Burning Down the Spouse by Dakota Cassidy Page A

reluctant (very, very reluctant) journal of ex-trophy wife Frankie Bennett: The first rule of the Princess Club? Suck it up. Please. This is by far the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done. I don’t want nor do I care to document my postdivorce road to recovery so I can look back one day and smile at how far I’ve come. Seeing my pain in black and white isn’t therapeutic at all. And PS, Maxine Barker’s a flake. I’m only doing this to appease my Aunt Gail because she’s looking over my shoulder right now and making me feel like I purposely didn’t go to confession. So in the interest of keeping her happy, here’s my first entry. And Maxine Barker’s still a flake.
     
    “You do so know who she is, Nikos. That was a crappy thing to do,” his brother Cosmos chided with a slap to his back as they watched Maxine and Frankie cross the parking lot. Nikos mentally noted the drag in Frankie’s step, the slump of her shoulders that were too damned skinny, and the sag of her jeans on what he’d bet his left lung had once been a sweet ass.
    He fought a grin. “Giving her a job was crappy how, Cos?”
    “You know what I mean, you shithead. I heard everything while you pretended not to know who she was, then went about making like she was the second coming.”
    Nikos winced. Yeah, he was a shitty improviser. “That just sort of happened. My bad. But she was working pretty hard to avoid getting herself hired. Max told me she would because she’s post something or other traumatized.”
    “Postdivorce.”
    “Yeah. That was it. She said she’d be sullen and disinterested. So I just went with it. Steamrolled her, so to speak.”
    “How do you suppose it made her feel, knowing you plan to use her infamous freak on television as a promotional tool?”
    “I would never do that. You know it and I know it. I just didn’t want her to run away, so I did a little off the cuff. Max’ll tell her I was just kidding. Besides, I owe Maxine. She was really good to Kelly. I wanted to return the favor,” Nikos said, reminding his brother of the help Maxine had given their cousin after her ugly divorce.
    Cosmos nodded his sleek, dark head. Only an inch shorter than his older brother, he gazed up at him with narrowed eyes. “Yes, Max was great to Kelly. If she hadn’t stepped in when she did, I’d bet Aunt Dora’d be in the crazy house after that jackass and Kelly broke up. But if Frankie didn’t already feel uncomfortable—and judging by the way she won’t look anyone in the eye, she’s a wreck—you only made things worse by telling her she’d bring the diner business with her supposed celebrity.”
    “Okay, so it wasn’t the best plan.”
    “So what is the plan?”
    “The plan,” their mother, Voula, said, poking her head out from the kitchen doorway, “is to fatten her up! Ack! Did you see, Nikos? She is so skeeny. I will make lamb. You think she like lamb?”
    Nikos smiled at his mother, short, big-haired, and boisterous. “Who wouldn’t like your lamb, Mama? I agree, Frankie needs to eat.”
    Voula nodded, tightening the knot of her apron around her thick waist. “Good. I make baklava, too. Maybe even spanakopita.” She headed back into the kitchen, determined to fatten up the poor, unsuspecting Frankie.
    Cosmos took in Nikos once more. “So the plan? She says she hates to cook. I heard it right through those paper-thin walls. How does that help you and me in the kitchen with the prep work?”
    “The plan is to give her a paycheck she probably wouldn’t get anywhere else due to her limited skills. Besides, what’s Kelly always telling us Maxine taught her? To suck it?”
    “Suck it up, princess,” he corrected.
    “Right. Max said Frankie needs to stop indulging in self-pity and get back on the horse. She told me she has to take it like a man, and she needs a paycheck to do it. Frankie’s Aunt Gail was so worried about that woman, she cried. You know how much I love the ladies from Leisure Village.