Part 7 (1/2)
”Not after I found out he was bonking Miss Upper Crust”
”The other woood Rule nu alive in the clutches of a potential psycho killer: Get him to see you as a person The more he learned about you, the harder it would be for him to carve out your heart and stick it in the freezer between the microwave burritos and the Klondike bars So I prattled on, Mazie the motormouth
”It wouldn't have been so bad if he'd picked soa instructor Instead he went for Prentice Stodge We'd see her at parties I'd be pigging out on the angels on horseback-”
”The what?”
”Oysters wrapped in bacon” Probably Jeffrey Dahmer didn't know his appetizers either ”But Prentice would be nibbling frouess she was terrified she ht blimp up to a size two”
Labeck looked startled ”Is there such a thing?”
I tried to iender that never worried about fitting into its pants
”TrustMiss Trust Fund when they both served on so the rain forests wasn't easy, because Kip and Prentice were forced tolunches' I found out later that what they orking at was screwing each other silly”
It was hard picturing anyone doing the deed with Prentice, though Those collarbones would rip you to shreds I toweled my wet hair with a corner of the bath sheet ”Maybe it was her ines Oldy, moldy money Shake her fa out”
”What about you? No silver spoons in your family?”
”Nope We eat with our hands”
Labeck cracked a grin
Hmm
”I think Kip was attracted to me at first because I was different from the women he usually dated Maybe he married me to spite his mother-to prove she didn't control hih When he , right? The guy hat-thirty years old and he's still getting an allowance?”
I spoke through a frenzy of cruot married And Vanessa-that's his mother's name-had always footed his bills When Mommy Dearest turned off the money faucet, Kip blamed me for it He still had his nickel-and-dih”
”What did your husband do for a living?”
”He worked for his uncle's co He was a VP in soes were being garnisheed Kip didn't tellchunk in real estate just before that whole bubble burst He ended up owing his creditors a lot of ot a court order to take what he owed out of his wages But Kip didn't understand the concept of cutting back He was spending wayup He even-”
I stopped, feeling a flush creep froirls here”
”Kip onlyBut he didn't keep up the monthly payments, so”
”The Mafia caer?”
Even after five years theto the jeweler”
Taking a deep breath, I continued ”Kip and I starting fighting a lot I'd cry, he'd walk out I'd grovel and Kip would sort of-well, you kno you peel off a puppy who's trying to crawl up your leg? I thought ere just going through a rough patch The marital advice experts all say that's nor Kip back into my arms I starved erie”
”Did it work?”
”Kip liked the lingerie He liked the sex Only he wasn't”
There The er present Maybe he'd never been there in the first place Maybe I'd been so dazzled by the man I'd created in my mind that I'd never seen the shallowness at the core of Kip's personality
The two-ed
”I found out that Kip was seeing Miss Junior League, but I didn't have the guts to confront hi each other This wasn't hard since our schedules were so different Kip stayed out lateI was out of bed and driving to work by the crack of dawn”
”Wait-you were married to one of the Vonnerjohn heirs and you still worked?”
”How else e going to h school h job-I was ready to crawl into bed by ten o'clock every night Kip and I communicated by notes”
Each note a little more hostile
Buy toilet paper
Your mother wants you to call her back
Keep your Goddamn pantyhose out of the sink
Refill the ice cube trays! In case you haven't noticed, we don't have a butler!
Third notice from the security company Pay the bill, for Christ's sake!!
Turn the kitchen faucet all the way off Water dripped all over the floor last night
F U
”Instead of telling me face-to-face he wanted a divorce, Kip stuck the divorce papers on the refrigerator with a sob Doothat I quit the premises within thirty days”
Labeck took out the pizza, set it on the counter and started slicing it ”You were being kicked out of your own house?”
”Yes Even though we'd used ht a two-story colonial in Whitefish Bay, a pricey Milwaukee suburb It was a step down status-wise frohborhood, where the homeowners mulched their flowerbeds with thousand-dollar bills and even the garbage collectors had PhDs Still, Whitefish Bay was an expensive neighborhood Somebody should have thrown a bucket of ice water inoff too much house, but I was in the throes of first love and wouldn't be talked out of e fantasy