“I don’t know. But if you’re sitting on a ten-million-dollar windfall, split three ways, make sure you know that you’re going to be splitting your third by half with Ted. I’ll email you the information I need.”
“Okay.” Ali’s heart sank.What was Ted thinking? Fighting over something he had no right to, something he shouldn’t even know about, really?
“Was that what I think it was?” Faye asked.
“Yeah, Ted’s attorneys want half of my theoretical third of whatever we get for this place. How in the world does he know what we’re sitting on here? And the gall to think he should have a piece of it!” Ali was livid. Ted had called a lawyer and decided to pick through her business, all the while sleeping with his teaching assistant.
Faye’s face was red. And they hadn’t been out long enough for sunburn. Faye got up, paced a few times, and then turned to Ali.
“Um, yeah…that’s my fault. Oh my gosh, it’s my fault! I rubbed his nose in it.”
“What?”
Thirty
Ali
“This is my fault. Totally my fault.”
Faye was pacing up and down the little stretch of beach that had, up until a few minutes ago, been paradise.
Sunset was on the way, and today, Didi and Jorge had insisted they handle the Grand Finale. Faye and Ali were the only ones staying in the cottages, so it would likely be a smaller affair than the last few days had been.
Jorge and Didi had handled it for the last fifteen years. So why was Ali taking this on as her responsibility? But she was. She was worried Didi would get overheated or Jorge would try to carry too much.
Ugh. Focus on your own issues!
“It’s just a shocker, the fact that he’s the one that filed and that he’s going after this place. Like, I might be the one who has to pay alimony? Is that even possible?”
“That cheater? I mean, that’s what set me off. He was cuddling with this co-ed at Costco, and I just blurted it all out. You didn’t cheat, you shouldn’t have to pay.”
“Well, that’s not how it works. We would have had to split things, and since he made more and was the one at fault, I was likely going to get support. I mean, I don’t want that, but I did quit my own college to work when he was in school.” Ali had started booking the banquet at the Sheraton Hotel and then eventually moved into the convention space. She had never finished her degree.
“And now he wants this place?”
“The lawyer said my third split in two, but I mean, it’s not like we knew we had this place. So?—”
“—I amlivid. He shouldn’t get a dime from you!”
Slowly, the usual audience for the Grand Finale trickled onto the beach. Erica from the coffee shop greeted Didi and Jorge, and then Ali waved her over to meet Faye.
“You look like you need this more than me,” Erica said, handing Faye a glass.
“I like her already,” Faye quipped to Ali and gulped it down.
“I’m thinking something is going on, what’s happening?”
Faye looked to Ali, and Ali nodded. She hadn’t spoken much about her marital situation. But she also wasn’t trying to hide anything. She actually needed advice and counsel right now. She’d found Erica to be a cool head with good insights. She listened as Faye summarized Ali’s current disaster of a personal life.
“Her soon-to-be ex-husband, after ruining the marriage, wants to ruin her future by getting his hooks into this place after it’s liquidated or whatever.”
Ali winced at the term liquidated. She hated the idea.
“Oh, ex,” Erica replied, “that clears that up, Henry was asking.”
Faye looked at Ali, who shrugged.Why would he be asking?
“Whoa, who’s tall, pepper, and handsome over there?”
