JENNIE's POV
"I have to run to a meeting, but make yourself at home." Kaye said. "Just remember the house rules. Put your dishes away, no shoes on the carpet, and no feeding The Fish outside of the prescribed hours and amounts, which are taped to the table next to his bowl. Any questions?"
"No. All sounds good." I mustered a small smile. "Thanks again for letting me stay here while I figure things out. I promise I'll be out of your hair soon."
Out of all of my friends—of which there were only three or four total, but that was an issue for another day—Kaye was the least warm and fuzzy. However, both Rosé and Tzuyu lived with their significant others, and despite her general lack of visible emotion, Kaye always went to bat for her friends.
I was tired of living in a hotel, and she hadn't hesitated when I'd asked if I could stay with her while I went apartment hunting. And she'd greeted my arrival with a mug of coffee, a stiff hug, and a Karambit knife wrapped with a bow—for basic defense or offense, depending on how pissed I was at Lisa, she explained.
"Don't worry about it." Kaye's face softened the tiniest smidge. "We'll get drinks later. You and I can talk shit while Rosé and Tzuyu pretend they're not in sickeningly sweet relationships."
My laugh came out rusty but genuine. "It's a plan."
It'd been a week since I told Lisa I wanted a divorce. None of my friends seemed surprised by my decision to leave her, which said all there was to say about how other people perceived our relationship.
My phone lit up with an incoming call.
Lisa. Again. She'd been calling nonstop over the past week, and everytime her name popped up, it was a fresh stab in my chest. Still, I couldn't bring myself to block her just yet, so I let her calls roll to voicemail. I haven't listened to any of them since the first one; it hurt too much.
"What do you mean she's in Mykonos?" Kaye's quiet fury chilled the air as she left for her meeting. She was well-known professional CEO who ran her own boutique engineering firm among other things. "That is unacceptable. She knows she should be here for the meeting..."
Her voice faded, followed by the slam of the front door. Lisa's call also ended, and I breathed a sigh of relief only to tense again when another incoming call rolled right into her missed one.
Pearson, Hodder, and Blum.
Waves of anxiety buffeted my stomach. I wasn't sure what was worse, hearing from my wife or from my divorce attorney.
"Jennie, this is Cole Pearson." The deep voice settled some of my nerves. Cole was one of the top divorce attorneys in the country. He cost an arm and a leg, but he was the only one who stood a chance against Lisa's fleet of high-powered lawyers.
"Hi." I put him on speaker while I unpacked suitcase. I needed something to do with my hands or I'd dissolve into an even bigger mess. "How did it go?"
The waves intensified as I waited for her answer.
I'd filed for divorce a few days ago and, in true Cole fashion, he'd expedited the process so he could serve Lisa the papers today. I wanted to get the divorce over with quickly before I lost my nerve or she somehow convinced me to go back.
Most days, I was sure I was doing the right thing, but there were other days when I woke up in an empty bed and missed her so much, it hurt to breathe. I haven't been happy for a while, but I couldn't forget eleven years together just like that.
"We served her the papers," Cole said. "As expected, she refused to sign."
I closed my eyes. Knowing Lisa, she would drag this out for as long as possible. She had the money and power to tie us up in the courts for years, and the thought of sitting in limbo for that long made me nauseous.
