Chapter 8
8
T he documentary Geena had picked for the evening followed the case of several art thieves working together. The tone was dry, but the details were interesting. Too interesting, since it was supposed to be background viewing while she processed what had recently landed in her inbox.
Geena paused the show and took a sip of wine as she reread the email from her attorney. She hadn’t expected a reply until Monday, but she was glad to have the weekend to look it over.
Gary beeped and booped.
It would take all weekend to process that email with all of Gary’s distracting noises.
Geena read the brief greeting and noted the woman’s quick dive into the meat of the situation. There was no point in small talk when there was business at hand, and Geena had always appreciated that about the woman.
They’d met at a Christmas party when Lisa was still a partner at Ricky’s firm. They’d hit it off, becoming comfortable acquaintances and chatting any time there was a work function. Geena got the impression Lisa didn’t like being the only female attorney there, but they were never that close to discuss those kinds of details.
Within the last year, Lisa left to start her own firm. Geena reached out to her to look over their divorce documents, even though she still planned to go the mediator route. She just wanted a pair of legal eyes to let her know if she was missing something.
Lisa insisted on doing so as a favor to Geena, which probably explained her fitting it in on the weekend. The woman’s specialty was corporations, not divorces. Still, Geena figured Lisa could cut through the legal speak, and her experience with businesses might lend a better look at the financial side, even if that was Geena’s specialty.
The email ended abruptly, with Lisa stating that she would call soon.
That couldn’t be good.
Soon apparently meant right away, because Geena’s phone rang as she closed the email. After a brief greeting, Lisa dove directly into the purpose of her call.
“Do you know an Anthony Montesano?”
The name sounded familiar, but Geena couldn’t be sure. It wasn’t someone she knew well, that was for sure. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know,” Lisa said. “But there was a sizable check deposit to your joint account from him several months ago.”
While they kept separate individual accounts, they maintained an account for paying the mortgage and other joint expenses. She kept a close eye on her own accounts, but she never paid much attention to where Ricky’s money came from. Just that he put in his share and rarely took anything out that wasn’t a legitimate expense.
At least, he didn’t while they’d been together. Post-separation was a different story.
“A client?”
Ricky occasionally worked for people outside of his law firm. He technically wasn’t supposed to, but he’d insisted it was fine if he did work for friends off the books.
But that name didn’t ring a bell as a friend she’d ever heard of.
“Maybe,” Lisa said. “But in his declarations, he has a $500 a month cash deposit line item. Sounds like a side job retainer. I’m thinking maybe the Anthony person.”
“Okay. Is that a bad thing? I mean, for settlement purposes?”
“Not on its own, no. If he’s off the books, that’s between him and the firm.” She took a long pause before continuing. “But I’d bet he’s getting paid more than that. And if it’s coming in as cash, he’s not claiming it as income. It means he has more income than he’s claiming. I’m guessing a lot more. But I don’t know how hard you want to fight to uncover it. My guess is it’s impossible with mediation, so you have to decide if you want to take him to court over it.”
She definitely didn’t want to go to court if she didn’t have to. Whatever extra cash he was hiding was his business. She didn’t want to be tied up with it if his firm found out about it, either.
A knock jostled her attention back to the apartment and her next order of non-divorce business.
“Thanks, Lisa. I owe you.”
“You don’t,” Lisa said. “But I’ll take a lunch one day to catch up on life as payment if you insist. I miss seeing you around.”
“Same. And it’s a deal.”
She ended the call and stood, heading toward the townhouse’s front door. She opened it to find Cody standing in front of her wearing khaki shorts, his green zoo polo shirt, and a big grin. In his hands were a clear blue plastic container and two pizza boxes balanced on top.
He’d texted her to give a heads-up that he was on his way from the zoo. She’d been relieved to get the text because she had no idea what she would do with this animal if Cody flaked out and forgot he’d promised to check on them.
There was a loud squawk behind her, followed by, “Who the hell are you?”
“I see he’s still at it.” Cody entered and placed the container on the floor near the cage, balancing the pizza boxes on top. Gary paced back and forth on his perch, bobbing his head up and down as he stared at the new items in his environment. “I brought food for both of you.”
“Thanks. That was… thoughtful.” She tried not to sound surprised, but her tone gave her away. Her stomach also gave her away with a low growl from forgetting to eat dinner. “I’ll grab some plates.”
When she returned with the plates and a stack of napkins, she recognized the logo on the cardboard boxes. Her favorite pizza place in town. And it wasn’t just around the corner, either, so this hadn’t been an impulse stop. He had to have gone out of his way to pick these up.
“This is my favorite place,” she said. “Did you know that? Did Taylor tell you?”
“Nope. It’s my favorite, too.” He put the boxes on her coffee table, then opened both to show her the contents. “I didn’t know what you’d want, but I remembered you ate a chicken wrap when we went out. So I got the blackened chicken and artichoke along with my favorite, boudin and jalape?os, drizzled with cane syrup. Take whatever you want. I like them both.”
Geena stared at the pizzas, her brain spinning around the comment about her chicken wrap.
He’d remembered what she ate on their date?
A shiver ran up her spine as she processed that and inhaled the aroma from both pizzas mingling in the air. “I love both of them, too. You sure Taylor didn’t tell you that?”
He shook his head, a proud smile stretched across his face. “Lucky guess.”
“But I thought you said you lived in Breaux Bridge?” It wasn’t far from her townhouse in Lafayette, but it was farther than most would go for a pizza. “How’d you know about this place?”
“I grew up near here. My parents used to get pizza from there all the time.”
Geena’s brain stalled out, stuck on the realization that she and Cody had grown up in nearby neighborhoods. She’d known that Taylor went to school with him after Geena left for college, but something about knowing they’d been physically so near each other did weird things to her insides.
But… she didn’t even like the guy.
She wondered what her body and brain might do if she actually did like him.
Nope. That wasn’t a thought path she needed to go down. Something about getting divorced was making her brain react in all kinds of unexpected ways.
Cody gestured at both boxes. “Take your pick. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
“Let’s fucking eat!”
Cody raised a brow at the bird. “Well, that one’s new.”
“Lucky me.”
She grabbed a piece and slid it onto a plate, then she bit into her slice of blackened chicken and artichoke pizza. The crust was both crispy and chewy. The mozzarella thick and rich. The chicken spicy, paired with the tangy marinated artichoke hearts.
Perfection.
“So what’s all this?” Cody used his slice to gesture at the papers spread out on one corner of the coffee table. “You taking classes or something?”
“Or something.”
She wished it was for classes. But Geena held back from telling him she missed school. People rarely responded well to that, but it was true. She loved learning. And while there were always opportunities to learn new things, especially with all the access to information available now, she also missed the structure of classes. Someone else to make the decisions of what she needed to know by when. Her work projects had deadlines, of course, but those projects weren’t exactly what she’d call fun.
“Work then? You seem the type to take work home.” He swallowed a bite, then shook his head. “No offense meant at all. I swear. No judgment either. Just an impression.”
“I wish it was for classes or work.” Geena sighed and rested her slice on the plate, staring at the papers. “Divorce paperwork.”
Cody froze and cringed with his slice of pizza still hanging out of his mouth. After he bit off a piece and chewed it most of the way, he mumbled, “Yikes. Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “I’d go through twice the paperwork if it meant getting all of this over with faster.”
“And I’m guessing if this person was even remotely respectful of your time and energy, you wouldn’t be going through this divorce stuff in the first place.”
“You guessed correctly.” She narrowed her eyes at him curiously. “Although I’m not sure how you would guess that. As far as you know, I could have been a lousy partner.”
He laughed and gestured at the papers in both neat piles and strewn about. “This all screams conscientious.” He then tilted his head like a puppy, examining her and carefully choosing his next words. “And you seem like the loyal type.”
“I don’t know whether to thank you or be offended by that.”
“It’s a compliment.” He wiped some tomato sauce from the side of his mouth. “A trait I respect, but don’t possess.”
Well, that was… honest.
Despite her wobble of attraction over his care for the bird and his remembering what she’d eaten on their date, she was glad she’d mentally ended things before she found out this minor fact firsthand. She was kind of a sucker for honesty.
Although, you wouldn’t know it from her marriage.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said quickly after. “I’m not an asshole. I’m upfront about the fact that I’m not interested in a long-term commitment. I get restless and move around a lot. So I’m honest about that and clear that I’m just looking to hang out and have a good time for as long as I’m around.”
She could respect that, she supposed. It was more honesty than most of the people she’d dated before Ricky were capable of. Definitely more honesty than her ex had given her.
“I don’t remember you being clear about that with me, though.”
“It’s not always a first date conversation,” he said. “Especially when it’s pretty clear the other person isn’t interested in a second date.”
She opened her mouth to object to his assumption, but closed it and smiled. If he was going to be honest, he deserved her honesty in return. “I was that obvious?”
“Oh, for sure.” He wiped his hands and placed his napkin on his empty plate on the coffee table. “I’m not offended, though. I know I’m not for everyone. That’s cool. We gave it a shot, and it didn’t work. No harm, no foul.”
“And yet, here we are.”
He looked at the partially eaten pizzas, then turned back to Geena, his face scrunched in confusion. “Is this date number two?”
She laughed at the thought of them accidentally having a second date. One that was somehow less doomed than the first.
No. That wasn’t true.
If she’d been having any second thoughts about writing off their potential future, he’d already clarified the fate of this experiment.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “You gave me the ‘not into commitment’ speech, so we’re clear on that.”
“Let’s fucking eat!” Gary repeated.
Geena looked at the bird and felt bad for it having to watch them eat. Even though he still had lots of pellets in his bowl. It just seemed rude that they had such better food.
“There’s plenty,” she said.
“Yeah, well, he can’t have any.”
“Aw, come on. Not even a little bite? He’s been a pretty good boy since he’s here.” She wiped her hands with a napkin and tossed it on the empty plate. “Surprisingly, still quieter than my ex was.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“You’d believe it if you met him.” Her phone dinged. When she looked down at it, she couldn’t believe who the sender was. “Speak of the literal devil.”
“Does he have a radar for all of your dates?” He winked at her and put his hands up. “Just joking about the date part. I know I’m only here because I left you a bird.”
Geena barely registered what he was saying. She was too busy fuming at the contents of Ricky’s message. She muttered a curse under her breath, which was immediately copied at an ear-piercing decibel by Gary.
“That. Exactly,” Geena said.
“If you need to take care of something, I can start cleaning and setting stuff up to give you the rundown when you’re ready.”
She didn’t want to take care of this message and inevitable call. Not now. Not ever, really. But she might as well get it over with.
“I’m just gonna make a quick call in the other room. I’ll be right back. Thanks.”
“No problem,” Cody said, as he opened the bucket and began removing items.
“Rat bastard.”
Geena barely registered Gary’s very appropriate remark as she hurried down the hallway. The phone rang on the other end as she slipped into her bedroom and closed the door for privacy.
“What in the hell were you thinking, Geena?”
“First of all, do not speak to me like that.” Her hackles rose, and her tone grew more commanding with each word. “Second, Lisa and I are friendly acquaintances. You would have known that if you’d paid any attention to my life at all when we were together.”
“I’m not talking about you two getting your nails done or whatever the hell you do together.”
His voice was nasally like it always was whenever he didn’t use his nose strips to sleep with. She guessed he was too busy with his new live-in girlfriend to remember those.
“Who I speak with and what we discuss is none of your business.”
“You do not want to take this to court, Geena.”
His insistence on using her name repeatedly was a power move she immediately recognized. It never worked on her before, and it certainly didn’t now.
“How do you even know I spoke with her?”
“That’s not the point, Geena.”
“What is the point, Ricky ?”
She’d already had more than enough of his self-entitlement in their conversation. The sooner she could end this call, the better.
“The point is that you do not want this going to court. I’m allowed to spend my money like I want. And I get to spend some of that money on the woman I love without you deciding it’s owed to you.”
That was bait.
And while it was supposed to sting, it didn’t. Not one bit.
Well, not the other woman part.
The only thing that bothered her at all was his jab about spending his money the way he wanted. She’d always been the frugal one, making sure they had savings and taking care of maintenance things, while he had spent his spare money on dinners with friends and, as it seemed now, on other women.
She didn’t regret saving money. She only hated the unfairness of the arrangement.
And she didn’t care about any of that if it got him out of her life quicker.
“Who said anything about going to court? I asked a friend to be a second pair of eyes on my documents. You know I like to be thorough.”
“Yes, well, there’s a difference between being thorough and being difficult.”
“I’m not the one who’s been difficult through all of this.” Her pitch rose the more he got under her skin. She hated that he was getting to her.
Gary squawked in the background then shouted, “Bitches get stitches!”
“Was that a squawk?” Ricky asked. “Did you get a bird?”
“That’s not the point, Ricky .” She took two deep breaths and centered herself before continuing. “If you want to keep this in mediation—and trust me, it looks like that’s in your best interest—you’ll think twice before you try to threaten me again.”
She ended the call before he could respond.
That part felt good. Really good.
She smiled at the phone, glad that she’d gotten the upper hand for once. Then she took one more deep breath, exhaled slowly, and returned to the living room to learn how to care for a mouthy parrot.