“Rosie, Rosie, where in the hell is the proposal package for the Venetian Glenn Condo project? I left the plans on my desk last night.” Dax scream from his office, searching his desk. “Have you been cleaning my office again? Shit! Where is that damn proposal, Rosie?”

Rosanna Vohn, Rosie only to him, appeared in his office door with one hand on her hip and the plans in the other. Still a stunner, with her silky smooth tawny brown complexion, beautiful thick jet black hair, dreamy chocolate eyes and a gorgeous smile that lit up a room; she was nick named Foxy Roxy by all of the men in the office. He would never tell her that though, because he knew that she would smack him.  A frown on her face told Dax that she was none to pleased with this outburst.

“This is a place of business, not the playground quit the yelling, and if you utter one more curse word, I will wash your mouth out.” She warned, walking over to him and handing him the plans and the proposal.

“Yes ma’am, I’m sorry.” He apologized. “I forgot that I ask you to have the plans reproduced for my meeting with Dad. He moved to kiss her, as a sort of peace offering but was surprised when Rosie evaded his kiss.

“What?’ Dax questioned, “My kisses aren’t welcomed anymore?”

Rosie smiled at him; she couldn’t resist this charmer even if her life depended on it. Ethan Daxton or Dax as he liked to be called was the son that she never had. He was as handsome as he was talented, conceited as he was kind, arrogant as he was brilliant, and Rosie fell in love with him, the minute they were introduced, which was two hours after he was born.

“Your kisses are always welcomed sugar.” She reassured, by offering her right cheek. He kissed it. “But, please tell me what has you so agitated at 8:22 in the morning?” She asked checking her watch.

Dax looked up at Rosie with his beautiful sea foam green eyes and sighed, he searched his desk for the papers that had kept him up all last night.

Rosie knew more about him that his own family did; she was his confidant, second only to his wife Zhay. When his father, Barron decided to retire from the firm, and appoint Dax as CEO, of Daxton Enterprises, Dax had only one request, Rosie. She would only work for him.

Rosie had been his father’s personal assistant for many years before heading to the PR and Community Development Team. She was always in his life, and in some ways Dax came to rely on her more than he did his own parents. They were the dynamic duo; she knew what he wanted before he could even complete the request.

Rosie loved Dax just as much as he loved her; she was quick to offer him her shoulders, advice, praise, criticism and hugs if they were needed, but always her love. She was never slow to call him on his bullshit, either, which was often, in order to set him on the straight and narrow. He loved her.

He pulled the light blue file from the wreckage that was now his desk and handed it to Rosie. She didn’t need to open or read the documents to figure out what they were. She continued looking at Dax who was trying his best to avoid eye contact with her.

“Well?” she asked impatiently as Dax continued looking for imaginary plans and proposals.

“Well what?” he countered and then mumbled, “Zhay served me with divorce papers last night.”  He was trying to sound nonchalant all the while, feeling tightness in his chest and knots in his stomach. His wife wanted to leave him.

“I can’t say that I’m surprised.” Rosie said handing him back the divorce papers. “There is only so much a woman can take, and she was bound to reach her limit sooner or later.”

“I know that this year has been a difficult one and we have drifted apart; but this…I don’t know….it seems a bit extreme. Divorce?” Dax asked taking a seat on the sofa with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

“Extreme? Well where in the hell have you been? Asleep? What in the hell do you expect her to do, when you’ve been treating her like shit for the past 12 months?” Rosie roared, surprising him with her tone and language. “You’re lucky that she’s Zhay and I’m Rosie, because I wouldn’t have waited a year to serve your ass with divorce papers.”

“I know that I have said and done some hurtful things to her this past year; but surely she knows that it was just coming from a place of anger and hurt, right? Dax asked. “She should know that I never meant any of those things.” His voice slightly breaking, he motioned to get up but Rosie stops him. He needs to listen to her.

“And how is she supposed to know that, when you can’t even be civil to her for 2 minutes to talk? I have watched you go out of your way to hurt and humiliate her; I’ve even tried to stop you on occasion but would you listen? No. Moving out of the house with out telling her, getting her kicked off the boards of all those charities that she’s worked so hard for. Throwing your relationship with that hot to trot tart from marketing in Zhay’s face every chance you had. Did I miss anything? Oh, yes how could I forget having her committed and sending her off to Cedar Grove without even talking with Chloe and Janis? But the worst, the worst was going ahead with the....” 

Before Rosie could finish, Dax quietly pleaded with her to stop reminding him of all the ways that he purposefully hurt Zhay. “Please Rosie, don’t, don’t finish that.”

Rosie looked over at him, Dax had the good sense to look ashamed and embarrassed at his behavior. Beyond that, he was in pain. He was sorry for the way that he had been behaving but dammit, this pain had a strangle hold on his life.

Rosie sat down next to him once she realized that Dax’s eyes were red rimmed with tears on the verge of spilling. He reached in his jacket pocket for a handkerchief and dried the tears before the fell.

“Tell me something, Sugar?” she asked now facing his sad face. “Do you still love Zhay? Do still want to be with her?”

He was hurting and the pain was evident in his eyes, Rosie was sorry that this one of those times where, no advice that she offered would be enough; he would have to figure things out on his own.

Without hesitation or angst, Dax simply replied, “Zhay is my heart, I love her so much Rosie it drives crazy, because I hurt, I still hurt, every damn day…I hurt.”  He cried. “I am still so fuckin’ angry, shit...sorry Rosie. I just can’t shake my feelings and I don’t want to feel like this, but I can’t help it.” He sobbed, this time the tears did fall.

Rosie moved closer to him and let him lay his head on her shoulders. She encouraged him cry, she knew he need to and offered soothing words while doing so. Rosie always knew what to do to comfort him. She was the mother that he always wished he had.

He loved his mother Alise, but Rosie, she was always the one that he sought out whenever he needed comforting. When he was about 7 or 8, when he told her that he wished that he were brown so that she could be his mother. She smiled and told him that she was better than a mother, she was his Rosie and she could do things that a mom couldn’t, like give him ice cream before dinner. He smiled at that memory. She was his Rosie from that day on. Always on his side, always there for him.

“If you tell anyone, you saw this I will deny it and tell them you’re crazy and have you committed? He jokingly threaten, they both laughed. She’s seen worst. She’s seen him at his worst.

“But I bet you’ll come to see me during visiting hours every Sunday, right?” she teased and took his free hand in hers. This was why he loved her; she could comfort him in simplest manner and make him feel that all would be well.

“You know it.” He smiled regaining his composure.

His tears slowly subsided and they sat for a few minutes before he started talking again.

“Everyday, I go upstairs to that damn penthouse and I work until I am exhausted so that I’ll only have to sleep there for a few hours. I miss our life, my wife, my love, my princess, our home, I miss what could have been. I even miss that stupid little rat dog, she loves so much.” Dax confessed, “How the hell did we get here? A divorce? Rosie, I don’t want to loose Zhay, but I…I.” He tried to finish, gritting his teeth, and slamming his fists down on the arm of the sofa.

“I know darling, I know it still hurts.” Rosie soothed. “But you are here, facing divorce, because you refuse to talk to her and attend counseling. If you love her and still want to be together you have to want to work through the pain, together.”

He offered a sad laugh and rubbed the back of his neck, “Yes, but Zhay has to still want to be with me.” He cringed, remembering some of the things he had said to her, stuff that Rosie didn’t even know about. “After everything that I’ve said and done, I’m not sure that she’d still want to be with a selfish ass like me.”

“True, no arguments here.” Rosie teased. “But you’ll never know until you ask her, right?

She reached over and took his face in her hands, so he can look at her.

“She still loves you Ethan, anyone with eyes can see that. She simply wants your forgiveness and she thinks that she will never get it. That’s why she stays away; she can’t bear to see the pain in your eyes knowing that she is the cause.” She get up to leave him with his thoughts.

At his office door, Rosie turns to him and say, “Talk with her, today. Call her, invite her to dinner to talk, not to shout, not to accuse, or hurt each other but to talk.”

He nods in the affirmative, but she can see that his confidence isn’t at high peek today. He won’t call. This isn’t like him; this maybe the first time that she’s seen him like this, vulnerable. Her fearless Ethan is scared.

Walking back to where he was still seated on the sofa, she moves in and kisses his forehead, letting him know that everything will work out, just fine. He looks up at her and smiles.

 “You’ll both find your way back to each other, if that’s what you still want.”  With that, Rosie left Dax to his thoughts.

 ******************************************************************

 8:33am 

Dax sat for a moment considering everything that he and Rosie talked about; and thinking about what he wanted to say to Zhay.

Just then, his cell phone rang bringing him out of his thoughts. He looked at the number, but didn’t recognize it; odd he thought very few people had his personal cell phone number.

“Daxton” he answered, curtly

“Dax, it’s Mason.” Mason Grey was Dax’s sometime business partner, nemesis, sounding board, and overall supporter, but first and always his friend.

“When did you get back? And where are you calling me from? Had to change your number again because you hooked up with another stripper turned stalker?” Dax teased, welcoming the distraction.

“Fuck you man, that shit only happened once.” Mason replied laughing, one day they would behave like the architectural geniuses everyone thought they were. “I got back on Tuesday. Singapore was interesting, I’ll tell you all about it later. Listen, I’m calling because, I’m on site and I need your expertise; what does your day look like?”

“Mase man, you’re killing me. Today?” Dax stood up, running his hands through his dusty blonde hair; moving over to his desk, so that he could check his calendar. He was meeting with his dad this morning to sign contracts; he also had a business meeting at 1pm with Cooper Industries and still needed to finalize their proposal and put the finishing touches on the 3D model.

“Dax, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. I need you out here wearing you engineering hat. Come on man, give me 30 minutes, an hour tops.” Mason pleaded.

“One hour Mason, I have a meeting with Cooper Industries at 1pm.” Dax warned. “Let me take care of a few things here and I’ll be there in a few.”

“Thanks man, I owe you.” Mason replied, giving Dax the details of the project, his concerns, and the site location.

************************************************************************

After hanging up from Mason, Dax still wasn’t sure if he should call Zhay today. He still didn’t know what he wanted to say but he new that he had to act soon, otherwise the pain that was gripping him would destroy him.  

Before he could talk himself out of it, he picked up the phone to call her. He just hoped that Zhay would be open to meeting with him tonight, or any other night for that matter.

One ring, two rings, three rings come on Zhay, please answer the phone, Dax thought to himself. He checked his watch, he knew that she would still be in her office.

“Hi, this is Dr. Daniels.” Zhay answered almost breathlessly. She just ran back to her desk to catch the call before, she was off to gather the files on her first patients of the day.

Music to my ears, Dax thought. “Hey Love, are you busy?” He hadn’t called her his love in a very long time, but it just rolled off his tongue naturally. And it felt good saying it, goddess he missed her.

Zhay was shocked to hear Dax’s voice on the other line and was taken aback by his endearment. He always called her Love; he told her it because he would always love her.

“Dax…how...how are you? Zhay stumbled, still in shock that Dax had called her. She had to sit down quickly before her legs gave out.

“Not good Love, not good. Zhay, I...we...I...can we meet for dinner later? He finally got out, closing his eyes and hoping for the best.

“Dax” Zhay warned, “I assume that you called to talk about the divorce, my lawyer advised that it is best if we communicated through our attorneys.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Dax let out a heavy sigh.  “No lawyers Love, I don’t won’t a divorce.” He rushed out. “I want to have dinner with my wife so that we can talk.”

His wife? Zhay wanted to say, the wife that you’ve ignored for the better part of a year. But the words died on her tongue before she could utter them. Instead she simply remained silent.

Dax got up from his desk and walked over to the corner of his office so that he was facing one of the best views of the Atlanta skyline. He needed to remain calm, he had to reign in his emotions and clarify his thoughts, and ironically looking out over the city did that for him.

Zhay was surprised by his dinner invitation and was too stunned to immediately respond. She didn’t anticipate this reaction from Dax, once he was served with the divorce papers. She assumed that he would sign without any hesitation and that would be the end of their life together. She wanted to say yes, but she was afraid that meeting him would just turn into something ugly.

As if he were reading her mind, he continued, “Please Zhay, please. Just dinner and talking. No shouting no accusing, no hurting each other, just us, talking. I know that one dinner will not solve all of our problems, but I miss spending time with you, I miss us, Love.”

His pleas sounded sappy and desperate to his own ears, but he didn’t have a choice, this was exactly how he was feeling, a bit desperate and maybe just a little bit sappy. He still loved his wife and as far as he was concerned, a divorce was not an option.

He was about to continue his pleas when Zhay finally found her voice.

“Just dinner and talking?” Zhay asked, her voice breaking just a little. “Sure, what time?” she asked trying to sound nonchalant, knowing that she was on the verge of tears; she had not spoken to or seen him in nearly 6 months.

“Is 7 o’clock good for you? Anywhere you like, except Nikolai’s; unless of course you want to actually go there, then I’ll just have my usual.” Dax replied, with a small laugh, feeling a bit more relaxed and confidant, now that she had agreed to dinner.

Zhay laughed too, she knew he hated Russian fare, but she enjoyed it; and he would take her there for dinner if that was what she wanted. He would sit there and drink his dinner, which usually involved tossing back several vodkas, while watching her eat.  She smiled at that, she missed him too.

“No, not tonight. How about Cubana? Zhay asked, he loved the food there, not to mention their vast selection of rum and tequilas.

“Cubana, it is. I’ll see you at seven.” Dax responded.

“Seven it is.” Zhay confirmed. Zhay stood up from her desk and slipped into her lab coat. “Good bye Dax.”

“I love you Zhay.” Dax assured, hoping that she would respond in kind, but she didn’t.

He stayed on the line until she finally disconnected, and hoped that tonight they could begin anew.