Chapter 22
“Oh my God, what an asshole!”
Cora is as outraged about Jeremy’s attempt to get custody of Teddy as I am. In fact, she looks almost angrier than I did. Her whole face is red, and she ferociously kicks a soccer ball lying on the grass hard enough that it flies all the way across the lawn.
We are waiting outside the school for the kids to get dismissed from school.
I made an attempt to join Cheryl and Ashlyn, but after Jeremy served me with divorce paperwork right in front of them, it was so awkward that I couldn’t try again.
Ever since then, I have been waiting with Cora. And as it turns out, I really like her.
“Ezra says it’s because he wants to get out of paying child support,” I tell her.
“Well, of course that’s why.” She grits her teeth. “That’s why he’s an asshole. He wants to take a child away from his mother just to get out of paying you what you deserve.”
It’s pretty despicable. Which makes me wonder if it might have been Veronica’s idea.
“By the way,” she says, “how is the new lawyer working out? I’m so upset that you couldn’t use Stefanie.”
“He’s really good, actually. He seemed so disorganized in his office, but in the mediation, he was pretty tough.”
“Good. You need someone tough.” She examines her nails. “And is he cute?”
I stare at her. “I don’t think that matters.”
“Of course it matters!” She puts her hands on her hips. “Sweetie, you’re about to be single again. You’re allowed to start looking around!”
“Well, I’m still married for the moment.”
“Technicality.” She clucks her tongue. “So is he?”
“Is who what?”
“Your lawyer! Is he cute?”
“Uh…” She’s clearly not going to let me off the hook until I give her an answer. But the truth is it’s hard to think about anyone besides Jeremy that way. He might have checked out of our marriage, but I’m not there yet. “I guess he is.”
She winks at me. “Remember—Charlotte married her divorce lawyer.”
“Who’s Charlotte?”
“On Sex and the City! Oh my God, Naomi.”
I’m not sure if I should be embarrassed to admit that I never watched the show, but either way, I have more important things to think about. “I just wish I knew more about this girl that Jeremy is seeing. I would love to dig up some dirt on her.”
“Good idea.” Cora nods enthusiastically. “It might be a no-fault state, but if the woman he’s seeing has a criminal background, that’s definitely going to hurt his custody case.”
“I don’t even know her last name,” I say regretfully. “I got her license plate, but it turns out it’s actually pretty hard to find out any information on a person just based on that. All I could look up was information about the vehicle.”
Her eyes light up. “Give me the plate number! I’m dating a cop, and he will totally look it up for you.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah! He’s wild about me, and he’s always bragging about how he could find out anything about anyone. Let’s put him to the test.”
I thank Cora profusely and text her the photo I took of Veronica’s New York plates. I can’t wait to see what she finds out. She really is a great friend.
But there’s a part of me that wonders if this might be a mistake. Ezra has promised me that he will handle everything and get me a fair settlement. Maybe it would be a mistake to rock the boat.
Then again, if this woman is going to be around my child, I need to find out her story. I am 100 percent sure that she is hiding something, and I intend to find out what it is.