The Spinster Sisters by Stacey Ballis Read Free Book Online Page A

say. “Are they all like this one?”
    “Not all. Some are just mean-spirited. Some are calling you guys frauds and saying that you just did it for the money. But they are coming in at a rate that makes me think actual press isn’t far behind.”
    “Let’s have another meeting with the PR people, see what we need to do. Maybe we need to plant a couple of features with the journalists that like us to be proactive.”
    “Should I get Jill in on this one?” Paige asks in a tone that implies she thinks yes.
    “Not yet.” I shake my head. “I don’t want her troubled by this. Let’s try to take care of it quietly. And keep this shit out of her box, okay? She doesn’t need to see it.”
    Paige shrugs. I know she disagrees with how I am handling this, but I’m not in the mood. Luckily, the buzzer rings, and I go downstairs to get the food.
    The two of us are curled up on my couch, full of cucumber salad and pad see eiw from Sai Mai, and about two-thirds of the way through the movie, when my buzzer rings.
    “I wonder who that could be?” I say.
    “You don’t suppose it’s one of your boys?” asks Paige.
    “They know better than to show up without calling first,” I say as I walk over to the intercom. “Hello?”
    “Hey. It’s Brant.”
    Oh, good Lord. What is he doing here? “Hey, come on up.” I press the buzzer to let him in.
    Brant and I have had a reasonably amicable divorced life. Brant fought the divorce pretty vehemently at first, but once he realized I was determined, he was resolute about the whole thing. Since neither of us owned anything, including the apartment in which we were living, and since we didn’t have any children, we decided to do it ourselves and not use lawyers. It went very smoothly, without any fighting, which I believe saved the friendship. He kept the apartment, and I moved in with Jill. He kept the cats, which had been his anyway. I was never much of a cat person. We split the joint assets right down the middle and divvied up the material possessions fairly easily. And while we both gave each other plenty of space in our lives, we do still have a presence. That is undeniable. But he can be something of a schmuck, and the longer we are divorced, the less time I spend invested in maintaining the friendship. He simply hasn’t ever really grown up, and I’m less and less interested in hearing about computer crap and how angry the new Star Wars movies make him. He can be sweet, and he is always nice to me, so I’m hard-pressed to cut him out completely. However, he should know better than to arrive unexpectedly at ten P.M. on a Friday evening.
    I go to the door and open it, waiting to see him appear around the stair bend. But the first head I see isn’t Brant’s. Instead, I’m faced with a tiny woman with large breasts, long, straight, auburn hair, and cat’s-eye glasses. Two steps behind her is Brant, smiling at me.
    She reaches the landing. “Hi Jodi, I’m Mallory,” the redhead announces, thrusting a hand at me excitedly. Super.
    “We were on our way back from dinner and noticed the lights on,” says Brant. “Figured we’d stop by to say hello.” What a dumb idea that was.
    Mallory pushes past me into my apartment, while Brant greets me with a kiss on the cheek.
    “Wow,” says Mallory. “Some place you have here.”
    “Hey, Paige,” says Brant, waving at her.
    Paige raises one arched eyebrow. “Hey, Brant.”
    Brant walks into the living room and sits on a chair. Mallory is looking longingly down my hallway.
    “It really is a beautiful apartment,” she says.
    I can’t fucking believe it. “Would you like a tour?” I ask her.
    Mallory is Brant’s new girlfriend. They’ve been dating approximately two months and, according to Brant, have not slept together yet. I don’t really relish being the recipient of Brant’s dating information. But he doesn’t have very many friends, and since my business has become a success, everybody focuses on how great it