“So what are you going to do?” she finally asked.
“I might head north to stay with Mum for a little while. Might give me the opportunity to get the business I wanted to start off the ground.”
“If you go, I’m coming.” That made me stare at her in surprise. “A few reasons, Mark. One, I can live wherever I want as I now work from home full-time. Rarely do they need my presence in the office. Two, this place is a dump. Tried finding other places but there’s a reason this place was so cheap. Three, Dad has obviously moved on with his new family. I don’t blame him for it, we’re now grown up, but I think Mum would certainly appreciate us being closer. I’ve never blamed her for wanting to leave the city. The only reason I didn’t go with her before was because of university.”
“You sure, Amy? I think once we leave, the chances of returning are slim.”
“You’re the only close family I have down here, Mark. You go, I’m going to feel rather lonely,” she whispered.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Okay, when can you leave?”
“I need to give a month’s notice here, but I can leave and not worry about it otherwise. The place can just stay empty. Most of the furnishings aren’t mine so I’ll just need to take whatever is.”
“All I’ve got is what is at Chris’s place. My boss is aware I’m possibly leaving. He just wants that months’ notice.”
“Has she tried calling?” I showed her my phone, the hundreds of messages and plenty of missed calls. “Well, she’s persistent. Why not just block her number?”
“I’m tempted, but that might go against me. Though I’ve already looked into reasons for divorce and lack of communication can be a contributing factor. It might be negatively against me, but I’ll retort by stating I don’t wish to communicate with a cheating spouse.”
“We should call Mum.”
She was delighted to hear from us, of course. Once I explained what Amy and I were thinking and feeling, she nearly insisted that she had plenty of space for her children, and whenever we were ready to head north, she’d make sure everything was ready or us. I think Amy had made up her mind during the call. To be honest, so had I.
I handed in my notice at work on Monday. My boss was sad to see me go after nearly a decade with the company but understood the reasons why I was leaving the city. When I told him I would probably start my own business, he sat me down over the next couple of weeks to go through everything I’d need to have to get a business off the ground. Thankfully, my ute might have had the name of the business on it, but it was my own, so that wasn’t going to be a problem.
As for my sister, she just had to tell her company what was going on, and apparently they were supportive, going so far as to suggest if they needed her at the office in the city, they’d fly her down on the company dollar. But with so much now online, all she needed to ensure was that the internet was good enough.
Chris and Cathy enjoyed my company for that last month. Slowly but surely, I put what happened out of my mind. The number of calls and messages from Hayley diminished with each passing day, eventually passing the phone to Cathy after a week so she could read through them. She had no sympathy for her old friend but did suggest it was my silence that was hurting her the most. “Not only were you here husband, but her best friend, confidant…”
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