“Huh?” He looked confused.
Was this the first time she’d ever mentioned this to him, the first time she’d asked him to take personal responsibility? He could build a world inMinecraftand knew everything about sharks. She could probably ask him to do a little more.
“Lucas, I can’t always be there, so you need to pay attention. You copy?”
Another realization smacked her upside the head. This was probably how someone became a Phil, man babies who couldn’t do anything for themselves except make money. Phils weren’t born. They were made. In doing everything for these kids, she was shirking her responsibility to make them into decent humans.
She looked at Kyle and said, “I love you. Make sure Granny doesn’t kill anyone.”
Kyle laughed—a real laugh. “Okay, Mom. It’s fine.”
What was going on? Everything was going to hell in a handbasket, she wasn’t doing any of the mom things she normally did while she messed around with the EOD and the Mafia, but something in Kyle had loosened. An error screen flashed in her mind. The inputs did not compute. Had she been holding on too tight?
Granny thrust a coffee into Gabby’s hand and handed her her purse. “Relax, Gabriella. No one is going to die.”
Gabby clicked her seat belt and pushedPLAYon her audiobook. It had been a week since she’d spent any time with her personal divorce/life coach, Sloane Ellis. Markus—damn him—had mentioned that the chapter on coping mechanisms helped his work-life balance. Markus giving her any advice was suspect. Firstoff, probably a mole. Second, a guy without kids talking to her about work-life balance issues—talk about a joke.
But she needed help figuring out how to deal with him, and Sloane was her best bet. As usual, the freeway was jam-packed. The EOD probably didn’t have to give anyone from LA tactical driving lessons, because that’s what it took to get to work. She swerved around a random shopping cart someone had left in the right lane, and sped up to join the mass movement toward downtown. A world of concrete subdivided into eight lanes of cars spread before her.
She’d always trusted people based on instinct—were they nice to her? Did they seem genuine? What kind of energy did they put out into the world? Markus passed all of her tests with flying colors, but even he had said, “There are no friends in espionage.”
“Hello again, this is Sloane Ellis, your favorite life coach.” Sloane’s voice filled the car with calm authority, the kind Gabby would like to project. “Today we’re going to talk about managing your daily life. After divorce, you might have more tasks, more responsibilities. Do you feel stressed all the time?”
An unhinged laugh escaped Gabby’s lips.
“Often the stress of divorce comes from managing life alone. You no longer have a partner to do the dishes, pay bills, take kids to school, or bring in half the income.”
That was true. At least Phil had taken care of the bills before.
“I can help.” Sloane’s promise rang through the car like a siren song.
Gabby turned up the volume.
“Number one: Say no to the tasks that don’t need to be done. Set strong boundaries. There is no balance without the word no.”
Justin had already told her this.
“For stressors that can’t be avoided, I recommend compartmentalization. Divide up the tasks. Put ‘bills’ in one virtual box and ‘making dinner’ in another. Do one thing at a time.”
Gabby laughed. Like she hadn’t tried.
“The world might be loud and filled with demands. You can’t change that, but you can make your own calm. Note, that I didn’t say ‘find.’ I said ‘make.’ Create a room in your mind. Make it beautiful, peaceful, empty. When you need to complete a task—pay the bills, do the laundry, make dinner, book a vacation—go in the room you created for yourself and don’t let anything in.”
Is this where all the men were when you needed them?
At work, she marched into Kramer’s office before she had even made his coffee. Better to rip off the Band-Aid and see if she still had a job straightaway. “Did you get the Evite?”
“Ah, the Evite. I better RSVP, huh?” Markus said, completely unaware of what he was walking into.
This was as good as she could hope for. At least she could get everyone’s response over with at the same time.
Kramer sat up and put his elbows on his desk as if she’d just reminded him to yell at her about that. “I did get the Evite. Are you out of your mind? This isn’t a fucking Halloween party! This is an investment business. Do you think you work for a frat?”
In the earpiece, Markus gasped. “Did Justin do this? What the hell? Why?”
Gabby took a deep breath. At least she didn’t have to go through this explanation twice. “Themed work parties are a trend,” she explained. “The goofier the better. They help people loosen up. Itgives them something to talk about. I read an article in theWall Street Journalabout it.” She hadn’t, and she doubted Justin had either. “Fran agrees.” Also a lie.
“It’s going to be a huge hit. Mafia-themed parties are very in. Not to mention, it goes with the venue.” Parroting Justin’s words, she said, “It came together organically.”
