"Oh yes, you pronounced it just right. And you must be my client's wife", Julian shook her hand as soon as he reached within two steps of Giselle who smiled pleasantly. Somehow it wasn't hard to smile, considering how grumpy Ian looked. He mustered a brief, "Hey Giselle" and shuffled past her. Julian and the brunette followed him quietly up the stairs. They squeezed through the apartment into the kitchen. The three men had made a huge mess of everything, stacked up boxes and rolled up carpets in a corner, spread out pieces of furniture all across the space as they efficiently disassembled it. They grunted distracted Hellos and kept working. Ian had his lips pressed into a thin line as he watched the moving crew at their work. Giselle wondered whether he had a sentimental attachment all of a sudden, so she poked him verbally, "See anything you like?". He jumped in surprised and scrambled, "Ah no, it's just weird, y'know?". Awfully honest, she thought and nodded in a agreement. Compared to him, she had already come to terms with this. As it turned out that wasn't a bad thing and allowed her to be much more composed.

Julian cleared his throat and moved between the former couple, placing a contract onto the working area of the kitchen. There were three copies. "Since I have another appointment later, I would like us to look at the matter at hand", he said and waited for both to turn their attention on him, "This is a print of the document from my e-mail, but feel free to go through it again and ask any questions you may have". Giselle took the agreement and slowly went through the pages, so did Ian as she noted. He didn't seem nervous or stealing glances. Giselle remembered that he could hold a poker face, but when it took more to cheat on someone during board games, he would try to observe whether he was caught. It was a sure giveaway and this time it seemed kosher. The brunette took a deep breath and focused. Everything remained the same as she remembered it from going through it the other evening. Finally she opened a drawer, just to find it empty. "Do you by any chance have a pen? I think I packed up everything already", she turned to Julian, who anticipated her question and offered her a black pen with his name on it. His law firm held the same name and added "and associates". She frowned for a second and then smiled and put a signature under the agreement, "Here you go". "Please sign the third agreement as well", he told Giselle. Ian pushed his stack over to his ex, too. Now all stacks held her signature and were waiting for Ian to complete the review.

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Both the lawyer and her stood in silence. She had folded her hands in front of her hips and peered out of the window. The sky was in the process of turning grey. Maybe it would rain later, but she didn't exactly care. What felt like an hour later, Ian completed his review and signed the agreements. He handed one to Giselle, one to Julian and kept one himself. "I think this concludes our business here. I'll be reaching out to the both of you soon to finalise the divorce", the blonde man inclined his head and was on the way to walk outside, Ian following him. Giselle yelled after him, "Hold up, Mr Vernont". "Do you have a question?", he turned and kindly smiled at her. She shrugged and shook her head, "It's not that. I'll send you my new address later via e-mail. Please do not send anything to this address, since I will obviously not live here anymore". The man chuckled and nodded, "That much I could've guessed, but thank you for reminding me. Have a good day!". Giselle said a goodbye and watched both men leave in silence. Ian hadn't said a word. Something was weird about him, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

"Odd couple", the man with the short beard suddenly stood next to her and it took all of her willpower not to jump in surprise. She nodded and said, "They are not together though". The man chuckled and clicked his tongue, "Probably better they aren't…". The tone in his voice left a lot unsaid and as fast as he had showed up, he was gone again, disassembling her wardrobe. By now the largest parts had been completed. She couldn't see the other two workers, now that she thought about it. Did they take a break? As it turned out, they hadn't. The two burly men waltzed up the stairs and grabbed boxes, just to walk back down. And two hours later, the apartment was devoid of boxes, furniture and life. Giselle had finished her final check of the place, walked down and handed over her key to the storage space with a rough description of where to go. She would make her way over by foot and the small truck trundled off as she slowly walked along the pedestrian walk, a heaviness making every step a chore.