The Pre-Nup Read online

Jen peered into the mirror above Ellie’s dresser and touched up her mascara. “I’ll take it to the dry cleaner.”

  “But what if…what if something happens? Things happen, you know.”

  “If something happens, something happens,” Jen said. “I’ve worn that dress a grand total of twice. If you don’t wear it, it’ll just hang in my closet, collecting dust. Oh, and I almost forgot.” She reached into the cosmetics case she’d toted over from her house and extracted out a gray leather jewelry box. “I brought you these to wear with it.”

  Alex opened the box with trepidation and pulled out a string of large, lustrous chocolate-colored pearls. “They’re gorgeous. And they probably cost even more than this dress. No way am I wearing this.”

  “Oh, wear it,” Ellie urged. “And look, I have shoes that go perfectly.” She produced a pair of dainty sandals from her closet. “Can you fit into a seven and a half?”

  Alex stopped protesting and just looked at Jen and Ellie for a moment. “God, it must be nice to be rich.”

  “I’m not rich,” Ellie reminded her.

  “You will be after tonight.” Alex grinned, and a glimmer of her usual moxie resurfaced. “You’re just a few hours away from those computer files you need.”

  Ellie wasn’t so sure, and her doubt must have shown on her face, because Alex tossed her head and said, “All Jen has to do is get me into the cocktail reception and point out that cheating dog and I’ll work my magic. Yes, girls, I really am that good.”

  “But he’s not going to bring his laptop to a black-tie event,” Ellie pointed out.

  “No kidding.” Alex joined Jen at the mirror and fastened the pearls around her throat. “That’s why I’ll be going home with him at the end of the night.”

  Jen’s eyebrows shot up.

  “You’re going to sleep with him to get the files?” Ellie couldn’t hide her horror. “Alex, I can’t let you—”

  “No! Ew!” Alex sounded even more horrified than Ellie. “I’m a stripper, not a hooker!”

  “Well, then, how—”

  “Who needs sex when you’ve got booze?” Alex said. “I make a mean gin and tonic, and I do mean mean. I add a few secret ingredients to give it a little extra oomph.”

  “Don’t add too many,” Jen said. “The last thing we need is a body to hide.”

  “Relax, I know exactly what I’m doing.” Alex pouted into the mirror. “His liver will bounce back. Eventually. But don’t be surprised if he looks a little jaundiced at your next arbitration meeting.”

  “Well, you can flirt with him at the ball and you can ply him with drink ’til the sun comes up, but you’ll never pry him out of the clutches of Vixen_MD,” Ellie said gloomily.

  “Have you met me? That Ivory Tower tramp doesn’t have a chance. See you in the morning, babycakes. Don’t wait up.” She waggled her fingers in Ellie’s direction and swept out of the bedroom like a postmodern Scarlett O’Hara.

  Ellie looked at Jen. “This may have been a mistake.”

  Jen laughed. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. Aren’t you excited? Revenge will be sweet.”

  “I don’t want revenge, I just want my life to go back to the way it was two months ago.” Ellie started collecting the perfume bottles and bobby pins scattered across the countertop. “And if I can’t have my old life back, I just want to make sure my future is secure enough to support Hannah through adulthood. Jeez, listen to me, talking about security. You’d think I would have figured out by now that there’s no such thing.”

  “Hey, you do what you have to do to protect yourself. And if that means sending an exotic dancer out on the battlefield, then so be it.”

  “You know, if he would just play fair and honor the terms of the pre-nup…” Ellie scowled. “It’s his fault that I have to resort to strippers and skullduggery.”

  “Absolutely,” Jen agreed. “He drove you to this, and now he and his liver must pay the price.”

  “Hey!” Alex called from the foyer. “Tick tock. Are we going or what?”

  “Coming,” Jen called back and started for the door.

  “I want a full report,” Ellie told her.

  “But of course. I’ll call you tomorrow morning and dish.”

  “Tomorrow? Can’t you just come back over here after you drop her off?”

  Jen coughed. “I have a meeting.”

  “Tonight?” Ellie frowned. “Who schedules a business meeting for eight P.M. on a Saturday?”

  “Well.” Jen lowered her eyes. “It’s not exactly a business meeting.”

  “A date?”

  Jen didn’t confirm or deny this.

  “You and Eric are trying to work things out? That’s so great! See, I told you…” Ellie trailed off when she realized that her optimism was entirely one-sided. “You’re not meeting Eric tonight?”

  “I would, if he’d return any of my phone calls!”

  “But then, who—?” Ellie sucked in her breath as the obvious answer clicked into place. “Oh.”

  “Don’t say ‘oh’ like that! It’s a perfectly innocent dinner between old friends. Nothing’s going on.” Jen fiddled with her bracelet. “Not yet, anyway.”

  “I thought you said you were over Patrick,” Ellie said gently.

  “I did. I am! Do I look like I’m happy about all this?” Jen flung out her arms. “But he keeps showing up, insisting he has to see me. He sends me flowers, he calls me, he won’t take no for an answer.”

  “I’ve dated a few like that.” Alex didn’t even bother to pretend she hadn’t been eavesdropping. “The question you have to ask yourself is, when you finally say yes, will he still be interested or will he get bored?”

  “At least he’s interested now.” Jen’s full, layered skirt rustled as she paced the foyer. “My husband…” Her face crumpled. “I just can’t take any more rejection.”

  Alex considered this for a moment. “Well, how many times did you make him take no for an answer?”

  Ellie half expected Jen to pull a Mara and devolve into fisticuffs, but Jen just sighed and shrugged. “Once too many times, I guess. Now come on, let’s go. Even if it’s too late to salvage my marriage, we still have a chance to salvage Ellie’s divorce.”

  Jen Chapter 25

  There he is.” Jen nudged Alex and pointed across the bar toward Michael, who was knocking back a whiskey on the rocks and ignoring a jovial older man’s attempts to strike up a conversation.

  “Cute.” Alex gave him a brisk once-over and nodded. “Very cute. I can see why a girl like Ellie would fall for him. Look at that jawline.”

  “A girl like Ellie?” Jen repeated.

  “They must have been like Ken and Barbie in their dream house. Let me guess: They hosted a lot of barbecues?”

  “Well, yeah, actually. How’d you guess?”

  “I told you: I’m just that good.” Alex was still sizing up her mark. “Is it me, or is Ken looking a little rough around the edges? I mean, I know you people do these swanky shindings all the time, but he didn’t even bother to shave?”

  Jen took another look and realized that Alex was right. Michael’s classic chiseled jaw was dotted with dark patches of stubble, and his eyes were bloodshot and watery.

  “Does he have a drinking problem?” Alex asked.

  “No,” Jen said. “At least, he didn’t when he was with Ellie.”

  “Or maybe she just never told you about it.”

  Jen shook her head. “Trust me, those two had the perfect marriage. Well, you know, except for all the cheating and the lying.”

  Alex gave her a crooked little half-smile. “You wouldn’t believe how many perfect husbands I’ve had proposition me during lap dances.”

  The old man gave up trying to talk to Michael and walked away from the bar. Jen now had a better view of the crowd across the ballroom, and what she saw nearly made her drop her evening bag. “Oh my God.”

  Alex crunched an ice cube from her glass of club soda. “What?”

  “I know why Mi
chael looks like death warmed over. Look.” Jen jerked her chin in the direction of a statuesque brunette laughing up at a bronzed, dimpled hottie who looked about twenty-five.

  “Now that guy looks like Ken,” Alex decreed. “For real. Same hair, same face, same everything. I hope for her sake he’s anatomically correct.”

  “That’s her!” Jen whispered. “Vixen_MD!”

  Alex stared blankly back at her.

  “The woman Michael left Ellie for!”

  “Well then, why is she draped all over Monsieur Beefcake over there?”

  “I have no clue.” Jen glanced back at Michael. “She must have broken up with him. The nurse at the E.R. said she had a habit of seducing married men and then dropping them flat.”

  “The nurse at the…?” Alex held up her palm. “Forget it, I don’t want to know.”

  “I have to tell Ellie.” Jen yanked open her sequined evening bag and rummaged for her phone.

  “You do that.” Alex flexed her hands and rolled her head like an athlete warming up. “I’m going in. He’s down, he’s vulnerable…I almost feel sorry for him. Almost.”

  “Does this bring back memories or what?”

  Jen slid into the narrow, beer-sticky booth across from Patrick. The wooden benches and tabletops at Jasper J’s Bar and Grill in Tempe were scarred with carved initials, fraternity letters, and cryptic messages. The crowd tonight was loud and boisterous, and the music pounding out of the speakers over the bar was almost drowned out by raucous laughter and conversation.

  Jen tried to ignore all the emotions that came flooding back as she glanced around the college watering hole where she and Patrick had spent countless evenings playing pool, dancing to the jukebox, and making out. Even the smell of this place—that classic college-bar combo of cheap booze, sweat, and liberally applied drugstore cologne—seemed instantly friendly and familiar.

  She took a tiny sip from the frothy mug of beer Patrick had waiting for her and sighed. “Wow. I feel so…old. And so overdressed.” After leaving Alex at the charity ball, she’d run home to change out of her ball gown and into a casual denim skirt, but her makeup and hair were still styled to perfection.

  “You look great,” Patrick assured her.

  “Yeah, but I feel like I should be back in my old ripped jeans and a Gin Blossoms T-shirt.” She laughed. “Now I really feel old. Do you think any of these whippersnappers have even heard of the Gin Blossoms?”

  “Probably not.” He grinned. “Gin Blossoms, De La Soul, Soul Coughing…we’re dinosaurs.”

  “With excellent taste in music.”

  He watched her face carefully. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Oh, nothing. Remember when my biggest tragedy in life was getting a C on my philosophy midterm?”

  “How could I forget? Mara and Ellie had to put you on round-the-clock suicide watch.”

  “Philosophy was never my strong suit.” She smiled wryly. “Give me facts and numbers in black and white and I can work miracles, but when it comes to the big questions in life…”

  They lapsed into silence until the server came to check if they needed another round. “We’re fine,” Patrick told him.

  “Fine,” Jen echoed.

  Patrick looked across the table and regarded her with an expression she’d never seen on his face before. He seemed guarded, almost shy.

  She swilled the rest of her beer with exaggerated gusto and set down the mug. “What’s going on? You look so…I don’t know, intense.”

  He caught and held her gaze. “It’s great to be here with you again.”

  Jen didn’t reply, but she didn’t look away, either.

  “I picked this place for a reason,” he continued. “I wanted you to remember how it used to be with us.”

  Like I could ever forget. But all she said was, “Patrick, that was years ago. I’m married now. Well, I was married. Well, I still am until—”

  “About that.” He reached across the table. “Whatever you have going on—or not going on—with Eric, I have to tell you—”

  She shifted in her seat and snatched her hands away. “Don’t say it.”

  “You don’t know what I’m going to say.”

  She was terrified to tip the balance in this precarious state of limbo they’d created. “We don’t need to have this conversation right now.”

  “Yes, we do.” He looked even more determined. “I don’t have many regrets in life, but letting you get away was one of them.” He paused. “I hope that doesn’t ruin dinner.”

  She opened her mouth, but before she could put together a coherent response, he charged ahead with, “I know it’s too early, you’re not ready, you’re still wondering what happened with you and Eric.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes to all of the above.”

  “But we were great together and we still could be.”

  There it was, out in the open, right next to the beer mugs and water-spotted silverware. A straightforward statement in black and white. No philosophical nuancing necessary.

  She let the pulsing beat of the background music fill the silence for a minute, then asked, “Why couldn’t you have had this revelation before you left me and went trekking off to a whole other continent?”

  He rubbed his forehead. “I was an idiot. I admit it. But out of everyone I’ve ever met, everywhere I’ve traveled…you’re it, Jen. You’re the perfect woman.”

  “I’m not perfect,” she said. “Not by a long shot.”

  “You’re perfect for me,” he insisted. “You know what you want. You know who you are. That’s why we fit; you don’t need anyone.”

  “Knowing who I am and what I want doesn’t mean I don’t need anyone.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I do.” She rolled her empty glass between her palms. “And I used to think that I could love you enough for both of us.”

  “You did. I’m finally figuring that out.”

  “No. You’re wrong. Love doesn’t work that way. It has to be equal. I’m finally figuring that out.”

  His confidence had returned; he looked expectant. “So…?”

  “So I have to go.” This time she was the one who reached out. She gave his hand a quick, tight squeeze, than let go. “But thanks for the memories.”

  Ellie Chapter 26

  Mommy. Mommy! I said, do you want some more tea?” Hannah’s exasperated voice pierced through the fog of worry and wild speculation that had engulfed Ellie all morning.

  “Hmm?” Ellie forced her attention back to the impromptu tea party Hannah was hosting on the living room floor with assorted dolls and stuffed animals. “Why, yes, I’d love another cup.”

  “You’re not paying attention,” Hannah accused. For a tiny blond pixie in lavender pajamas and a tinfoil tiara, she looked quite formidable. “Stop looking out the window.”

  “I’m sorry, honey, I thought I heard a car in the driveway.”

  Hannah dropped her blue flowered teapot onto the carpet and peered out the window. “Is Daddy coming over?”

  “No, not today.”

  “Is Gramma?”

  “No. But Alex is coming back, and—”

  Hannah’s lower lip jutted out. “Don’t like Alex.”

  “Yes, you do! She made orange milk for you, remember?”

  “I don’t want anyone else to live here but you and me and Daddy.” Hannah sucked on the tip of her index finger, a habit from infancy that Ellie thought she had given up months ago. “I want Daddy.”

  “I know you do, sweetie.” Ellie gave up on trying to hug her daughter and let Hannah scowl and stomp her feet. “But he doesn’t live here with us anymore, remember? We talked about this. You’re still going to see him lots and lots, and you’re still going to see Gramma and Grandpa, and all of us love you so much.”

  “I hate you!” Hannah punted her teapot into the head of a bedraggled stuffed panda. “And I hate Alex, too.”

  Eight-thirty A.M., and Ellie was ready to trade in her cup
of imaginary chamomile for a tall, icy Long Island Iced Tea. She did her best to calm Hannah down and was reading A Bargain for Frances aloud for the fifth time in a row when finally, finally, she heard a car engine outside.

  Hannah raced back to the window. “Why’s Alex in a taxi? I hate her.”

  “I heard you the first time.” Ellie opened the door. Alex sashayed in with her gown wrinkled, her eyeliner smeared, and her hands clutching a black laptop computer and a large paper bag.

  Ellie gasped. “Is that…?”

  “It is.”

  “Oh my God. Oh my God.” Ellie wiped her suddenly damp palms on her jeans. “So what should we do now?”

  “Now?” Alex placed the computer on the coffee table in the sitting room and cracked her knuckles in gleeful anticipation. “Now we copy the hard drive and nail this S.O.B. to the wall.”

  Ellie glanced sidelong at Hannah. “Little pitchers have big ears.”

  Alex rolled her eyes. “Give me a break. Do you really think little pitchers know what S.O.B. stands for?”

  Hannah sidled up to Ellie and tugged at her jeans. “Mommy, what does S.O.B. mean?”

  Ellie patted her daughter on the back. “Go to your room and start getting dressed, sweetie. I’ll come help you in a few minutes.”

  Hannah dawdled for a moment, until Ellie followed up with a stern “Right now, please.”

  When she heard the door to Hannah’s room close, Ellie turned to Alex, who shrugged and said, “Listen, I can either set a good example or I can get stuff done. Take your pick.”

  Ellie ran her hand along the top of the laptop. “So I guess I should call my attorney now.”

  Alex snatched the computer away and hugged it to her chest, crinkling the bodice of the gold gown. “Are you crazy or just stupid?”

  “Well, she needs the information on there, and—”

  “And what are you going to say when she asks how you convinced him to hand it over?”

  Ellie frowned. “Oh.”

  “Keep the lawyers out of this. Words to live by.”

  “But how are we supposed to find all the information by ourselves? We don’t even know what we’re looking for.”