“Good,” Jamie said, flippantly. “Because we’ve got a cat that gets uppity when Etta isn’t around to curl up next to.”
Adele sucked in her lips. “I see. Never took you for a cat person, Etta.”
“Oh, we’ve got, what, five, six of them now? I can’t keep track. I only intimately know the big one who starts crying if we’re five minutes late to bed.”
“I see.”
Aw, she referenced us going to bed together.Jamie wasn’t sure why that made her feel giddy. “So, Adele …”What a strange name to say out loud. It sounded fancy, sophisticated, but it was also an unnecessary mouthful.A lot of people would say that about me.“What is it you do again? Etta’s only ever told me that you’re also in business.”
“Why, yes. We were in the same class at Yale Business School.”
“Naturally.”
“Our paths diverged afterward. She went on to create her empire with the help of the friend she met… who is unfortunately no longer contributing.” Adele inhaled, not wanting to mention Jacqueline, either. “I began cultivating my contacts and accumulating my fortune as well.” When Jamie continued to stare blankly at her, Adele explained, “I began with investments and worked my way up. I’m used to dealing with different holdings like Etta does. Combining our businesses will be good for both of us. She gets help, and I get…”
“She gets about $700,000,000,” Etta filled in.
“That’s it?” Jamie asked, drolly. “Not a full billion?”
“She’ll have to work for that.”
It was the sort of joke that would go over with either one of them by themselves… but together? Even Adele looked at Etta as if she should mind herself.Nobody is looking at her like I am, though.Jamie hoped that her girlfriend could feel her disdain miles deep behind her eyes.
“I have every intention of bringing my A-game to Coleman Enterprises.” Adele smiled again, her pearly white, perfectly straight teeth gracing the world with only a hint of tongue between them. “Soon to be Thompson-Coleman, as we agreed.”
“Heaven forbid my name ever come first.”
“Coleman-Thompson sounds like the kind of degenerative disease you get as a big, nasty surprise after you’re exposed to a nerve agent.” Adele looked at Jamie. “Don’t you agree? My name sounds better first.”
Jamie didn’t want to agree, but she had to. “It does sound better,” she mumbled. “Also fits your personality.”
“How so?”
“You prefer the face of the company to be someone else.” Jamie shrugged. “Why not be someone you trust? You clearly trust this woman here.”
Adele bristled, her carefully constructed façade threatening to come down. “At least you agree with me.” She pasted her glistening smile back on. “If Etta isn’t careful, we’ll become the most formidable team in her life.”
Don’t get your hopes up. Jamie was going to have a long talk with her girlfriend that night. Lots and lots and lots of talking andnot much else!
“I know you’re nothappy about this.” Etta sat on a couch on the far side of the bedroom, drinking scotch and ignoring Jamie’s eyes stabbing into her. Look at me, asshole.All those words about how she was the best woman in the world… how she had never loved someone as much as she loved Jamie… and for what?Bullshit. Etta was good at being full of shit when it was most convenient. Then she went and brought her ex-girlfriend-almost-fiancée in as her new business partner. Jamie knew this jealousy was irrational, but this was worse than Amanda prancing around the office in short skirts and boosted cleavage. This wasAdele Thompson.
Jamie sent herself down a toxic rabbit hole on her way home earlier, sitting in the back of the Town Car with her thumb scrolling through her phone.“Etta Coleman and Adele Thompson,”she had punched into Google. Sure enough, a million results came up, including high-resolution photos of a younger Etta and a glamorous Adele attending formal functions together, Etta’s hand around Adele’s waist and Adele’s hand constantly on Etta’s shoulder or, worse, herknee. Old articles hailed them,“The best-looking couple to start hitting Page 6.”This was back when Etta made her first few million and started gaining public attention. Now she was a billionaire, and Adele Thompson had her own Wikipedia page that listed her numerous feel-good charities and linked her to Hollywood actors and European royalty in recent years.
Adele was a beautiful woman with a shitton of money. An article from that January predicted she would be the richest woman over twenty-five in the region by the end of the year, beating out even Kathleen Allen, who currently held the title.“And it’s more impressive,”the writer said,“because, unlike Ms. Allen, Ms. Thompson has accrued most of her wealth on her own. Not bad for a woman who had to take out student loans to go to Yale.”
Barbarossa brushed up against Jamie’s legs as she thought this.Right now, I’ll side with Kathleen because she took a kitten. Speak of the devil, a kitten emerged from beneath the bed,swatting at Barbarossa’s tail and making her leap five feet in the air before hissing at the bedroom. Neither Jamie nor Etta laughed as they usually would.
“Happy? I am happy that you found a partner to take a load off for you… I just don’t want her taking moreout of you.”
“What are you talking about?” Etta drank more. “There is nothing between us anymore. This is strictly professional.”
“Like you two used to be strictly personal before?”
“She has her own private life now, as I have mine. I wanted you to meet her before it hit the press. We’re making a formal announcement on Monday before initiating the legal side of things, but… can you blame me for going with someone I trust and know will work well with my business? Not to mention the amount of new business she is bringing with her. I’m sure you’ve Googled her by now.”
Jamie didn’t comment.
“She has one of the biggest publishing firms on this coast. Outside of New York, anyway. International audiences. Presses, books, textbooks. It’s her passion, and I want a piece of that pie. Our current publishing house is floundering a bit.”
