The One Where The Lines Get Kinda Blurry

The One With The Plan

Jen had stayed at David's all day on Saturday, knowing that Brad was still busy filming and not wanting to leave the comfort of his arms. They had made love several more times and Jen had opened up to David about just how difficult things had become at home. But by the time darkness was drawing in, she felt she had to pluck up the courage to go, just in case he decided to make an unexpected return again.  She knew she wanted to end her marriage, but she wasn't naive, she also realised there was a lot at stake both personally and professionally and things had to be handled in the right way. Plus she was a good person, and although she absolutely loved and adored David, she didn't want to hurt Brad either.  He hadn't really done anything wrong, except fall for this girl whose heart wasn't truly available.

They had shared a long and emotional goodbye before leaving David's, well aware that he would have to just drop her home and then leave.  There had been tears and hugs and lots of poignant kissing as Jen promised to make herself available to be with him just as soon as she could, and that she would keep in touch as much as possible in the meantime.  David himself would be out of town for a couple of months as he was off to his Chicago theatre for a few weeks and then heading on to New York where he had lined up discussions about several potential directing projects.  But they knew they would at least see each other again at the filming of the second Oprah interview towards the end of April, so that gave them something to look forward to as they dived in for one more long and tear-stained kiss, before David pulled out of his drive and chauffeured her back home.  A home where she felt uncomfortable and oddly unwelcome as she walked through the door and wished she could walk straight back out again.  

Of course, as she predicted, Brad wasn't there, and he didn't come home that night, or the next.  In fact, it was mid-way through Wednesday afternoon when she finally laid eyes on him again.  And in the time between David dropping her back early on Saturday evening and now, the minute Brad had swaggered in acting like nothing was wrong and it was perfectly ok and normal not to be here to support his emotionally drained wife, Jen had done a lot of thinking.  She had formulated a plan and it was a plan she was confident enough in to think she could make it work. She was going to wait until Brad was off in Italy for 6-8 weeks filming Oceans 12 and in his absence, she was going to tell him she planned to file for divorce and move out.  She knew it was a bit cowardly, but she thought it would be the way to hurt him the least and gave her enough time and space to find somewhere else to live in the meantime, because as much as she loved and wanted to be with David, she knew that she could never bring him into a public love triangle like that as the media would be swarming all over him and bad mouthing him and that wasn't fair and it wasn't something she would ever be prepared to put him through, so she would need to be publicly single for a while at least.

Brad had asked her a few surface questions about Friends and the finale, but she could tell his mind was elsewhere as he spoke and that he wasn't really listening to her answers.  She wondered how it had come to this so quickly.  She began thinking back, starting to question when things had changed and how, but she couldn't pinpoint what or when it was.  She just knew that what had once seemed the easy and, if she was honest, glamorous and exciting option, now felt much more difficult and unnatural.  Brad wasn't mean to her, he wasn't unkind or cruel, he just wasn't interested and in many ways that felt worse.  He was sat at the dinner table talking about the movie he was currently shooting and Jen listened and watched at how his face came alive as he discussed in great detail some of the scenes they had shot recently, and some of the funny stories from behind the cameras.  She couldn't remember ever seeing or hearing him so fired up about anything before, and certainly not his relationship with her. She knew in her heart she was making the right choice and that even though she was bound to hurt him, he would be better off without her, free to find whatever or whoever was making him sparkle like he did right now.