Chapter Two: The Third Girl

Susie and I Find Annie

Susie and I moved from two play date moms to cemented sisterhood in a four hour marathon coffee date a week later. Like two soldiers at war, we bond as we tell of our battles, losses, and wounds. It was more than just commisserating. The experience of seperation and pending divorce is an isolating experience. People don't know what to say, so they don't say anything. Friends fade, and you are left feeling like you have an incurable disease. But instead of being sentenced to soliditude on an uncharted island, it was as if this curly haired castaway had discovered my island, rowed to shore, and announced grinning that she was here to share my island. She didn't have the map back to civilization either, but the good news was at least we had each other.

Susie and I quickly decided that first and foremost we would do what any other good women in such circumstances would do: Get drunk. As soon as possible. Truth be told, this was more my idea than Susie's, but I am super sales woman of the universe and it wasn't long before I had her convinced that many of our immediate problems could be solved by no less than three martinis.

The next weekend finds Susie and I downtown huddled on a couch in a swanky bar, and I honestly deserve some kind of award for getting this woman to stop talking long enough to actually drink her martinis. Niether of us are truly drinkers, so we are enjoying our brief detour into alcohol induced amnesia when I notice another acquaintence of mine standing in the middle of the room.

Annie.

She is talking on her cell phone and looks completely out of place, like a little lost imp in a sea of drunken college students. That's Annie, I tell Susie. What is she doing here?

Annie is my former backyard neighbor, the epitome of a trophy wife. Her husband a powerful and influential member of our community. And other than the fact that she used to live by me and I've always thought she was a sweetheart, I know very little about her.

I swoop to her side and faster than you say island dwelling martini sipping soon to be divorce' Annie confesses a series of truths that bring her solidly into a club that only an hour before, had only held two girls.

Now there are three.