Lisa Djahed - Bee Stanis 01- The Foolish Stepmom by Lisa Djahed Read Free Book Online Page A

looked like Drew’s mom was none too happy. I have to admit, not having been THAT close to Drew, except in a polite neighborly kind of way, was making all this intrigue at the funeral somewhat interesting. Like a little soap opera. The girlfriend, the ex-wife, the strange manner of death, the family vs . the ex-wife. Like a bad whodunit. Course, there really was the question of who had done it.
    Just as was getting carried away with the movie playing in my own head , the funeral director welcomed us all there, acknowledged the family, said some generic tomes about Drew having gone before his time. The slideshow started . There was some corny music playing so at odds with the “superman/kryptonite” persona that Drew adopted that night. You always wonder at a funeral or memorial, is this what the person would have wanted? Would Drew choose this music? I think not. I don’t know who it was who put the slideshow together but including a smiling picture of Drew and Jesse, arm in arm, was probably not in the best taste since it sent Drew’s mom into hysterics up front. During the whole thing, both Ben and I concentrated almost all our attention on Pam, sitting on one side of the family and Bev, sitting on the other. I still couldn’t get over that they knew each other, and better yet, were landlord and tenant. Surely they both knew of the Drew connection, why would they condone that? Why would Bev? Did she really not care, I mean, she spent almost 14 years with Drew, and had three kids, surely there was some sort of animosity towards him dating again, even though she was the dumper not the dumpee. And Pam? She’s the funny one, knowing Drew all of two months, acting like the current wife, doing all the wifely duties, arranging this memorial service. Odd. The whole thing.
    There were some people from Drew’s work, that was nice, they clearly respected him and liked his quirky talkative ways (yes, they mentioned his love of gab), and his uncle spoke, in a stilted, halting way. But my thoughts kept turning to the one family member NOT here, poor Jesse. What did the family think of his being charged? What did Bev think? I knew both Ben and I wanted answers. Had she seen Jesse? Was she going to?
    And just as cheesily as it had begun, with bad music, the service ended. The official service. Now was the line of greeting, we’d get to see Bev.
    “Let ’ s go” said Ben, ushering me as quick as he could without being overtly rude ahead of other people in line. Ben hated lines. But I also knew he was just as anxious as I to get to Bev.
    As we reached Pam , she was dabbing her mascara ridden eyes in fake sorrow taking in like a horse to water everyone’s condolences. “We’re so sorry,” we said, and she embraced us both in a hug like we were life long friends. We had met her three times total.
    We offered our condolences to Drew’s mom and uncle and said hi to the kids , it was nice to see them, when they were sent away last year it was sad to see them go, but the level of noise and the debris in the yard went down significantly I thought, again, guiltily. What was it with me and the guilt-ridden admissions?
    And there she was. The ex-wife. The one who was “missing” all week. Didn’t look like she was “missing” it looks like she spent the week at a spa.
    “Bev ,” Ben started. He had known her the longest, was there for the whole breakup. She was mostly gone by the time I appeared on the scene, except for some drop-offs and pick-ups of Jess.
    “We’re so sorry ,” it felt SO awkward saying that cause I knew, and everyone in the room knew Drew’s death was no big loss to her. Her life just got 10, 000 times better with Drew out of the picture.
    “Have you seen Jesse?” she asked , surprising both Ben and I.
    “Yes , we have” I added somewhat haltingly.
    “ How is holding up?” she asked, implying that she hadn’t seen her own son .
    “Are you going to see him?” I answered her with a question. This