"My God it's just Wednesday? I still have a week left!" Chelsea says looking at the calendar. She had been meaning to schedule an appointment with the contractors for negotiations to renew the custodial and security contracts.

"Mrs. Chelsea, your husband is on line four." Megan her secretary says into the intercom. For about five years, Chelsea has been the Operations Director for the Local Phone Company and in that time she has had three secretaries, all of which called her Mrs. Chelsea. Rather than being so formal as Mrs. Banks, she would like for them to be comfortable, but not too comfortable, and call her Mrs. Chelsea.

"Hey sweetie." She fakes with him because she knows that he don't want a damn thing and has called three times already.

"Lady what are you doing? I thought I asked you to come by the office at lunch time?" He says.

"Oh yes you did, but I haven't even gone to lunch yet. Why didn't you just say what time you wanted me to come down there?" She asks truly forgetting about him.

"Well, I didn't think that I had to be that specific, I just wanted you to come at around lunch time, it's now" Pausing to check his watch, " 3:18 in the afternoon. Who in the hell eats lunch this time of day?" He asks growing angry with Chelsea for taking their missed lunch meeting lightly.

"Alright, you don't have to get upset. Do you want me to leave work early? I can push some things up and postponed some for tomorrow." She asks thumbing through her calendar.

"I guess, I will see you at home in about an hour and a half. Do you want to meet at our house or at my place?" He asks sarcastically. He knows that she would never step foot into is newly established love nest of an apartment, since he left 2 years and 4 months ago saying that he needed some space. He wasn't sure if he was still in love with her and he needed to live alone for a while, basically some BS is what Chelsea had summed it up to be.

"I will be home, at my house. I will call you when I get in." Chelsea says and hangs up.

"He is something else! ' Do you want to meet at our house' He has lost his mind in addition to this house. When he left he took everything (that belonged to him) and said "This is just temporary, I am just going to make sure that what we have is real and make it stronger, baby." Chelsea nearly fell over laughing at him. He didn't understand that when he left there was no coming back. There was no 'just temporary'. He was gone, been gone for a while, he just didn't know it. So when this whole thing came about, she had even helped him pack.

"I know that this hurts you." He said as she recalls. " Uh-Uh. I will be fine." She said back to him as he stopped to look at her help him move out.

"Megan, I am going to head home early, please switch some of my appointments around. I will be in early tomorrow. Page me and let me know what's going on."

"Sure Mrs. Chelsea, have a good evening." She says smiling until the elevator doors close behind her.

"Afternoon, Ms. Chelsea, you leaving for the day?" James the security guard says smiling like he always does and opens the doors for her.

"I am James. You have a good evening, okay?" Chelsea says and returns the smile. She thanked him for the door and smiled again. James have been hot on her tail every since he noticed that she didn't have her wedding band on.

"Well, Ms. Chelsea don't tell me that you forgot you ring this morning?" He said that rainy morning holding her hand helping her in from the cold rain.

"Oh, no I didn't forget it. I took it off for a reason, and I don't plan on putting it on again. Not that one anyway." She said and he didn't mention it again. From that day on he started asking her out every now and then, nothing disrespectful he's real polite, but persistent. Until finally she took him up on his offer. James took her to the finest restaurant in the city and to a concert on their first date and to anywhere else she wanted to go there afterwards. After a few dates, when he dropped her off, she wanted to invite him in but it was usually late, and she didn't want to give him any false hopes. So she would stop him at the door, kiss him on the cheek, and watch him walk back to the car. She would grin when she thought of her husband, now she laughs out loud.

When she got home she took off her shoes and called Greg from the kitchen. She let the phone ring three times and was about to hang up when a female answered,

"Ye-llow" She says. Chelsea shook her head and asked for Greg.

"Who's this?" She asks with a twist of jealousy.

"It's Chelsea, now we don't have any children, so you must be his new friend. Please be a dear, and fetch him for me? Thanks, I'll hold." She says having some fun with the girl that didn't sound a day over 25.

"Geeeee, your mom is on the phone." She says adding a little more volume to 'mom'. "Do you want her to hold, or are you still getting dressed?" She says more to Chelsea than to Greg.

"No I will get it up here, thanks babe." He says to her into the receiver,

"Yeah, Greg." He says when he hears the young girl hangs up.

"Geeeeee? Well aren't we the 90's man, what do the teeny boppers say? What's up G?" Chelsea says laughing, " I am home if you can make it with in the hour I would be grateful. I don't want to devote my whole evening to this."

"Well if you weren't being so difficult, it wouldn't have to be like this. It may have even been settled." He says talking about the divorce and settlement process.

"I am not so sure about that, I thought that you were the hold up the last couple of times? Didn't you pull back asking if we really wanted to do this? Wasn't it you that said that maybe just maybe, we should give it another try? Oh yeah, but that was when you were in between high schoolers and was looking for the, what do they call it, ' bomb' lay? Well so sorry G, we will finish this before the year is out, and it is already September." She scolds.

"Very funny, Chel! Everything is such a fucking joke to you."

"Now is that how you talk to a lady? Come on Greg, let's not prolong this any longer. Are you coming over to sign these papers to settle this?"

"Yeah, I'll be there. Out." He says and hangs up. "'Out' What the hell is 'Out'?" She asks looking at the receiver and pushes the 'Off' button on her cordless.

She changed and put on some leggings, a long sweater, and her thermal socks with the grips on the feet. She was about to start dinner when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey there Ms. Chelsea, do you have a minute?" James says on the other end.

"James, sure what's going on?" She says smiling and thinks that he is probably smiling that beautiful smile too.

"Hey honey, I was just wondering what's going on for tonight. I was thinking of stopping by and taking you out for a nice evening of dinner and a movie, how does that sound?"

"Oh James I have already started dinner. Why don't you just come by here, have dinner with me, bring a nice bottle of wine, and we spend a quiet evening together?" She asks cutting up the carrots for her beef stew.

"That sounds real good, a lot better than my choice. What time would you like me to come by?"

"What time is it now?" She asks remembering that she took her watch off when she undressed. She made the final arrangements with James for him to come by.

'Knock knock' Chelsea turns and sees Greg at the back door.

"Sorry James I have some business to take care of. So I will see you at around 8:30?

"Sure, sure no problem, I will see you then. " He says and hangs up. She thinks about him for a second as she wipes her hands off and opens the door for Greg.

"What's got you all grinnin'? I thought that I would have scared you by coming to the back door."

"Why would you have scared me? You know that I usually start to cook about this time. That is when I am home, and what do you mean what am I grinnin' about? I have a life too you know." She says as she turns back around to walk out of the kitchen

"Stay out of my food, G!" She yells back. Chelsea can't get over this 'G' thing. It is so so… not mature. Greg is always picking and eating the fixins before dinner is finished.

"I ain't pickin' just go ahead and get the papers, it's A.G."

"A.G.? What have they taught you in your ' How to be hip after 50' class now?"

"So damn funny! Where do you get all this stuff, Funny Divorced Females?"

"Yeah what ever, this is your copy. You can take it home if you like, you don't have to go over it here." She says with her foot in his back so to speak.

"Damn woman, you trying to get rid of me? It ain't like you got a whole lot to do, or go for all that. For real I think that you want me to stay." He says moving closer to her.

"For real I know you need to think again." She says stopping him in his tracks. " I don't know why you seem to think that I am miserable with out you in this big old house. In fact…." She trails off in remembering when James came over a couple of months or so into their ' New Friendship' "I have found use for every room in the house, so if you are done here, I will talk to you once you have given the papers a once or twice over." She says and makes her way to the front door.

"Damn I feel a little rushed, are you expecting company or are you trying to make me believe that you are. You know it's okay if you are here at home night after night pinning over me. I can understand, I am well…" He says.

"You are kidding, right? I mean you can't believe that I would have nothing else to do but… but … think about you? Honey you left and frankly, I have moved on." She says walking away and leaves him standing at the door. On her way back to the kitchen, she stops to check her pager before she finishes dinner.

After an hour or so later, James rang the doorbell. She could see through the glass door that he was dressed to impress. Actually, looking at her on attire, she felt a little underdressed.

"Well hello Mr. Suave. Why so formal?" She asks taking in the debonair vibe he was giving off.

"Well I didn't want to come over here looking shabby." He says looking around as if he was looking for someone.

"Well shabby you're definitely not." She says looking around with him to see what he was looking for.

"Thank you. I brought a Chardonnay, is that okay?" Stepping in now but still looking around, he passes the bottle to Chelsea.

"James? What are you looking for?" She finally asks while closing the door, and placing the chilled bottle of wine on the stand in the foyer.

"Well, honestly, I heard a knock at the door when we were about to hang up and you said that you had some business to handle, so I was wondering if you had finished or if it had run over." He says looking her in the eye for some sort of confirmation or indication that she was finished with what or whom ever that she had to take care of.

"Yes I am done. Greg came by to get the papers, he will call me in a couple of days ranting and raving about this or the other. Are you ready to eat?" She asks changing the subject. Skipping it because she prefers the divorce matters to be her own affairs not the man she is currently dating. She doesn't want him involved, Unlike Greg who flaunts every young thing that gives him the eye in Chelsea's face.

"I'm starved, and it smells good too. Stew?"

"Yep, Beef, with all the trimmings. I've got all kinds of veggies in there to keep you all big and strong." She says rubbing his arms. James is about the same age if not just a couple of years younger and very handsome. He has been with the company that Chelsea has been working with for a long time and is now just there because he doesn't want to be home all his days doing nothing and for Chelsea. When his wife died four years ago, he decided to sell his big house like Chelsea's to get a nice town home. He and Chelsea have been seeing each other for close to a year. The divorce should be final (posing that Greg doesn't contest the settlement again) in about another six months. Chelsea has been giving a lot of thought to selling her own house and getting something smaller. Start fresh, life anew. 'Cause from 26 years of marriage to this? Please, who wouldn't move on?' Chelsea thinks to herself after dinner and snuggled up with James on the loveseat in the TV room. She kisses the top of his head and plays in his thin curls.