Boss Lady: A Novel by Alli Frank & Asha Youmans

Author:Alli Frank & Asha Youmans [Frank, Alli & Youmans, Asha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Montlake
Published: 2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

MAY

MONDAY, MAY 6

5:18 p.m. (Ash)

At airport. Flight to LA is delayed. Any chance you’re here and we can grab a drink?

“Am I here? Is he asking if I’m flying someplace also? Does it weird him out to know someone who works here?” I put my phone screen six inches in front of Zwena’s face so she, too, can read.

“Or are you overthinking this text? And what the hell is ‘weird him out’?” Zwena asks, pushing the phone away from her nose. I, however, read it again. And then one more time.

“It means does it bother him that this is what I do for a living,” I explain in the midst of my overanalysis. “What do I do? I mean, how can it not weird him out? Look at his life”—I point to my cart—“and then look at mine.”

“What weirds me out is you letting Simon cook dinner at your house Friday night. Get divorced already.” Zwena has had no tolerance for me allowing the Buddha bum back into my life. “What you should do is meet that man,” she says, indicating Ash by pointing at my screen. “Text back and tell him to have coffee with you in the international terminal. Your boss never goes over there.” Zwena nods down the concourse. “Even I know it’s bad to drink on the job. And for you it’s bad to drink on the couch too.”

“It’s Lou and Coco’s final Saint Anne’s track meet on Friday. They asked if Simon could cook their favorite dinner to celebrate, and he barely has a hot plate at his apartment,” I offer as an explanation of why I have not gone full-on, unhinged wife on my half-hinged husband. The last two months Simon has happily carpooled Lou and Coco to and from every practice and track meet, plus he bought them new running gear. Truth is, I haven’t presented him with the divorce papers yet because his stepping in without complaint and doing more than his part with the kid load has allowed me time I have never had before to work on Brown Butter, Baby! Dad guilt has really been working in my favor, and I am not quite ready to disrupt our tenuous arrangement of Simon’s driving mea culpa and my swallowing my wrath in the name of newfound free time.

“Still weird Simon’s coming over.”

“Back to Ash,” I redirect. “He’s married, remember.” Sometimes I do have to remind Zwena that marriage is a huge hurdle when engaging with the opposite sex. She’s a little less convinced.

“Yes, you have mentioned that to me. And may I point out that you, too, are married.”

“It’s different.”

“Different how?”

“I doubt his wife ran off to an ashram in India.”

“This is California, maybe she did too. And anyways, who cares? Ash runs a company that gives out cash to start-ups, and his grandmother is a bajillionaire. You’re just having coffee, not sex.” Zwena’s understanding of venture capital is as elementary as it gets, but this is not the time to give her a lesson in finance.

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