The Ex by Freida McFadden(37)

It’s not like Melissa will ever find out the truth. We haven’t seen Melissa and Greg in years. I may as well enjoy telling one person about the engagement I’ll never have. About my diamond that is just too damn big. It’s a victimless crime.

“Greg was just talking about Joel the other day, actually,” Melissa says. “We should have you guys over.” She glances at her towheaded little boy, who has somehow gone from undressing himself to being completely passed out in the last few seconds. “I’ll have Greg send him a text or something.”

My mouth suddenly feels like it’s full of paste. “Wonderful. We would love that.”

She glances down at the dress I’m still clutching in my hand. “I’m heading to checkout. Are you buying that now?”

I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t.

Oh, what the hell.

I get in line just ahead of Melissa, because she’s still deciding between two pairs of pants. She holds up one of them and sighs. “This one is just the tiniest bit tight, but that will motivate me to lose weight. Right?”

“You don’t need to lose weight. You look great.”

She shakes her head. “I absolutely do need to lose weight. Unlike you. God, what’s your secret?”

Getting dumped so I completely lose my appetite. I don’t say that though. “Good genes, I guess.”

I lay the painfully expensive dress down on the checkout counter along with the shoes. I absolutely shouldn’t be buying these things, but they look so good. If Joel sees me in this dress, he’ll forget all about Olive. I’m sure of it. And you can’t put a price tag on love.

The girl at the checkout counter scans my items as she loudly chews on her gum. I hand over my credit card to swipe, and she looks at the cash register, her eyebrows bunched together.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Mascolo,” she says. “It says here your card has been declined.”

My mouth falls open. I know I’d been charging a lot of things lately, but not that much. Have I?

I guess you can put a price tag on love. And I can’t afford it.

I glance behind me. Is there any chance Melissa didn’t hear that? But no. Her eyes are conspicuously avoiding mine.

“Do you have another payment method?” the girl asks me.

“I… I think I left my other credit card at home,” I mumble. I finger the card she’s handed back to me. “It’s got to be some mistake though. I can’t possibly…”

Well, I could possibly.

“I’m sorry,” the girl says again, shrugging helplessly. “But if you don’t have another way to pay…”

“Right.” I shove my useless credit card back into my wallet. “Well, I’ll have to phone the credit card company… figure out how they made such a bad mistake! So inconvenient.” I say this last one for Melissa’s benefit. She’s now made herself very busy looking through her diaper bag. “Anyway, Melissa… I better go. I have to call the credit card company and figure out how this could have happened.”

Am I talking too loud? I feel like I’m talking very, very loud. I can’t seem to control it though.

“Yes, of course,” she murmurs.

“Why don’t I have Joel send Greg a text message,” I say.

She nods. “Yes. Perfect.”

But her eyes are on my left hand. She gets it. She knows Joel and I aren’t engaged. She knows everything I told her is a lie. She’s not excited to see me again. All she feels is sorry for me.





Chapter 23: The New Girl


“You look smoking hot,” Zoe declares when she steps back to examine the makeup she’s been applying to Cassie’s face. “Really sexy.”

Cassie looks at herself in the vanity mirror in her bathroom. Zoe found a photo of Katy Perry in the music video for “Dark Horse” and has been using it as a guide for how to do her Cleopatra makeup. And Cassie has to admit that Zoe did a fantastic job. Her eyes are lined with black, with sparkly purple and gold on her eyelids. The dark purple lips complete the picture.

“You did a great job,” Cassie says.

“And the dress fits you perfectly.”

Cassie steps back to look at the white dress Zoe lent her to complete the look. It does fit very well—that’s not the problem. The problem is the huge slit in the side of the dress that goes nearly up to her hip. This is most definitely a sexy Cleopatra costume. It wouldn’t have been what Cassie would wear if she could afford to buy her own costume, but nothing in her own closet fits the bill. If she doesn’t wear this dress, her only other option is sexy cat.

Zoe’s eyes light up. “This gives me a great idea for the bookstore.”

“What’s that?”

“An erotica section!”

Cassie nearly starts choking. “An… erotica section?”

“Sure! Why not? People would love it.” She taps her long black fingernails against Cassie’s sink. “You could have mostly books but maybe also some artwork. I would be happy to paint the artwork.”

Cassie imagines the look on Bea and Marv’s faces if they discovered Bookland had an erotic literature section. Then again, maybe they’d be okay with it. You could never tell with Grandma Bea. It’s certainly not the worst thing that’s been done to keep Bookland afloat.