by Glory Lennon

Created on: August 01, 2008

"I want a divorce, Mitch," she said casually, in between licks of her double chocolate ice cream cone.

"Sorry, Marisa, we can't afford one," he replied equally casually as he also enjoyed his ice cream cone, this one of mint chocolate. They were sitting on a bench in the middle of an extremely busy, loud and raucous mall waiting for their kids to come out of the cinema where they were enjoying the latest Harry Potter movie. Mitch had his arm around Marisa's shoulders and she had her head resting on his. They switched cones midway.

"Well, how much does a divorce cost?" she asked curiously, taking a lick of the mint chocolate.

"The divorce itself not much I'm thinking, if you only count the lawyer fees and if it's an amiable one."

"Are there ever amiable ones?" she asked.

"Well, sure, if both parties agree to everything," he said, carelessly shrugging.

"Oh, sure. They start agreeing on everything for the divorce proceedings? Wouldn't that mean they should stick together?" she said giggling merrily as they switched back cones.

"That does seem funny," he said chuckling. He kissed her cheek and noticing he got ice cream on her he licked it off.

"Two can play that game, bud," she said as she touched her cone to his chin and licked it off.

He merely laughed.. "If you think that's gonna get you a divorce the answer is still no."

She stuck her tongue out at him."So, give me a round number. How much do you suppose?" she said turning serious.

"Well, when Gary and Betty got their divorce he told me it was somewhere around eight thousand," he replied.

"Really? That much just for a piece of paper saying "I don't love you and you don't love me"? That seems harsh. Unconscionable really," she said indignantly. "So, you're saying divorce is only for rich people?"

"That's going cheap, Marisa. Some can be close to a million if there's custody of kids to worry about and haggling about who gets what, and this one charges that one with infidelity and blah, blah, blah. It can go on forever. Scary stuff. Why do you think I tried to talk Gary out of it?"

"I thought you told him he should divorce Betty," she said, astonished.

"After it was apparent they were both going to be endlessly unhappy if they remained together. He was just so cruel to her in the end. He really didn't care a wit about her. He's an insensitive clod and I say that with the deepest affection for my best friend. It was a kindness to just put their miserable marriage to an end. I kind of felt bad for her. She didn't deserve that."

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