Becoming

Fear Is The Key

The kids flew back to North America a few days later, with Nicholas McBrain acting as the chaperone and responsible adult for Tasha and the Smith trio as well as his half-brother Justin as far as New York City. The Carlsons and the Dufresnes would pick up their respective grandchildren at the airport, as Tamar and Nathalie had arranged when planning for their overseas trip, to escort them home after a few days of sightseeing in the city. Meanwhile, Nicholas and Justin would simply transfer to a Florida-bound flight to return home together.

With the kids gone, Dave and Ade arranged for a private dinner with Tamar and Nathalie, deciding that they wanted each other's presence as moral support when initially bringing up the topic of divorce. Nathalie, the quicker of the two at reading the room thanks to her current job with a cancer awareness group, looked squarely at the two men once their meals arrived and the server left again.

"Let me guess, since Steve's accepted Bruce and Emppu as a couple, you two want to come out?" she asked.

"Well, yeah," Dave admitted. "I mean, I just turned 50, Ade's about to turn 50. I can't say we've never thought about splitting up before now, but we thought it would be better to stay whilst the kids were young. But they're not young anymore, are they? Our girls will turn 16 in May, after all."

Nathalie smiled. "Honestly, Donna and I were talking about this recently ourselves. We'd decided that if you two hadn't brought up the possibility by the time the girls turned 18, we'd do it ourselves."

"So you're both okay with it?" Ade asked quietly. "I mean, yeah, I know we said it all those years ago, that we'd marry to have the kids and then divorce later, but as Dave and I agreed, what sounded easily done in theory turned out a bit different in reality once we did have those kids to raise."

"I am, yes," Nathalie said.

"So am I," Tamar said. She gave Dave a smile, adding, "You've been an amazing husband to me over the years, considering that I only wanted to get married because I was pregnant, and you only wanted to get married to have kids. But we both know we've never been more than close friends and I'd never try to keep you from Ade. If this is what you both want, then I say we do our research and get it done as quickly and easily as possible."

"Thank you," Ade said. "Thank you both."

Dave asked, "Do you know what we'll need to do? I mean, I know we had that pre-nup and I'm pretty sure Ade and Nathalie had one as well. But do we work out the division of mutual property ourselves or do we let our solicitors deal with that or what?"

The two women exchanged a glance, then Nathalie said, "Well, I expect it'll be a bit different for each of us, just from us living in Canada whilst you're in the States. But we can start figuring out what we'll need to do once we go home, when you're in Japan. I know you've a break after that, before you head to South America, then you have another break before you start the US tour, right?"

"Yeah," Ade said. "How do we tell the kids?"

"Well, as much as I know you'll hate this, I'd like you to tell them in person," Nathalie said, with Tamar nodding her agreement. "I'm going to assume we'll keep primary custody, so as not to disrupt their schooling and all that, so you'll need to reassure them that you don't love them any less just because we're divorcing – and that you'll still spend as much time as you can with them, around your tour schedules and the like."

"Tasha's spring break happens just about when we'd be on break between South America and the US," Dave said thoughtfully. "Maybe I can take her on a trip, give her something good to think about and make her happy despite the bad news I'll be delivering."

"Mine have their hols scheduled at the same time as Tasha does," Ade put in. "How about we go straight to California rather than go home on break, and have the kids fly in to meet us there and we'll take them to Disneyland. You know they'll enjoy that."