Chapter Text
On her 29th birthday, the best present Shelby could have possibly received was the divorce papers properly signed by her now ex-husband, Andrew Turner.
She had to check a few more times to make sure that this was not a figment of her own imagination, the fruit of her fondest desires that were struggling to come true. The truth is that it was never so difficult for a woman whose husband was caught cheating on her to have her wish for divorce granted.
Andrew knelt and begged for forgiveness so many times before her that by the third time Shelby could only notice the little area on his head where a balding spot was subtly forming.
But no matter how many times that man threw himself before her feet, Shelby could never allow herself to once again try to save that broken marriage that had now been publicly exposed as a complete trainwreck. She wasn't dumb, she never was, and Andrew much less was the most brilliant man in the world; after all who would believe that he was having dentist appointments at 10 o'clock in the night? Or that he needed to stay late at the hospital? She worked at the same place as him, for God's sake. Or worse, when a package with an ugly dress that she definitely hadn't bought appeared on her doorstep because her ex-husband didn't even bother to change the delivery address to his mistress'.
Of course she knew, she wasn't dumb. Shelby couldn't stand the pitying looks she received wherever she went. It was even worse if her daughter was with her, people almost started to weep. It was as if Andrew had committed a mass murder of the whole family and those people were the spectators.
However, they didn't know that the marriage was doomed to fail at the very instant on that fateful spring day, when Shelby had said 'I do' in front of her friends and family in a crowded church in Texas.
Her marriage had failed and Shelby had gone through with it on her terms. She had accepted it and was willing to spend the rest of her life being the facade of a happy wife and a proper family mother. That was until Andrew wanted to fly too close to the sun and just like Icarus, he came to discover that his fake wings were nothing more than the brilliant idea of fucking his secretary in the hospital, just minutes before the doctors on duty changed shifts, when he had been caught with his pants down fucking that lady from behind.
The information circulated so quickly that it was one of Shelby's patients who ended up breaking her the news. It was an interesting experience to ask an elderly woman how she felt that morning, as she replied that she was great because the hospital was finally beginning to look like what she saw on TV, because she had heard from the nurses that the orthopedic surgeon had been caught having sex in the break room.
Humiliation is perhaps a word that does not quite carry the weight of what she felt at that moment. A hybrid of this definition with the addition of anger might be more appropriate, after all Shelby wanted to hide from any social contact to the same extent that she wanted to cut off Andrew's tiny penis and make him eat it.
And there she was, finally divorced, surrounded by boxes that Shelby didn't feel like opening. She decided to have some wine, which she hated, while her daughter slept in her new room.
She definitely feels like she is at rock bottom when the fucking cork doesn't even move in the face of numerous efforts to get it out of the bottle, and suddenly a frustrated laugh escapes her lungs at the stupid irony of that situation. Shelby had never opened a bottle of wine by herself in her life, because Andrew was always there.
The reality that she was now alone begins to sneak up on her; the loneliness coming in the form of an overwhelming truck ready to run her over. The thought that perhaps it was better to stay with a cheating husband than to be single with a young daughter to raise begins to haunt her mind until the ringing of the doorbell invades the apartment.
The sound is so unfamiliar that Shelby needs long seconds to understand that there is someone at her door, and she takes slow and costly steps to answer whoever it was, being fully aware that only one person's presence would be welcomed at that moment.
"I know you said you wanted to be alone today," Toni announces before Shelby even has time to say anything, "but I also think you are full of shit." She enters the apartment determinedly, dodging a few boxes along the way, and leaves the cake she was carrying in hand on Shelby's still unused kitchen countertop.
"You know me too well." Shelby doesn't even have the energy to pretend to be upset at the unusual surprise, because they both know it's not true. Deep down, maybe, she wished it would happen, after all Toni was literally the only person who could make Shelby smile in her worst moments.
She also knows that Toni feels indebted to her.
When Toni's girlfriend passed away two years ago, Shelby never, at any point, left her friend's side. She stayed with her the whole time, hugged her when Toni spent sleepless nights crying. She helped take care of JJ, her then one-year-old son. She handled all the paperwork so that Toni could live her grief, and now, at any sign that Shelby might be vulnerable, Toni was the first to come to her rescue.
Of course, divorcing Andrew did not come close to what Toni had been through. Since unlike her situation with her ex-husband, Toni loved Regan.
"Where's Sophie?" Toni suddenly looked around realizing that Shelby's daughter was not among the boxes.
"She's sleeping. It was a pretty exhausting day, she helped me carry some of the moving stuff." Toni smiled like that had been a great joke and quickly began moving around the kitchen looking for dishes and cutlery as if she lived there. Toni seemed more settled in that place than Shelby.
"Look at you, Shelby Turner encouraging child labor."
"Goodkind," Shelby automatically corrects her. For the first time in years, she was hearing her maiden name again from her own mouth, and it wasn't so bad. It even sounded familiar, nostalgic and cozy. She liked it and so did Toni, because it flashed her a sincere smile.
"Yeah, Goodkind is better."
"JJ is with the babysitter?" Her decision to change the subject comes solely and exclusively from the fact that she definitely didn't want to talk about her divorce that night, especially not with Toni and she knew her friend would eventually bring it up.
"Yeah, I learned my lesson when Leah and Fatin almost set my house on fire watching over him because he wouldn't stop screaming." Toni walks through the house opening the boxes that still remained untouched and finally stopped when she found some glasses and napkins. "He only gets quiet with you, to be honest."
"What can I do if no one else has my super powers?" She gloats and Toni smiles at her.
It is obvious that Toni left straight from work. She was in the clothes she always wore when she needed to go to the bar and she could smell the pleasant scent of distilled drinks from afar. She was wearing her beat-up leather jacket and her favorite green shirt underneath, as well as several rings on her right hand and the watch that had been a gift from Regan on her left wrist. Toni never took that watch off.
Her tattoos were showing slightly as she rummaged through the rest of the boxes.
She looked good.
"Yeah, you really are special." Toni looks at her in a different way. It's not pity. It's concern.
"Thank you, Toni. For everything. I promise I'm fine," Shelby decides to add at the end to put her friend at ease, but it's the same as nothing, because what Shelby says is not what she feels, and Toni has too much experience to know when she's lying.
"I don't believe you. You hate being alone." The authority with which Toni definitely knows this information is intimidating and comforting at the same time.
"That's not true," her voice becomes abruptly high-pitched. She is lying.
"You cried once when I left you alone in the bathroom." Toni tells her.
"Okay, that was different! I was nine years old and I thought you locked me in there." Toni starts laughing unfazed by Shelby's outrage, just reveling in that memory.
"Holy shit, Shelby, that was two decades ago."
"We're fucking old."
"We have kids..."
"I am literally divorced before 30, Toni!" They start laughing uncontrollably because the only other alternative would be to maybe start crying.
"Are you enjoying the apartment?" Toni finally asks as they recover.
It's a complicated question. It wasn't hers. It didn't feel like it was hers. Her younger sister had loaned it to her while she spent the rest of her stay in Europe, finishing her master's degree in some area of law she had forgotten.
It might sound silly, but Shelby felt humiliated, having to ask her sister for a favor, even though it didn't seem to bother Melody in any way.
"It's good," she replies, finally, for lack of other words.
"You know you didn't have to leave him the house. It's half yours." Toni insists, after all it's a subject they had discussed a few times before.
"It was a gift from his parents and I don't want anything from that family anymore. I'd rather live in one of those boxes than under the Turners' roof."
She shakes her head; Toni seems to consider her words and comes across as convinced, but Shelby realizes that the subject doesn't seem to be over yet.
"I was thinking...you could move somewhere else."
Okay now Shelby is confused. She had a decent salary, but still at the moment she can't afford go house hunting.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I happen to have two spare guest rooms..."
It takes a few seconds for Shelby to assimilate what Toni is implying and her immediate reaction is to refuse it, after all she doesn't like to bother anyone.
"Toni, I couldn't, it's too much-"
"Just think about it," she interrupts her. Toni knew her so well that she imagined this would be her exact reaction. "JJ and I would love it, and you and Sophie would never be alone." Shelby makes mention of denying it again, but Toni is quicker. "Just think about it, okay? Promise me?"
Shelby lets out a long sigh.
"Okay, I promise."
"Great!" Toni claps her hands excitedly. "Now let's blow out those candles and get this party started."
Then, automatically, she takes the still sealed bottle of wine and without any difficulty or any hesitation, she pulls out the cork which comes out with extreme ease. An action that meant nothing to Toni, but left Shelby totally flabbergasted.
Maybe she really didn't need to be alone.