you were always such a mousy, good girl. Come to find out that you had a whole life that you didn’t tell anyone about. You lied to everyone,” Lilith shot back.
“And you broke Jonathan’s heart,” I added.
“Stop pretending you care about him,” Sarah cried. “You don’t care about anyone. Besides, he’s never going to choose you. He loves me. I’m divorcing Trevor, and Jonathan and I will live happily ever after. He’s pined for me all these years.”
“Oh, please,” my sister scoffed. “I bet the only reason you came back was because you saw Morticia with him all over the internet, and you were mad that she extinguished the flame he had always carried for you.”
Sarah’s face screwed up. “You’re just jealous,” she spat. “I’m a born-again virgin who will be a dutiful wife and mother, while Morticia is just some starving artist that is freaky both in bed and out of it.” She glared at me. “Jonathan’s going to realize what kind of girl you are, and he’s going to dump you by the wayside just like he did all the others.” She was smug. “I watched him over the years, you know. I wanted him to be good and sorry for not behaving how I wanted him to behave. He always loved me; that’s why he never had a girlfriend since me.”
“He has Morticia now,” Emma said coldly, “so you better run along back to Trevor.”
“I don’t know if Jonathan and I are quite like that,” I said cautiously.
“Nonsense!” Lilith insisted. “It’s clear he’s infatuated with you.”
“No he’s not!” Sarah stamped her feet. “You probably put something in his drink. As soon as he comes to his senses, he’s running back to me.”
“The holidays really do make people insane. You can’t have two men,” Lilith insisted. “What are you going to do, have some sort of reverse harem?”
“Maybe,” she screeched.
Lilith barked out a laugh. “As if. I bet Jonathan’s seen through your smoke screen. He’s not going to want anything to do with your judgmental ass. You can’t even cook. You made that nasty vegan lasagna at your wedding. It had those cardboard noodles in it.”
“I’ll show you,” Sarah said. “I’ll show you I can cook. He’s going to come crawling back to me, and we will be married by Christmas.”
50
Jonathan
Though Morticia had said she wasn’t going to leave me, she did just that after we ate.
“Don’t forget,” I reminded her as she shrugged on her trench coat. “We should schedule a playdate.”
“For the cats,” she added.
“Well, that too.” I kissed her again. “Stay,” I whispered. “I need you to stay.”
“I have to do another shopping session for the bake-off,” she said, pushing away from me.
I paced around the living room after she left.
You’re acting paranoid and crazy. I needed her here though. I needed her with me forever.
“She’s not going to leave,” I tried to reassure myself. But if she found out about my scheme with the Svenssons to manipulate her into sweet-talking Dorothy, then she would be out of my life for good.
“She won’t find out.”
Morticia: You still wanting Hamilton Yards?
Jonathan: Yes!
Morticia: Just spoke to Dorothy. She has a list of demands including space to put her naked yoga classes.
Jonathan: …
Morticia: Don’t ask.
I pumped my fist.
Jonathan: This development is in the bag.
Carl: You made up with Morticia! You dog! I knew as soon as she had a taste of the full Frost holiday spectacular she was going to be on board.
Greg: We should schedule a meeting with her and Dorothy to make sure we’re all on the same page.
Jonathan: Apparently there are demands, including a space for naked yoga.
Greg: We will promise whatever she wants. Even if she puts it in the contract, I’ll have my lawyers craft it in such a way that we can basically do whatever we want.
That was not going to work for me. I looked out the window at the industrial complex. I had seen the renderings in the Svensson Investment offices. They had changed the whole character of the property. The proposed towers dwarfed the eight- and ten-story brick factory buildings. They even had one tower slamming right down in the middle of a former factory.
I wanted to be with Morticia for the rest of my life. But once she saw what was planned for the Hamilton Yards development, she was going to leave me.
Morticia texted me sporadically the rest of the day. No sexy pictures, though, which was too bad. She also didn’t join me that evening. I had