Chapter Six: Find a Cowboy
I opened the door to my house and placed my keys on the hook next to the doorway. I sighed as I pulled off my high heels, landing flat on my feet for the first time all day. I took a moment to bounce on my toes and back down to flat feet to stretch out those sore arches. I padded further into my house, setting my bag on the kitchen counter as I rounded it to open the fridge. I pulled out a cold pizza and a beer, tossing one on the counter and popping open the other. The first sip of beer eased the tension from the day and calmed my frustrations slightly. I was still reeling from the interview debacle. The photographer messaged me right before I left for the day, and sure enough, the water had destroyed the data. To top it off, a new intern erased the camera crew's hard drive containing the only copy of our recording. Nothing was salvageable.
There had also been something off about Grant Dawes from the get-go of the interview, but I couldn't precisely place what it was. I'd contact the Hot Shots PR coordinator on Monday to re-do the interview. I wasn't going to get my hopes up that Grant would agree to it after the significant fuck up today. So why was my belly filled to the brim with butterflies fluttering at the thought of seeing Grant again?
I glanced around at my home's empty space, hating that it was no longer filled with my things. The hours I spent carefully choosing each piece or item were wasted because my ex-husband wanted revenge for an offense I didn't know I had committed. I chugged the entire beer can before I heard the door unlock and the sound of female chatter bouncing off my hallway walls.
"Letty, Mom let herself in again! You should really take away her key!" my elder sister, Eleanor or Ellie, called out. I rolled my eyes and grabbed another beer from the fridge in preparation for my mother's reaction to my home.
"Violet!! I think you were robbed!" My mother turned the corner to my kitchen, looking around wide-eyed at my almost empty living room. I sighed, opening the beer and taking a small sip. The first had taken enough of the edge off. I didn't need to get extremely drunk and do something stupid again.
"I wasn't robbed, Mom. I sold some of my stuff." I pinched the bridge of my nose. I really wished my family was the type that called ahead of time, but alas, they were not. We were close, which meant we were in each other's business way too much. It got worse after Dad died.
"What do you mean you sold your stuff?" Ellie raised her eyebrow.
I set my drink down and looked at the two women before me. The feminine genes in my family ran strong, so they both looked back at me with almost identical eyes. My sister's jawline and mouth mirrored my mother's. However, her nose and forehead were from my dad. The eyes were all from my mother, hazel variants depending on the lighting at any given moment. So when I say they both looked at me with the same cautious yet curious stare, I mean it. It feels like I'm getting twice the judgment. "Well, my divorce was settled on Wednesday, and according to the agreement, I owe Ben half the house's value. However, it does not say I must sell the house to pay him. I do not want to lose my house because I love this place. Ben has always hated it, but I love everything about it. So I sold almost everything I could and will take out my savings and 401K to pay him the rest. It's no big deal."
Both women's jaws dropped. It was a big deal. Even with all of that, I was still short, but that was a problem for another day. My mother's eyes rimmed with tears, and she shuffled around the counter to pull me into a huge hug. I struggled to contain my emotions. "Oh, honey, you could have asked for help."
"That jackass seriously demanded half the house value. He didn't help with the downpayment and barely paid his portion of the mortgage on a good month. What an asshole!" Ellie scoffed.
"Language, Eleanor!" My mother scolded as she held my shoulders at arm's length.
"No, mom. Ben was an asshole, to begin with; you even said you were not the biggest fan." she insisted. This was news to me, but my mother only offered her opinion if directly asked.
My mother bristled with offense, "I would never say anything like that! However, we need to discuss this and see what we can do to help."
I waved her off, picking up my beer to take another sip. "It's already done; there is nothing else you can help with regarding that."
"There is never nothing to do. I can help in any way that is needed. I can at least be here to lend an ear or shoulder." I pulled my mother in for another hug. For all my complaints about the lack of personal space, I loved that my family was always my most extensive support. I would not have survived the last three years of my failed marriage without them.
"It's okay, mom. I promise I'm perfectly fine." I pulled back from her embrace and smiled. "Plus, once he is paid off, I can slowly fill my home with everything I like. Ben vetoed so many cute things that I wanted to punch him."
"You should've punched him in the nuts, filmed his reaction, and sold it for good laughs." Ellie laughed. She grabbed a slice of the pizza, "I love Paulie's pizza pizzazz! Their food is to die for."
I nodded, grabbing a slice for myself. Our mom joined us, "The pizza is good, but the real divinity is the--"
"Torta del Nonna!" We all said in drolly unison.
Suddenly, Ellie's face turned serious. "Look, as your sister, I'm severely worried about you."
Hearing the mischief in her voice, I scoffed, "Oh yeah?"
She tried to suppress a grin but failed, "Yes. I've seen your ex-husband, and I know for a fact you haven't gotten the love you deserve."Ellie leaned across the counter as if she were about to spill trade secrets, "You, my little sister, need to be fucked and fucked good!"
"Oh, sweet potatoes! Language, Elenor!" Mom fanned herself as her cheeks became beet red.
"Find a cowboy and let him ride you! No! Better yet, you ride that cowboy!" Ellie swung her arms in a circle above her head.
"Ellie, I just got divorced!" I replied, hiding the blush from thoughts of how I'd already been thoroughly ridden and then some by a very sexy hockey god. Not that I would say that in front of my southern-born and raised mother.
"All the more reason to get back out there!" Ellie proclaimed. She bit her lip and squirmed a little on the counter. I narrowed my eyes at her.
"What did you do?"
"I set you up on a blind date. For tomorrow night!"
"What the actual fuck, Eleanor!" I seethed.
"Language! I know I raised you girls better than this!" Mom replied, "But Eleanor, it is wrong of you to set your sister up without her permission."
"Sorry, mom." Ellie and I both monotoned our reply. "Ellie, seriously, I just got divorced two days ago."
"But Violet, you need to get back out there! Ben wasn't Mr. Right, but someone out there is. It's been at least a year since you slept next to Ben!"
"Ellie!" I reprimanded. I told her that in confidence because I didn't want to see the pity in my mom's eyes. She knew we were having problems but didn't know how bad they were.
"Violet?" cue the pity in Mom's eyes.
"I'm sorry. But Ben hasn't lived here in a year and wasn't around very much, even before you two separated. You are done pretending otherwise! There is no shame in moving on when he already has." My sister said in a soothing yet stern tone.
"What do you mean he has moved on?" I asked cautiously.
"I didn't want to show you this, but..." Ellie pulled up her phone and showed me a picture of a woman in a bikini snuggled up in Ben's arms on a boat. The tags showed they had just bought the boat together, and when I scrolled down her page, it looked like they had been together for a while. I felt a deep hurt for being lied to but relief that I didn't need to feel guilty about cheating when my husband actually did cheat. Fuck him. I set down Ellie's phone and looked directly at her.
"Tomorrow night?" I asked. Ellie grinned and squealed. I wanted to share her excitement, but my thoughts drifted to a fantasy date with a blue-eyed mystery man.