Published
Every Day
Chapter 10
"That’s Right"
by Sasha Cooke
Stacy raised her eyebrows but then caught sight of the drone. “Well I guess all the cards are on the table,” she said. "And just what do you have to say, Reidy, I mean assuming you don’t have any projectiles?”
Reid started in about fiduciary duty but Stacy raised a hand after half a sentence. “Excuse me a moment, I‘d like something a little stronger than fizzy water, although thanks for the offer, Henry.”
She turned and walked towards the drinks cabinet. All these years after Finn’s birth and she was still confident that the sight of her walking away and bending over for a bottle would keep the boys quiet while she thought. She pulled out a bottle of Campari and poured three fingers into one of the tall glasses above the cabinet. Half a small bottle of tonic and a swizzle stick to stir it. Not really a swizzle stick. In the early days of their marriage when Stacy still thought it might be fun to do the whole decorating thing she had found these silver straws, made, in a quirky conceit, to look like real straw straws, but with tiny charms hanging from tinier chains at the tops. Edwardian, the fey old antique dealer had told her.
She turned and saw that the two of them had barely moved. Henry after his brief bursts of violent emotion was generally pliable- that’s why this whole thing had started, wasn’t it? Reid was his usual reedy self, you could always blow him any way you wanted.
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She stirred the drink a moment longer the tiny fox jingling on its chain, pulled out the straw, and standing hipshot in her heels, pointed at each of them in turn. “Henry, you still can’t see that it’s childish stuff like that that,” she gestured with her drink at the dripping wall, “that makes me want to mess with you? Honestly I knew after a year that you would never grow up, but by then Finn was on the way, and you know the rest. And Reid, you think I don’t know you don’t give a rat’s ass for your fiduciary duty? You’ve wanted me since high school and you’ve come up with a weasely way to move me and Henry apart, as if we needed one. Let’s face it, Elena’s no genius but even she knows you’re not going to grow up either. Now I guess she has the tits to go with that air-head, which I guess goes with your damn air-horn,” she added irrelevantly, waving the straw in a musing loop.
Pointing it at them again school-marm fashion, she snarled, “If the two of you think you can get in my way, you’ve forgotten how well I know you both, but…”
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She could see all of it as if it were on story boards or a damn Power Point, and it would indeed be damn satisfying, but was it really the way to go? The law suit wasn’t going to wash- probably the settlement too, and divorce-wise she WAS the adulterer. Piss guys off and they’re harder to manage. C’mon, they had no idea what was going on in her head, most men are somewhere on the autism spectrum- clueless about what anyone else thinks.
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She stirred the drink a moment longer, the tiny bunny jingling on its chain, and slipping out of her heels padded over to the high stools at the kitchen counter. She slipped onto one and put her bare feet on the second rung, shrinking herself. Holding the drink in both hands she sipped at it through the straw. Without looking up she said, "Well it looks like I’m in trouble, fellas, any thoughts on what I better do now? I’m still Finn’s Mom and I’ve known you both forever.” She waited a beat and looked up. Reid was already working into his “Oh I’m a thoughtful and sympathetic man” face, and Henry, blindsided, looked like a lower primate being shown a vanishing coin trick. “I mean you’re the guys I’ve always relied on, even though I know this time I’ve…”
NO. No damn way. It would work just fine- she’d been pulling versions of it for as long as she could remember, but it was just plain BENEATH her to let these clowns play the big kind men taking care of the wayward girl. Still, she wasn’t going to be able to run everything her way- she had to make sure she came out at least fifty- fifty.
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She stirred the drink a moment longer, the tiny top hat jingling on its chain, and raised the glass to her lips. Naturally the straw gave her a good poke in the eye. She jerked her head away from it and gave a burst of laughter followed by a look of mock dismay. “Curses, foiled again. If it’s not a Gott in Himmel straw it’s some darn recording drone. Any plan I make gangs agly if it involves inanimate objects! Remember that floor sander Henry? How about that time I ran the cash register at the high school bazaar, eh, Reid?” The boys were looking almost ready to turn. Was that a slight chuckle from Reid?
Stacy set down her drink, walked toward them and put a hand on each of their shoulders, letting them feel that she was still giggling at shared memories. "Now listen you guys, I was already figuring this sucker wasn’t going to work. Cavanaugh’s really not up to this kind of tricky stuff anyway. I mean he’s just a kid, Henry, not a real businessman like you guys. but I’ve got me an idea for a way better one. Listen to this.”
Yeah, sure Stace, that’s the way to go, not humiliating, not too sexy demoness scaring them off forever. Only one problem.
This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are
either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.
