Katherine sat back down on the bed watching as Joe continued to pack. Her mind was whirling but she was almost dumbstruck, incapable of more than a few monosyllabic responses. When she'd spotted Joe's car parked alongside the grass verge anger had coursed through her veins. She'd pounded up the stairs ready for the fight of her life, Danielle's words spurring her on. Then she'd found Joe, clearly packing his bags, and she'd been blindsided. She didn't know what she had expected but it wasn't that, especially after he'd emptied their savings account.

She watched as he zipped his gym bag up and a sudden surge of energy broke through her lethargy. There was so much more she wanted to say, wanted to know, and this would possibly be the last chance she'd ever have to talk to him.

'Why don't you take one of the suitcases?' she suggested standing up and opening the built-in wardrobe where all their rarely used belongings were kept. 'You've got far more stuff than that, you might as well take it now.'

'I don't really have anywhere to keep it at the moment.'

'Leave it in the trunk of your car,' she said and he hesitated. 'I don't want it here.' That did it, he immediately relented and she placed the case on the bed, throwing it open.

'Joe, what's brought all this on?' she asked as he began to empty the drawers, packing with more speed now.

He looked at her blankly. 'Are you talking about Shannon?'

She shook her head. 'No, I was thinking...about the rent. Why have you paid it all, I mean in one go?'

'It had to be paid,' Joe said dismissively.

'But if you'd decided to leave, you didn't have to pay it. Or all of it?' She bit her lip, warning herself to tread carefully, she didn't want to make an impulsive offer to contribute towards it. At least not until she knew where she stood financially, who knew how much her expenses might be when she'd found another place to live?

'We signed a contract, we couldn't leave without paying the remaining rent,' Joe said with a shrug. 'It's not worth the aggravation.'

She nodded wondering why she'd ever thought differently. He had the means to pay, why wouldn't he? She hadn't wronged him, she was the injured party. She needed to pay a bit less attention to Danielle, she was jaded by her own bad experiences.

'So do you think you might stay on here?' Joe asked startling her by actually initiating the conversation. 'You could have a friend move in or something.'

'I wasn't intending to,' she said mulling over his words. It wasn't something she'd considered but maybe it was a possibility? She'd have to sit down and do some number crunching.

'You always liked this house, more than I ever did,' Joe said.

Katherine frowned looking at him. 'Since when didn't you like it?' This was news to her, it had been a joint decision to move in. If she remembered rightly Joe's only stipulation was that they didn't move into one of his dad's properties, whatever the inducement.

'It's overpriced for this neighbourhood, and it was a bit big for what we needed,' Joe said glancing around him.

'I guess,' Kat admitted although at the time she'd wanted a guest room imagining her parents might visit, and if they'd started a family the extra space would have come in useful. Her eyes flitted to her left hand which felt naked without her engagement ring, she had a hell of a lot of adjustments to make. If only her brain could be reprogrammed.

Joe began to fold up the last of his clothes and Kat knew her time was running out. 'Can I ask you something?' she said, and he turned around his face wary. 'I looked at our savings account yesterday...it was empty.' Her face heated up. 'Why did you take all the money?' He looked momentarily baffled and she crossed her fingers hoping that he wouldn't realise what she had been contemplating doing.

'I used it to pay for remaining wedding expenses,' Joe said his eyes darting away from her. 'That's all.'

She frowned. 'I didn't think we had anything left to pay. We'd postponed everything.' She let out a rueful laugh. 'I suppose it will all have to be formally cancelled now.'

'My mom lost all her deposits,' Joe said his voice strained. 'Adam insisted I pay her back.'

'Oh!' Katherine's mouth dropped open, she was utterly stunned. 'But she said it was a gift! How could she say that and then demand her money back? I would never have accepted if I'd known that.'

'It doesn't matter,' Joe said not looking at her. 'It was more down to Adam, you know what he's like.'

'But she made the offer so it is down to her,' Katherine snapped. Margaret had practically begged them to accept her offer to pay for most of the wedding. Oh, she'd known there were strings attached, Joe's mom was buying control, but this was outrageous. 

Well, she knew one thing for certain; she wouldn't be broken-hearted to have Joe's family out of her life.

'Do you need me to pay her back for anything?' she asked trying to keep her anger under control. 'She paid for Eva and Danielle's dresses.'

She fumed thinking that was another thing Margaret had insisted on. She remembered how she'd joked with her that Danielle and Eva were squabbling over dresses, what one liked the other hated. She'd laughed saying that if they didn't stop fighting she'd put them both in pink taffeta! Margaret had gently suggested that if she was going to have the final say on what they wore then she really ought to pay for it. When she'd hesitated, Margaret had jumped in assuring her she'd cover the cost and Kat had gratefully accepted.

'It's done now,' Joe said interrupting her thoughts. 'Forget about it.'

'Well I'll get Dani and Eva to give me their dresses back,' she huffed. 'I'll eBay them and give your mom the money.'

'Don't,' Joe said with a slight smile. 'She'll end up making a profit if you do.'

Kat smiled in spite of herself, they were talking almost like they used to. 'So what happens now?' she asked, her heart sinking again.

'Well, I've given my notice on the house,' Joe said and Kat could imagine him mentally ticking things off on a list. 'If you do as well I'll ask Donnie if he can whitewash the walls and return them to neutral.' Katherine pulled a face, she'd always known he hadn't liked her colour scheme. 'And we'll have to close the joint account, or I'll take my name off if you want to keep it. I suppose we can decide what to do with the furniture once we both know where we're living.'

Kat shook her head. 'No I meant about you and me. What happens with us?'

Joe looked away, quickly zipping the suitcase as if getting ready to make a run for it. 'I guess we'll stay friends, if you want to?'

She felt a sharp stab of pain. Friends. She'd planned for a lifetime together and now had to settle for his weak offer of friendship? 'Yeah, we'll stay friends,' she said smiling tightly. 'I might even wish you a happy birthday on Facebook if you're lucky.'

He smiled back looking relieved. 'I don't want things to get nasty between us.'

She clenched her jaw, biting down the retort that was on the tip of her tongue. 'So, our summer vacation, it's only two months away. Are you going to cancel it?'

'I hadn't even thought about it,' he said after a moment's pause. 'But yeah, I'll cancel.'

'You could take Shannon?' 

He flinched. 'No I couldn't, it was supposed to be our honeymoon.'

She closed her eyes trying to push aside images of palm trees on Caribbean beaches. 'Go with the guys, have some fun.'

'I'll probably be working,' he said awkwardly as he picked the small case up, and threw his gym bag over his shoulder. 'I'd best get going.'

Katherine took a step towards him. 'Wait.' Joe halted in the doorway, then slowly turned. 'I hope she's worth it. Shannon. I hope she's worth ending our relationship for.'

Joe looked at a point past her head. 'Even if she isn't, if we'd have got married we'd have been selling ourselves short. This is for the best.'

Kat scoffed. 'The best for you. Don't kid yourself that I secretly wanted this, I never did.' She took a deep breath gathering her strength. 'But you're not the man I thought you were.'

'No, I'm not.'

She frowned, perturbed that he'd so readily agreed. He really would say anything to make a quick exit from her life. 'So I guess this is goodbye?'

'I guess,' Joe said hesitating in the doorway.

She cocked her head to one side. 'Aren't you going to kiss me goodbye?'

Joe looked at her nervously before taking a step forward. She folded her arms across her chest, stepping back, grim-faced. She couldn't remember the last time he'd touched her but she wasn't going to let him now. 'I'll see you around,' she said tersely.

Joe nodded stepping out of the bedroom. 'You will, I'll be in touch.'  

With a heavy heart, Katherine went to the window to watch him leave. He sauntered to his car, opening the trunk and throwing his bags inside. He glanced back at the house and gave her the briefest of waves before opening the car door. She watched, waiting for him to leave but the car remained immobile.

Was he having second thoughts? 

She held her breath until the car slowly began to move crushing her last-minute hopes. As she raised her hand to wave she glimpsed someone sat in the passenger seat. She squinted but the car had passed before she had a clear view. A flash of blonde hair caught her eye, and her temper flared.

Surely Joe hadn't brought Shannon to their home with him?

                                                        ~~~

Thank you for reading. The update took a bit longer to finish than I anticipated thanks to Christmas interfering with my writing time ;)