Titty down for her afternoon nap and then popped open a bottle of white wine. Over spritzers on the front porch, the girls began to reconnect.
Lila confessed, “You my friend, have the best life I could possibly imagine. I’d give my right arm to be in your shoes.”
Jilly looked startled and blurted out, “What in the hell are you talking about? I don’t even have a life. I’m mommy, soccer coach, PTA member and wife. I haven’t read a book or shopped for the thrill of it in over four years. And the last time I took a nap, Jack nearly tore the house down. I don’t even know who I am any more.” Then she burst into full blown tears and continued, “I want your life! I want to be single and unencumbered for awhile. I want nice hair and clothes and invitations to glamorous parties. I want to wake up in the morning and feel like a worthwhile, interesting person. I want what you have!”
Lila felt like she had just fallen back into bizarro world. She thought if Jilly had any idea what her life was really all about, she’d run screaming for the hills. So she tried to explain, “Jilly Sparks, you do not want my life. I work for an egomaniacal, sex-crazed, maniac agent with a Napoleon complex. If that isn’t enough, I live in a town where I’m considered fat and no man west of the Mississippi has ever taken me out on a fourth date. Melinda fricken Forrester has somehow become my arch enemy and even my eyebrow-waxer gossips about us!”
Jilly snuffled through her tears and muttered, “I want an eyebrow-waxer…I want to know Melinda Forrester…I want to live in sunny California.”
“You gotta trust me Jilly, California is like living in the book of Revelations. We’ve got fires, floods, mud slides and earthquakes. If you add all the egos to that, it just couldn’t get much worse. Sure we have nice weather, but heck, it’s not nice enough to put up with all the other crap.”
Jilly interrupted, “Then why do you live there?”
Absolutely stumped, Lila answered, “Truthfully? I have no idea. I think that’s why I came home. I feel like it’s time for a big change in my life and I’m hoping that a few weeks back here will help me decide what I should do.” As she spoke those words, she realized how true they were.
Looking like she had just been handed a life line, Jilly asked, “Li, why don’t you move back to Bentley? Wouldn’t that be great?”
As dissatisfied as she was with her life in L.A., moving home was not something that had ever occurred to Lila. But now that the thought was out there, she realized that she could come home if she wanted to. She felt like she had just experienced a major epiphany. Like the clouds broke open and the sun beamed down right on her. There was absolutely nothing keeping her in California except a job. (A job she was becoming more and more dissatisfied with.) She would definitely have to give this idea some serious consideration.
Lila and Jilly continued to talk and sip their drinks for another hour before Bill came home. He watched the kids while Jilly drove Lila back to her parent’s house. On the way, Lila called AAA to come and tow the SUV to the garage to check for damage and then prepped for the reunion with her parents.
Will and Elizabeth, a.k.a. Bitsy Montgomery, met at Yale when Will was in his third year of law school. It was the week before he took his bar exam and he was so exhausted from studying that he was totally running on fumes. As he walked down the street, not paying any attention to where he was going, he ran right into the woman of his dreams, literally.
Bitsy was on campus visiting her then boyfriend when Will bumped into her. Montgomery family lore had it that they fell madly in love and announced their engagement within two months. Will passed the bar on his first try, received a job offer that took them back to Bitsy’s native Chicago and their fairy tale began.
Lila thought about what a great life her parents had and was boggled at
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