The Sweet Life by Francine Pascal Page A

Christian Louboutin–clad foot impatiently on the rug, her diamond bracelet catching the light and sparkling like fire. It was bad enough she had to hear all about how talented Jessica was from her father, since she was his favorite rising PR star in his company VertPlus.net. She didn’t need to hear it from Jessica, too. “Sorry, Lila, I just—”
    â€œSorry doesn’t cut it, Jessica. I mean, what kind of friend are you anyway?”
    Jessica turned to Lila, blue eyes widening in surprise for an instant, and then reality set in. Surely she could not have thought that spoiled bitch personality was just for TV? No way. Jessica had known her best friend too long.
    â€œI’m in a total meltdown mode here,” Lila said. “Ken won’t even talk to me! And you’re blabbing on about Bruce Patman. Like I care!”
    â€œLila, calm down.” Jessica reached out to touch her friend on the shoulder and gave her a patronizing look that Lila couldn’t stand. It was the kind of look you gave losers and pathetic women whose husbands had left them for other women. Lila wasn’t going to be lumped in with them.
    She shrugged the touch away as she set down her mug of coffee on the table. She was beginning to wish she’d asked for wine instead. Not that Jessica had offered. Coffee was what she had brewing when Lila had dropped in unannounced.
    Lila looked at the bright burgundy lipstick smudge on the lip of her coffee mug and thought, Nothing is turning out how I wanted it to. And I really don’t like it.
    She’d gone over to Jessica’s for a little bit of handholding, and she wasn’t getting it. This, after all, was supposed to be her moment of drama. Ken wasn’t talking to her—at all. That had never happened before, not even when she’d asked for a divorce three years ago. It had been too long now with no word from Ken, and she was miserable without him.
    Since she’d first married him, Lila always thought he was mostly just a well-groomed accessory to her life—the handsome and sweet onetime high school quarterback turned pro who adored her. She always thought of him more like a lap dog—cute and loyal and one hundred percent hers . But since he’d finally grown a backbone and left her, she realized she actually did care about him, which for Lila was like the brink of love.
    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.
    â€œI don’t think Ken is gone for good,” Jessica said. “He loves you.”
    â€œHe 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.”
    â€œMaybe 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.
    â€œMaybe if you quit the show…” Jessica suggested, even as her phone dinged again, drawing her