The presence of her own lawyer, a man she rarely saw because who the heck needed a lawyer when you were just Jamie Joy?
Apparently, she did.
“Etta…” Jamie stood in the middle of the immaculate office, smelling of old tomes, sour liquor, and musty cigars. “What’s going on?”
She knew what Etta was going to say. She didn’t say it. Instead, she left it to her lawyer, a wiry old man who looked at her with a knowing“I have been here before and I will be here again”gaze.
“Didn’t Ms. Coleman tell you?”
“Jamie…”
“She’s arranged for us to go over the prenuptial agreement today.”
“Forgot to mention that, huh?”
Etta wasn’t a woman who ever looked sheepish, but there was definitely some color on those chiseled cheeks. “I thought I had told you…”
“No!”
Amazing how quickly Jamie’s good mood could up and die. Funny thing, that. It was almost like she didn’t appreciate having the idea that she was a money-grubbing cow whom Etta would have to divorce one daysprung on her. Didn’t exactly feed into Jamie’s confidence. Why did she have to be told what she already knew?
Probably because the first term Etta’s lawyer presented her basically said,“You get nothing, Jamie Joy. I’m smiling at you, and she says she’s in love with you, but guess what? You get nothing.”
Didn’t matter if her lawyer said this was due course and this was how negotiations began. It didn’t matter that Etta was willing to be more than fair on every item on the list. It didn’t fucking matter that Jamie didn’t get control of the company in any way, but she could take stock options instead of money if they divorced.
If they divorced.
It was two months before her big wedding, and not only did Jamie not have a dress, but she wasn’t even sure she would have a fucking fiancée at the end of the day!
Part 3
Vows
Chapter 39
“So then her lawyer has the balls to tell me that if I cheat, I only get 25% of the previously agreed upon monetary amount… but if Etta cheats… nothing changes, boom, she doesn’t ‘owe’ me more money or anything.”
Jamie had to shout over the spring breeze blowing through the open restaurant. Mariachi music blasted on speakers a few yards away, and the rabble of other hungry patrons was enough to drown out a sonic boom. Somehow, two old friends found it in them to converse across a checkered table full of nachos, taco salads, and some super fattening, over-stuffed burritos.Not like I’ve got a wedding dress to fit into!
“Shut up,” Seena said, crunching on tortilla chips. “She totally did not say that! And you totally did not agree to that!”
“Of course I didn’t. My lawyer would have had a heart attack if I did.” The worst part about “negotiating” a prenup was that Jamie was eternally on the defensive. Etta’s lawyer tried to get away with shit, and her lawyer had to counteract with,“Now, you know that’s not fair. Fix it.”Thinking about it made Jamie shove more cheese sauce in her mouth while rocking out to the mariachi music.Purge that brain, baby!Not even two daysbetween that shit fest and now could make her feel better. “I haven’t talked to Etta since!”
“Fuck, I wouldn’t either! What a douche move!”
“Right?” Jamie had been hyperbolic. Ofcourseshe had spoken to Etta. They went home that night, her stewing in anger, and Etta unable to figure out why she was so mad. When Etta ended up working late on Monday and staying in the penthouse, Jamie didn’t rush down to see her. She would rather sit at home and clip her toenails while watching the latest episode ofReal Housewives. Nowtherewere some women who knew the pains of prenups…
It wasn’t the fact that they had a prenup that angered Jamie so much. They were going to have one at some point. Etta was a billionaire, and although Jamie had almost no assets of her own, she was still a threat to Etta’s fortune should they divorce sometime in the future. No, what pissed her off was how it was sprung on her like a mouse caught in a trap… and the fact that her lawyer treated her like a gold-digging bitch the whole time. Didn’t she know Jamie? Didn’t she know the trauma she had gone through thanks to Jacqueline Love? Lawyers weren’t shit. Including her own.
“So, what happens ifshecheats?” Seena didn’t bother to wipe salsa off her face. Loud and proud, right on the corner of her mouth. “You get her ass as compensation?”
“I should have put that in there.” Jamie kept fisting chips in her mouth as she spoke. “No. Instead, ifshecheats, I get a 25% higher payout and an extra 20% in alimony payments.” The original negotiation was a 10% increase in alimony, but Etta insisted on doubling that.
“Damn. Not too shabby, really.”
“That’s not the point!” Jamie was going to upturn her basket of chips and not give a fuck. “Thepointis that she didn’t even tell me we were going to do that… all she said was we were going to ‘swing by’ her lawyer’s. The woman claims we had discussed it before, but I sure as hell don’t remember it!”
“I’m sosorry…”
