It was so fucking unfair to be pushed out of his sport for a past that he cleaned up, so I came up with the idea of The Jock Report, a social media website run by the athletes where they have their own voice, can tell their own stories, and can interact with fans. It’s been a billion-dollar idea, and with the help of my brainiac brother and investment from Cane Enterprises, we’ve been able to shoot up to the top-selling app in the world. Together, Penn, Banner, and I moved to Los Angeles, where we opened an office and now manage over fifty employees. This all happened within a few months. Yeah, that fucking fast.
Turning to Banner, I say, “You invited him?”
“I thought it was a business meeting,” Banner says while cringing.
Penn pulls out a chair, then spins it around so he’s sitting on it backward. “What’s going on?”
Sighing heavily, I say, “Please don’t make a big fucking deal about this . . .”
“Why not?” Banner asks. “It’s a huge fucking deal.”
“What’s a big deal?” Penn looks back and forth between us.
Pushing my hair, I say, “Myla asked for a divorce last night.”
Penn’s brow creases. “No, she fucking didn’t.”
“Yes, she did,” I reply before lifting my coffee to my lips. “She had papers drawn up and everything.”
“Why the hell does she want a divorce?”
Banner pipes up, “She’s not happy.”
“Well, yeah, I could have told you that. She hasn’t been herself for a while. That quick wit of hers has faded, but I just assumed she was going through something. A divorce? Has she talked to you about it at all?”
“No,” I answer while setting my coffee back down. “This came out of nowhere. She was acting weird last night, very cold, and I called her out on it when we got home. That’s when she laid into me.” I scrub my hand over my face. “Fuck, I don’t know how to handle this with all the other shit right now. The business taking off at a rapid rate, the move . . . JP’s goddamn wedding, which is now in three weeks. I don’t know what to fucking do.” I can’t lose her, but is it right to hold her back from happiness if she’s so unhappy with me? “I mean . . . do I sign?”
“Do you want to sign?” Banner asks.
“No, but . . . I don’t want to force her to be with me either. Especially if she’s not happy.”
“So you’re just going to give up?” Penn asks. “Dude, we’re talking about Myla here.”
Yeah . . . Myla . . .
The girl who captured me the moment she commented on my Instagram post.
The girl with the most unique sense of humor.
The girl who has made me feel whole, as if before I met her I was missing something in my life. She came along and changed everything.
“I don’t know what to do. She’s shut down. I could see it in her eyes last night. She had the same look when her dad passed away and she broke up with me. She’s not open to solving problems. She just wants out, an escape.”
Banner pulls on his hair. “How did you win her back after she broke up with you? I can’t remember how that all went down.”
“She had to attend a meeting with her mom and dad’s lawyer alone, so she asked me to pretend we were still together until after,” I answer. “But I made a last-ditch effort to show her that she didn’t need to lose me just because she lost her dad. She kissed me in the car after the meeting, and I knew we’d be okay.”
“And you think this situation is similar?” Banner asks.
“Slightly, but this time, I truly don’t understand where this is coming from. I don’t know what triggered this or caused this line of thinking, so I don’t feel optimistic about fixing it.”
“Well, you gotta try, man,” Penn says. “This is your forever girl.” He pauses as if an idea has struck him. “You know, JP’s wedding is in three weeks. Why don’t you treat that event like what happened with the reading of the will?”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
He shifts on his chair and says, “Tell her you will give her the divorce—”
“But I don’t want a divorce.”
“I understand that. But she’s going to be angry with you if you don’t go along with what she wants, which will put her on the defensive. So maybe if you tell her you’re going to grant her wishes, she’ll be more receptive to your idea.”
“And what exactly is my idea?” I ask.
“Tell her you will give her what she wants, but in exchange, she needs to pretend to be with you for JP’s wedding because you don’t want to stir up drama for your friend before they get married. I’m sure she’ll say yes, so then that buys you some time. You can be there for her and hopefully get to the root of the problem while she ‘pretends’ to help you by staying married.”
“Hey, that’s a pretty good idea,” Banner says, perking up. “Shit, you should be glad I invited him.”
I hate to admit it, but Banner is right. It’s not that bad of an idea.
I scratch the side of my face. “But that’s three weeks. I don’t think she’ll buy it.”
“That’s why you need to act like you’re giving her what she wants,” Penn says. “Don’t pressure her, don’t try to win her back, but rather . . . observe. Learn. Figure out how you can fix this.”
“Yes,” Banner adds while lightly knocking the table. “She lowers her defenses when she doesn’t feel threatened. If she believes you’re giving her what she wants, if you’re indifferent to the whole thing, then hopefully, she’ll relax and open up a bit more. You know that’s how she works, man. Think about her past. She’s scarred from people leaving her life constantly—from her parents’ marriage, and from being bullied most of her childhood. She doesn’t process her feelings normally, so if you back off and let her believe you’re giving her what she wants, then maybe she’ll concede something, and you’ll get to the root of the problem.”
I think it over and know Banner is right. Her troubled past has bitten me in the ass several times throughout our life together. I’ve been more than happy to work through it with her, but I’ve only been able to navigate through it once I get her to open up. This is no exception, though the stakes are much higher. I can’t lose Myla. I love her. She’s my whole world.
“So what does this have to do with the wedding?” I ask.
Penn places his phone on the table and pulls up his drawing app. He makes a line across the screen and then puts an X at the end. “This is the wedding week.” He makes a slash on the other end. “This is you, now.” He makes two marks between. “This is the time you get her to think you don’t care anymore. She wants a divorce, fine, here’s the divorce.” He circles the X. “And this is the time when you ‘fake’ being a happy couple still. This is when you make your move. This is when you show her how good you are together, how much you appreciate her. This is when you woo her and take all the things you observed over the past two weeks and lay it down.” Banner slow claps.
“This is brilliant.” No. It’s horrible. Why the hell would I try to convince my wife that I don’t love her anymore? Wouldn’t that be the final nail in the coffin that is our marriage? And hurt Myla even more than I have done?