Page 55 of Takeover

Tara: Vickie took the damn picture yesterday.

Me: Love it. Love you. You can wear it for me at night in the privacy of our own pool.

Tara:I’ll wear it whenever and wherever the hell I want.

Me: If by wherever you mean our private pool outside our private residence, sure.

She texts me back with an eye roll emoji.

“Ethan!” Lindsay says. I finally put my phone down and look at her again. These days, I’m more partial to power suits and string bikinis.

“Lindsay, what are you doing here?” I turn back to my contract and listen with half an ear.

“I was in the area and thought I’d stop in and invite you to lunch.”

“It’s ten in the morning.” I pick up my coffee and sip it. Lindsay stares. I know she’s waiting for me to tell my assistant to get her a coffee, but I have no time for Lindsay today.

“I can sit here and wait. I used to spend hours here, remember?”

“Not only can I not have lunch, but I don’t want to. Get to the point. I have a meeting.”

She clears her throat and wraps a strand of hair around her finger. “How about you and Vincent come over for dinner tonight? I’ve been taking a French cooking class and I want to make you beef bourguignon.” She emulates a perfect French accent when she says the last word and attempts to make duck lips.

“Lindsay, what is this about?” I sit back in my chair and run my hands across my face. “You do remember that we’re divorced, right? I’m civil to you because we share a son. Make no mistake, Lindsay, we are not friends.”

She walks to my desk and sits at the end of it, facing me. Her strong perfume assails my senses. It’s flowery and clinging. Not at all like Tara’s classic Chanel No. 5. “I want to change that. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’ve done a lot of work on myself over the past year. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, Ethan. Therapy helped me figure out that my choices were taken away from me my entire life. I couldn’t pick the major I wanted, or even go to the college of my choice.”

“I’ve heard all of this before.”

“When I ended our marriage, I think that was my way of fighting back. Of taking some sort of control of my life, but now I realize how wrong I was. I had it all, and I threw it away. You were a great husband, E. We’re not even married anymore, and you treat me better than anyone else in my life. When you came to my rescue all those weeks ago, that was an eye opener for me.” She reaches over and puts a hand on my bicep. “You’re an amazing father and man. We have something good.”

I shrug from her hold. I push back from my desk and stand as far away from her as possible.

“Had. We had something, and in retrospect, it wasn’t that good.” She stands and after two steps in my direction, I hold up a hand, stopping her. “We are over, Lindsay.”

Her eyes pool with tears, and her bottom lip visibly trembles.

“We can work on things. Don’t you want Vincent to grow up with both of his parents?”

“He is. You live two blocks away. You can see him whenever you want.”

“Yes, but—”

“We’re over.” We stare at each other, her blue eyes brimming with unshed tears. She shakes her head as if my words are too hard to hear.

“I still love you, Ethan.” I almost want to laugh at her admission, but before I can open my mouth to order her to leave, my phone rings. It’s Tara’s ringtone. I’m across the room in two strides.

“Tar Tar.” The words come out rushed, but after a long weekend without her, I don’t care if I sound desperate.

“We’re officially in New York City.” I hear her siblings cheering in the background. “I miss you.”

“Me too.”

Every year Tara and Vickie spend this weekend in Boston with Alan. It’s the start of his university’s spring break, and he comes home with the girls for the week. “Were the accommodations okay?”

“You mean the presidential suite that my boyfriend booked for me? Not only that, but I had my own driver and car the whole time. Yeah, the accommodations were perfect. I can’t wait to see you and show you my gratitude.”

“I can’t either. Will you be there when I get home tonight?”

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