The Breakfast Club for 40-Somethings

Chapter 6Jayne

‘What a blast from the past!’ Jayne smiled to herself as she walked home from the supermarket. She couldn’t believe she had bumped into Jasper after all these years. He looked good — although Jayne had to admit that most men looked good to her nowadays. It had been 18 months since she’d divorced Nick, and certainly no good male companionship had occurred before or since then.

Jayne sighed, as her mind briefly touched on Nick again. Divorcing him had been both traumatic and cathartic. She had put up with his erratic behaviour for about seven of their ten years of marriage, but it had started to get worse in the last couple of years — to the point where Jayne had become afraid of how he might hurt her physically. If Jayne had been on her own, she may have put up with it for longer to avoid being alone and accepting that her marriage was a failure. But she had two little girls to consider, and they were of an age where they modelled themselves on her.

Jayne thought happily about her girls who, at eight, were now thriving after the initial meltdown of the divorce. Her parents had been a huge help in providing stability for the girls, and Nick had actually been shocked enough when Jayne had the courage to leave him that he’d made some effort to spend time with them. He was still their father — or at least his version of a father.

Nick earned good money as a real estate agent for the lower North Shore, and he was great at being charming and always on call — which was ...