Oh, no, I know exactly where this is going. I place my coffee cup down and wait for him to start on his presentation.
He smiles at me and hands me one. I open it and, as expected, it is the exact same one from a few months ago that he wanted to me sign, giving me half of everything he owns, only now the balance has gone up.
“We are married now,” he says at my silence. “You will sign this.”
“CK,” I start, but he holds his hand up.
“No, Aefre. There will be no arguments this time. No wife of mine sits around in squalor,” he says imperiously.
I let out a loud guffaw and Cole joins in as we both look back at the extensive, sprawling manor behind us.
Squalor, indeed!
After my hysterics, which CK takes with amused grace, I sigh and hold my hand out for the pen. He can sign it all over, but I won’t be dipping into his funds. I have no need to. He knows me too well though and holds up my purse.
“I have taken the liberty of changing all of your cards to my accounts,” he says with a pointed look.
I huff at him and his overbearingness but accept it because to fight him would be pointless, but I make a note to tell Jess to tell the banks to re-issue my cards to me at their earliest convenience.
“Now sign,” he commands me. I take the pen and am about to scrawl “Liv O’Dell” across the dotted line, but stop suddenly, the pen hovering over the paper.
“What is it?” Cole asks, taking this scenario in with interest.
“Uh…” I chew my lip, not sure where to start.
They both look at me expectantly, so I blurt out with a flush, “I don’t know what to call myself!”
They both look startled, but then CK chuckles at me. “Indeed,” he says. “This does raise the question.”
One he clearly has an answer for as he slides another blue folder across the table at me. I peek in it and find it is the “Terms & Conditions” for our marriage, only this is an amended version, for our current situation. How in Hell he manages to get things done so quickly is, and always will be, a complete mystery to me.
I read the first line and it still says I shall revert officially to Aefre, but with the double-barreled surname of Aquila-O’Dell. Somehow, I knew he’d get his own name in there first.
I hand it off to Cole and say to CK, “It’s official? You changed it?”
“Yes, when we discussed what our name would be,” he says.
Cole takes the file gingerly from me, almost as if he doesn’t want to read it and glances quickly at it. His eyebrows skyrocket as he reads the title of the document and then he frowns as he reads on.
“Why do you get yours in first?” he asks. “She married me first. My name should be first.”
Not an unreasonable request, but of course CK has an answer for everything.
“It’s alphabetical. It means nothing,” he says and dismisses it with a wave of his hand.
“Humph,” Cole says rudely. “Liv?” he asks me.
“Uh,” I say, again at a loss. To be honest, I very rarely use my last name anymore. Everyone just knows me as Liv, or Aefre, or Your Majesty, or the billion other names I have been given. In fact, once we move on, it will become all but redundant.
“Oh, fine,” Cole throws the file back at me. “Just sign it.”
I smile at him and he throws me a half smile back. He knows the score.
I sign the document and hand it back to CK. He then hands another folder to Cole who looks surprised to be included in these transactions.
“I need you to sign that,” CK says.
Cole opens it and snorts in amusement. “I can assure you; I didn’t suggest this arrangement to get in on your money train,” he says with derision.