself from the condo. She’d even taken the food only she ate. 

The only evidence of her presence was the things he had bought her. It didn’t amount too much. Even her jewellery lay locked up in the closet safe. Juliette effectively scrubbed herself from his life, just like he’d reminded her he wanted it.

            Now it was his turn to sit numbly on the bed, with a sparkly, emerald cocktail dress in his hands.