Sadie tried not to scowl as Mandy listed all the wonderful things Karen had done for her. All the wonderful ways Karen was better than her she thought in irritation.
“And Karen knows so much about animals. Dad took us to the zoo, and she was telling us all about the animals…”
“That’s nice, baby,” murmured Sadie.
“Did you know the platypus is the only mammal that lays eggs?”
Out of pettiness, she considered saying yes, but no, she didn’t want to start going down the road of lying about her knowledge and intellect – it would only backfire on her later if challenged to prove it.
“I didn’t,” she admitted.
“Isn’t Karen clever?”
“Yeah, she’s terrific,” said Sadie with forced joviality.
“She’s helping me redecorate my room. Dad says I can do whatever I want to it and that I can have a big screen TV.”
Sadie sighed internally and peered around at her drab, little apartment and the drab moving boxes she hadn’t managed to unpack yet. She didn’t really blame Mandy for preferring her dad’s house to the apartment. Only someone with a twisted sense of humor would prefer her shabby apartment.
“Dad was asking about you,” added Mandy, just a tad reproachfully.
Sadie bit her tongue. She didn’t want to volley a tart reply at her daughter. Mandy didn’t need the nitty-gritty details of her parents’ divorce. Mandy was still hurt by the fact that Sadie was divorcing her dad; she couldn’t understand Sadie’s reasons for wanting to leave. As much as Mandy loved Karen – her dad’s new perfect girlfriend – she was still hoping that her mom and dad would get back together. Sadie would rather strap a rocket to her butt and become the first cosmetics saleswoman in space.
“That’s nice,” murmured Sadie, “tell him I said…” Stop trying to control me, dickhead? Drop dead, asshole? “Send him my regards,” she finally settled on. He could figure out what those regards were in his own time.
“I should go,” said Mandy, “we’re going out for dinner. We’re having my favorite – pizza at Alfredo’s. So much nicer than those frozen pizza pockets you buy.”
Yep, there was no money in the budget for Alfredo’s – not if they wanted to pay for rent and electricity.
“That sounds lovely,” said Sadie softly. “Okay, baby, have a nice time. I’ll see you soon.”
“What’s that? No, it’s just Mom, and we’re finished now.” Mandy was talking to someone in the house – sounded like Karen. Sadie tried not to grind her teeth. “Gotta go, bye Mom.”
“I love…” Mandy hung up. “You,” finished Sadie sadly.
Sadie replaced the phone into its cradle and sighed, staring at the wall. Who thought pea green was a good color for a living room wall?
Oh, the weekend was so long and dull when Mandy was away. She didn’t like Mandy staying with her father, but Mandy loved him, and he loved her too. She couldn’t be petty and keep them apart. Well, she could, but she wouldn’t.
She sighed and grabbed the phone again, deciding to call her cousin. Gina was a receptionist for a lawyer. The lawyer, Brian, was kind of an ambulance chaser but he did have a law degree – from the fifth best online college out there - and was representing her in her divorce. Given that Gina was also dating him, Sadie was getting reduced fees – she was grateful for them.
“Hey, G-girl.”
“S-woman,” trilled Gina.
“I’m not interrupting anything am I?”
Most people tended to do fun things on their Friday nights.
“No, I’m just in bed.”
“You are? It’s seven thirty.”
Gina snickered. “We’ve been in bed for an hour. My man’s just taking a cat nap before round two.”
“Ugh, lovely.”
Gina laughed even more. “What’s up?”
“I’m kind of bored. Mandy’s with her dad this weekend.”
“Right, of course,” murmured Gina sympathetically. “You want me to come over?”
“And miss out on round two?” said Sadie dryly.
“He’ll keep. Brian’s happy to have sex at any time of the day.”
“Remind me never to drop by your office without an appointment,” said Sadie, sending Gina into chirrups of laughter. “But seriously, I’m fine; I want to do some prep work for my sales this week. I was just calling to see if you had any news about the divorce.”
At the moment there was very little progress, mostly because her husband was severely dragging his heels and arguing about everything. He knew her terms – she wanted out and just child support for Mandy, that was it. But he was arguing about everything – or really, Mandy, because that was the only thing she cared about. So, Sadie had stopped going to the meetings between the lawyers – mostly because she couldn’t stand watching her husband smirk at her the whole time.
At that time, Mandy was living with Sadie, but her dad picked her up from school a couple of nights a week and took her out, and she was also spending every other weekend with him. Well, him and Karen.
“Ummm…”
“What’s wrong?” snapped Sadie, immediately on her guard.
“I don’t want you to worry…”
Too late she thought grimly.
“But his lawyer suggested the possibility that he might want full custody of Mandy.”
“What?! No, he can’t.”
“It was just a throwaway suggestion on his part,” said Gina soothingly.
“But…”
“But, Brian can’t deny there may be a small, tiny, teeny-weeny possibility that he could get it if he pushed for it.”
“But… but I’m her mother!” spluttered Sadie.
“I know, sweetie. It’s just that he’s financially sound, and in a stable relationship with a teacher, he can afford to keep a pony for her…”
Yeah, a freaking pony! That was a gift to Mandy after they moved out – not something that could be brought to their new apartment! As if Mandy needed another desperate reason to want to move back into her dad’s house. Bastard.
“He lives in a great school district…”
“And I’m renting a crappy apartment from a guy I’m certain is jerking off under the counter whenever I talk to him,” said Sadie bitterly. “What can I do?”
“Well, Brian says it may help if you were in a stable relationship – you know, having a double income, and two people to take care of Mandy.”
“I can’t just find a new boyfriend at the drop of a hat,” sighed Sadie.
“Have you tried looking?” suggested Gina gently.
“Ugh. Not sure I want another guy.”
Not after the last one. Controlling jerkwad.
“You know you can move in with me,” offered Gina.
That was sweet of her, but she lived on the other side of the city in a tiny one-bedroom apartment usually occupied by Brian. While Brian was a decent enough guy, he was husky and hairy and not a sight to behold in his underwear every morning – Sadie had seen it once and once was more than enough.
“Thank you, but that would mean uprooting Mandy again and I can’t. It was hard enough to move once – she’s still pissed about that.”
But at the time she had to move out of his house. He was called Al, short for Alastair, or Big Al to his friends, and he was a dick. She had to leave, but he made sure she couldn’t go far. Their temporary custody agreement made sure of that.
“Just think about looking for a guy,” said Gina. “Really, you need someone to look after Mandy when you’re at work.”
Sadie let out a sound of agreement. Currently, she had a neighbor watch her – which was not ideal, as the neighbor was eighty and tended to fall asleep a lot.
“Plus, with another income, it means you won’t have to work longer hours.”
“I know. I’ll… consider it.”
“Wha… whahappnin,” mumbled a male voice on the other end of the phone. It appeared that Brian had awoken and given the way Gina started cooing at him, he was ready for round two.
“Thank’s, G, I’ll speak to you soon.”
She hung up before she heard anything she could never un-hear, and started unpacking her sample cases.
She had a lot to sell this week, and with Mandy away for the rest of the weekend, she could get a jump start on it and could easily be half finished by Monday. But what about when Mandy was back? She needed more time, more money – there just wasn’t enough!
Everything was possibly made harder for her because Al was trying to get in her way – trying to make her fail. She was sure he was. No one believed her, but there was a reason no one wanted to rent her a house in their old neighborhood – because Alastair was head of the businessman’s alliance. He told all his friends they couldn’t rent to her. He wanted both Sadie and Mandy at home with him. But no matter what he did, there was no way she was going to crawl back to Al.
No way in hell.