She needed him.
And since he’d moved out, all she could think about was how to get him back.
For one thing, he was the only one who loved her as much as she loved herself, and that was saying a lot. Would anybody else ever be able to match Ken’s devotion? She seriously doubted it.
Sure, back in high school he’d dated both the Wakefield twins, but that was only fooling around. When he fell in love, he fell for her. Hard.
How else to explain that when she tried to divorce him three years ago, he simply refused to leave? Okay, maybe not refused, but he hung around until she gave up talking to the lawyers. And then there were the looks he sometimes gave her, the ones that told her she was the goal line and he was coming across it, no matter what. Nobody else made her feel so worth…winning.
“I don’t think Ken is gone for good,” Jessica said. “He loves you.”
“He has a funny way of showing it,” Lila said. Like not answering any of her e-mails or texts or a dozen voice mails. “He’s never ignored me for this long before.”
“Maybe he needs a little more time to cool off,” Jessica suggested.
Lila knew Ken was angry with her. She’d said some awful things about him for the True Housewives show, but none of them was real. It was all pretend. Just like Paris Hilton and all her reality shows. Didn’t she say she was just exaggerating everything for good ratings? Well, so was Lila.
“Maybe if you quit the show…” Jessica suggested, even as her phone dinged again, drawing her attention.
“Quit? What! Never!” Lila couldn’t even conceive of the idea of quitting True Housewives of Sweet Valley. She was the show’s starring bitch and she happened to be good at it. Lila hadn’t done anything with her life so far except drop out of college, marry Ken, and spend her days dumping piles of money on Rodeo Drive. True Housewives was the closest that Lila had ever come to a life’s calling. She had great instincts for camera angles and drama, and her perfect little body looked fantastic on camera. If she gave that up, then who would she be? An NFL star’s wife. That was bad enough. Now she would be his ex-wife. You can’t be more nobody than that.
“I’m just saying, maybe that would help soften things with Ken,” Jessica said, her attention again on her phone’s lighted screen.
“Are you asking me to give something up?” Lila asked. “Um, excuse me, have we met?” She threw open her arms, which were heavy with diamonds and platinum. “When was the last time I had to cut back on anything?”
Jessica had to laugh. The thing about Lila was, she might be spoiled, but she was the first to admit it. You could say a lot of things about Lila, but that she was boring certainly wasn’t one of them, Jessica thought. “Sorry, I forgot.”
Lila pushed her dark hair from her forehead.
“And anyway, I’m not going to quit. Besides, there’s a problem: the producers want him on next week’s show.”
“You really think he’s going to do that?” Jessica’s phone dinged again, drawing her attention.
“He has to,” Lila said. “They said get him on the show or…else. I don’t know what the ‘else’ is, and I don’t want to find out, either. If I could just get him to talk to me, just once, I know I could straighten this out.”
Jessica shook her head in sympathy and was about to speak when her phone vibrated again.
“He has to come on the show,” Lila continued. Of course, technically, he hadn’t signed any sell-your-soul reality show contracts.
“Um-hm,” Jessica mumbled, eyes cast down on her phone, hardly listening, as she tapped out a response.
“Jessica, would you stop with the messaging already!” Lila grabbed the phone out of Jessica’s hand. “Screw Bruce!”
“Hey!” Jessica lunged for her phone but missed.
“I have your attention now,” Lila declared as she held the phone aloft. “No sudden moves or I will smash this thing.”
“No, no!” Jessica cried, hands up in surrender as she eyed her iPhone nervously. “Look, Lila, I’m sorry. It’s just you guys have been separated before. It’s not like it’s never happened before.”
“It’s never happened this way before.” Lila waved the phone.
“Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll listen. I know what it’s like to have your husband leave.” Jessica’s voice sounded full of sympathy now that Lila had a hostage—her iPhone. “Trust me, I know.”
Lila hesitated. It was true that Jessica knew what it was like since Todd had moved out. Never before had Jessica lost something so dear that she hadn’t intended to lose.
“At least Ken hasn’t slept with a cheap plagiaristic criminal,” Jessica said bitterly. Well, Lila had successfully gotten her to change the subject of conversation away from Bruce Patman. Unfortunately, not entirely in the direction Lila would have liked.
“You mean Sarah Miller?” Lila asked. Jessica’s phone was heavy in her hand. She stopped dangling it over the edge of the couch.
“You know?”
“Caroline Pearce, remember? Everyone knows.” Lila shrugged. Even though Ken wasn’t speaking to her, Lila was totally sure he hadn’t slept with anyone else, certainly not her main Housewife competition, Ashley Morgan. Not yet, anyway. Even the thought of him kissing her made Lila’s blood boil with jealousy. “Is he in love with her?”
Jessica looked sharply at Lila. “I don’t think so. He texted me, actually.”
“And told you what?”
“Give me my phone back and I’ll show you.” Jessica opened her palm, and Lila plunked her phone in it.
Jessica pulled up Todd’s
