“Her fake boob job was just right out there, hanging out the front of her dress. IT’s no wonder I couldn’t eat my snot and cilantro,” Marj cackled.
“Didn’t you get loaded at my rehearsal dinner and try to hit on my brother-in-law?” Britt asked.
“What is your point?”
“That you’re slut shaming the stepmother.”
“So what?”
“So, you’ve always gone on and on about me not being judgmental just because I was a good girl…mostly a good girl, except for Jack, I guess. And that you were an independent woman with sexual agency who had every right to—”
“Well, crap, Britt, you’re ruining my fun right now. Yes, I like hot guys and clubs and Tinder and casual sex. I’m not saving myself for the right man. I also had both my boobs covered at dinner,” she said.
“For once,” Britt teased, “I used to accuse you of wearing tinfoil to clubs.”
“Not foil. Just a very thin silver top,” she corrected, “and I’m married now. That’s all changed.”
“Really? You’re transformed now? Where is the lucky man, anyway? Don’t tell me he’s asleep at ten o’clock.”
“He’s working. He runs, you know, a huge multinational company. I think tonight’s a Skype with the Hong Kong team,” she said, trying to seem both totally comfortable with the fact he was working late and familiar with his exact plans—neither of which was really based in reality.
“Sounds exciting. I would’ve thought the two of you would’ve been….never mind,” Britt said, “I’m going to send you the MP3 of Jack’s latest single before it drops. It’s amazing, and I’m not just saying that to get in his pants,” she giggled.
Marj felt a stab of jealousy. Britt and Jack were totally in love and happy together. They’d been through a lot and come out the other side stronger as a couple. Not, say, divorced after six months were up. She wanted her settlement. That was it. She wasn’t going to whine about how her new husband worked late. She was going to enjoy her new and improved lifestyle and be herself like Brandon had encouraged her to be and then she’d blow the hatch and cash her nice, fat check.
She listened to Britt enthuse over her exciting life on tour with Jack’s band and her general bliss for a while. Then she begged off to get some sleep for work the next day. Britt was too polite to demand to know why Marj hadn’t quit her job yet.
Marj lay awake, scrolling through her Twitter feed and checking out her friends’ Instagram posts…food, mostly, to tell the truth. Frustrated by sleeplessness, she stretched out on the floor and did some abs work. It had been nearly a week since she’d been to the gym. Tomorrow she’d have to check out the home gym Brandon had boasted of. At last, she heard his step in the hall, his knock at her door. She vaulted out of the bed and scampered, actually scampered to the door and threw it open.
He looked tired. Hot, obviously, but tired as well. She wanted to hug him, but she didn’t. They were in this deal together, like business partners…with benefits. She wasn’t really sure how to act around him yet. And as usual when she was uncertain or felt embarrassed, she brazened it out and told him so.
“Brandon, I don’t know my way around this arrangement yet. I’m glad you came to my door. I was, I guess, waiting up for you. Have a seat,” she said, sitting cross-legged on her four-poster bed and patting the mattress beside her.
“I had a long Skype.”
“Hong Kong?” she ventured.
“No, Sydney. Why?”
“No reason. The thing is, I get that you have a ton of work to do. I’ve got work tomorrow, too. I just want to know up front what we can expect from each other.”
“How so? I’ll come home when I’m done at work. If you need me, obviously call me. If there’s an event, we go together. I wasn’t aware you were going to continue working.”
“This is a temporary arrangement for me, and I’m not ready to get out of marketing totally. I need to keep my hand in so I’m working at Power Regions unless you want me to look for a job elsewhere.”
“The wives of most of my colleagues don’t work outside the home,” he said. “They do charity work, host fundraisers, that sort of thing. The demands of being a corporate wife—the events and the travel—tend to be time-consuming.”
“I fully appreciate that, and if this were a long-term role for me, I would determine if adjustments to my schedule were necessary to meet all the expectations of a CEO’s spouse. But since it’s a six-month gig, I don’t see calling in rich to work and bowing out of all my accounts.”