Paul fumbled with his keys, trying to find the right one for the lock. He cursed his drunken state as the right key finally slid into the lock. He opened the door in such a panic that he tripped over his feet and stumbled to the end of the hall.

“Genie,” Paul wailed and was greeted by nothing. He forced himself to stand still and listen, and after several seconds the sound of sniffing could clearly be heard from the bedroom. He hurried into the bedroom to find Gina sitting on the bed sobbing into a cushion. Paul felt himself start to panic further and cursed women for being so emotionally fragile. His legs felt like they were about to give way, and so he decided to sit on the bed near her.

“Get off my bed,” Gina snapped.

“Genie I…” Paul flustered as he straightened himself up.

“What? Didn’t mean it? It was an accident?”

“Actually, I was going to say I don’t know what I’ve done.”

“Surely she blew hard enough?”

“What?”

“Freya, you dickhead.”

“Freya? Christ, she jumped me.”

“Oh yeah, really looked like it.”

“Have you not noticed I’m wasted?” Paul huffed, “I couldn’t fight off a puppy.”

“Your pants were round your ankles.”

“I didn’t ask her to do that.”

“They fell down of their own accord, hey?”

“It’s been known to happen.”

“For fuck’s sake, don’t lie to me. I heard you moaning away in the bathroom.”

“The only moaning I did in the bathroom was through injury. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to land on a tiled floor with another person on top of you…”

Gina’s eyes narrowed more. “Get out of my apartment.”

“That sounded so much worse that it should have.”

“I said get out.”

“Genie,” Paul breathed, running his fingers through his hair. Gina averted her attention to the cushion. “Genie, you have to believe me…I never…I wouldn’t…I love you.” Gina held tighter to the cushion until she heard Paul let out a sad sigh and leave the room.

Fenny stepped out of the taxi as Brad paid the driver; she couldn’t see what Paul and Gina would be fighting about, if indeed they were.

“Hold the cab,” Paul announced without focussing his attention on any of them.

“Are you okay?” Fenny asked.

Paul shrugged and brushed her aside as he slipped into the back of the taxi. He looked as miserable as sin, and Fenny got the impression he didn’t want to talk.

“Should I go with him?” Brad asked

“No, but I’m going to find out what’s happened,” Fenny declared and headed off toward Gina’s apartment. Thirty seconds later she was marching toward Gina’s bedroom. When the door flew open, Gina quickly stuffed something into a drawer and looked at Fenny annoyed.

“What is going on?” Fenny demanded.

“It’s none of your business,” Gina huffed. Fenny crossed her arms. “He fucked Freya in the bathroom.”

“What, you caught him?” Fenny gasped, crawling onto the bed.

“Pretty much, he had his pants around his ankles and I heard him groaning away.”

“But you didn’t actually seem them at it?”

“That’s not a bad thing, you know.”

“I know,” Fenny soothed, “but don’t you think you could be overreacting just a…”

“Overreacting? What would you do if you caught Brad playing tonsil tennis with Ritza, pants round his ankles, huh?”

“Point taken,” Fenny shrugged. “What’re you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Gina replied. “Right now, I just want to be alone.”

Fenny nodded and slid off the bed and padded out of the room. Paul and Gina never fought, and she just hoped Gina did nothing rash.

“Well?” Brad asked as Fenny fell onto the bed next to him.

“Gina caught Paul and Freya in a compromising position,” Fenny sighed.

“How compromising?”

“Pants around the ankles.”

“That’s not good,” Brad nodded. “You think Paul…well you know?”

“By his crushed appearance when we arrived, I don’t think so.”

“So, what are we going to do?”

“Tonight? Nothing. Let Gina cool down and hopefully she’ll be sane in the morning and go and make up.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“She will, she always does,” Fenny mused, feeling a bit better about the state of her friends’ relationship.

“That’s true,” Brad agreed. “I should have the tickets arranged by tomorrow.”

“Tickets for what?”

“To go home.”

“Right.”

“Don’t sound so enthusiastic.”

“Sorry,” Fenny cooed as she kicked off her shoes, “I’m really tired.”

“I can’t wait for Ritz to see the house,” Brad continued.

“Right,” Fenny agreed absently as she stripped her clothes off and pulled on her pajamas.

“Gus’ll have a ball in that huge backyard. Maybe I should make him a tree house…what do you think?”

“I think you should learn how to use power tools first,” Fenny yawned, climbing beneath the covers to join Brad.

“Can’t be that hard…”

“Well if you build it, I’ll paint it,” Fenny breathed as she closed her eyes and snuggled into him.

“Really.”

“Oh yeah.”

“See, I knew there was a reason I married you, you’re so understanding and go with all my stupid ideas,” Brad perked. “Hey Fen…Fen.” He was greeted by several soft snores. “Thanks for the enthusiasm.”

Gina looked at her clock. It was 7am and she hadn’t slept a wink. She slid out of bed and padded into the bathroom where she quickly showered. Back in her room she got dressed while hurriedly throwing things into a bag. She had to get out and get away from everything, otherwise nothing would change, and she’d simply give into Paul and get used all over again. Gina gave Lewis a cuddle and apologised for leaving him again before she grabbed her bag, suitcase and a large envelope from the top drawer and headed for the door. She had nearly escaped when Brad appeared and looked sleepily at her.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’ve got to get away,” Gina replied.

“Who are you? Fenny?”

Gina gave a small smile. “Drop Lewis at Moonstar’s before you go, and say goodbye to Fen for me. I’ll call when I get where I’m going.”

“Where are you going.”

“London. My job is still there and I always had a return ticket, must have known things were going to turn to shit, hey?”

“Gina, you don’t have to go.”

“Yeah I do. My flight is at ten,” she said sadly. Brad stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug, much to her surprise.

“Take care,” he breathed. “And thank you for everything you’ve done for me and Fen here.”

“Yeah, well, if I can’t have a relationship I might as well save someone else’s.”

“Can’t have a relationship? You didn’t see the broken man we did last night.”

“Well he should have thought about that before…” Gina’s voice trailed off as there was the sound of a car horn. “That’s my taxi,” she muttered and grabbed her bag.

Brad hurried back into the bedroom and shook Fenny awake.

“What?” she groaned.

“Gina just left,” Brad breathed.

“Left where?”

“To the airport.”

“What, why?”

“Said she had to get away.”

“Oh for crying out loud,” Fenny sighed and grabbed her cell phone. She rang Paul’s number and waited. He answered seven rings later or at least she assumed that’s what the grunt was. “Paul?”

“Yeah.”

“Your wife is heading to the airport.”

“What?”

“Your wife is heading back to London, so if you want to try and save your marriage, you’d better get going.”

“You’re serious, she’s going back to London?”

“No, I meant to tell this to the talking clock.”

“When did she leave?”

“About 30 seconds ago.”

“Fuck, thanks Fen.”

“Good luck.”

“I’ll need more than luck.”

The phone fell to a dial tone and Fenny dropped it on the floor and turned back over to snuggle into Brad. “You don’t want to go?” he asked.

“No, it’s something only they can deal with,” Fenny sighed.

Paul was still dressing himself when he fell into the back of a taxi. He hissed his destination and then prayed to the Transport God that they’d have a smooth trip. Unfortunately the Transport God seemed to have fucked off, and they caught every traffic light, got stuck behind a truck, were slowed by a three-car pile up and had to stop for petrol. By the time Paul threw some money at the driver and fell onto the pavement it was 9:15 and he was praying she hadn’t gone through customs. He surveyed the airport as he dashed around feeling slightly silly as he looked for her. Eventually he saw her walking toward the “departure” door. He raced over and grabbed her.

“Genie, for fucks sake,” he panted.

“Paul,” Gina gasped, surprised to see him. “What are you doing here?”

“You can’t go, I love you, I’ll do anything. Please, please don’t get on that plane,” he begged.

Gina looked at him pitifully. “Sorry Paul,” she announced. “I can’t do this anymore, it hurts too much.”

“Oh come on, we can deal with this, we’ve dealt with worse. Besides which, I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“It’s too late,” Gina said softly. “I’ve posted the divorce forms.”

“What,” Paul peeped, his eyes going wide. “But…”

“Have a good life,” Gina breathed as she turned away and marched through the “departure” door.

Paul stood shocked for a moment, his gaze soon turning to his feet. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and made his way out of the terminal. He walked around the side of one of the buildings where no one was about and sunk to the ground against the wall. The alcohol still in his system, the incident with Freya, the look of hurt on Gina’s face when she’d turned away and the fact he was now alone, everything hit him all at once and manifested itself in his tears.

Several days later, Fenny and Brad stood surveying the duty free. Fenny wasn’t really interested in the perfumes, but it took her mind off everything else. Worried that they hadn’t heard from Paul since he’d gone to the airport, they’d called round to his place. He was near comatose, but it had nothing to do with alcohol and everything to do with emotions. He was in a state she’d never seen him before; usually Paul was pretty happy go lucky, paranoid or pissed off. Fenny promised herself she’d go to town on Gina when she next heard from her.

“They’re here,” Brad announced and dashed off to help Ritza and Gus with their bags.

Fenny felt her heart sink. She had been half hoping they’d been caught in a serious car accident. Ritza smiled in Fenny’s direction and Fenny forced herself to smile back.

“Thanks for being so understanding,” Ritza announced as she joined Fenny at the perfumes. “I told Brad it was crazy.”

“It’s fine, really,” Fenny nodded and then wondered if she’d really said that.

“Be nice if we could be friends.”

“Stranger things have happened, right,” Fenny shrugged as Gus sprinted over and wrapped his arms around his mother’s legs.

“Who are you?” Gus asked looking at Fenny.

“That’s Brad’s wife, Fenny,” Ritza said, kindly stroking Gus’s hair.

“Oh, he has a wife,” Gus muttered. Fenny raised an eyebrow at him and decided she hated him already.

“So, are we all ready?” Brad asked.

“I am,” Ritza perked.

“Yeah. Oh wait, there’s Paul,” Fenny piped up as Paul appeared beside Brad.

“I had to come and say cheerio,” Paul announced with a small smile, but the twinkle in his eye was still missing. Fenny wrapped her arms around him. “You be a good wife now,” Paul teased.

“And don’t you worry about Gina, she loves you, she’s just being mental.”

“Thanks,” Paul breathed and then turned to Brad. “Good luck man,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Don’t be such an ass,” Brad mused and hugged Paul, “the tequila slammers are on you.”

Paul gave a small laugh as he pulled away from Brad and looked at Ritza. “And you, no killing, maiming, or molesting, and look after the kid,” he ordered.

“Why thank you,” Ritza smiled.

“You look like a wombat,” Gus announced, looking at Paul. “An old wombat.”

“They’re cute when they’re at that age,” Paul said with a wicked grin as if harbouring a joke no one else knew.

The boarding call came over the loud speaker and there was a chorus of goodbyes as Fenny, Brad, Ritza and Gus made their way through the departure gates.

Paul found himself outside the terminal again, a familiar voice catching his attention; it was Andy bickering with a taxi driver. He rolled his eyes but was glad that self-obsessed prick was leaving the country. Still, Paul could at least steal his taxi and would have succeeded if a woman in bright yellow shorts hadn’t smacked him out of the way. As he waited for another taxi, Paul realised he didn’t know what he was going to do, other than save Lewis from Moonstar and probably have several helpings of fondue forced upon him. Oh well, if he timed it right, it’d save buying lunch.

Fenny sat uncomfortably on the aisle seat, Brad next to her, then Ritza and Gus at the window. They hadn’t taken off, and already she was unhappy. Brad and Ritza were having a full-scale conversation about kids, while Gus whined about needing the toilet and all Fenny got was her elbow crushed by various forms of luggage. She’d do anything to drop Ritza and Gus off over the Pacific. Anything. As the conversation moved from cute things babies do to potty training, Fenny let her mind wander to the one and only place it would let her: Danny.