Life After Coffee by Virginia Franken

Author:Virginia Franken [Franken, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781503939370
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2016-09-12T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

In the spirit of shutting things down before they even begin, I diligently ignore Matt’s texts over the course of the next week. There’s been a Hi, a How are things?, and then a few days after that a ???. I gave a bland response about being fine/busy to the multiple question marks—just to keep him happy (he is my husband’s boss, after all). And after that there came a text about meeting, which I didn’t respond to. After another set of indignant ???, I was busy formulating a suitably beige response about not being comfortable with us meeting up again when he took control of the situation, and now I’m sitting in the reception area of Colburn Entertainment. Waiting. For Matt. And Peter too as it turns out. And all of the other writers’ significant others. Matt’s arranged some kind of social event. And my presence is, apparently, necessary.

I made a valiant effort to get out of it. Of course I did. But Peter really wanted me to come. And the more I made excuses, the more suspicious I could see him getting. My last hope was that we’d never find a babysitter (we haven’t needed one up till now), but unfortunately Lizzie gave us numbers for the four college students she uses on continuous rotation. So my last legitimate excuse went out the window, and here I am.

Best-case scenario, it’s going to be super awkward. Worst-case scenario, we all get drunk, Matt and I hog the karaoke machine, start singing “Reunited,” and end up making out in front of everyone. Less than ideal.

I’m on time—which is my first mistake, as this actually translates as horrifyingly early. Matt’s receptionist (whose lips really are as sultry and pouty as I’d imagined) made that clear when I first announced my presence.

“Ummm, they won’t be done for a while yet,” she said. I believe the way she drew out the “umm” for about thirty seconds was specifically in order for me to realize how ridiculous I was for showing up so “early.” It looks like the other spouses know how this works as I’m the only one who’s showed up so far, even though we were supposed to have met twenty minutes ago. My second mistake is what I’m wearing. Trying to get into the spirit of Going Out And Having Fun, I put on a pretty tight pair of jeans, my only high heels (which are made from some kind of scary material that squeaks loudly whenever the shoes touch one other), and a white top covered in tassels. I was going for bohemian chic, but after looking at Pouty (who’s dressed in leggings and a T-shirt but somehow looks two hundred percent more ready to party than I do), I can see that I just look old.

I’m sipping an extremely bland cup of coffee that she’s prepared for me from the ten-thousand-dollar espresso machine in the corner. Maybe that could be a good idea for a business: go around

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