Inseparable: A New Adult Erotic Romance by Bella Chal

have seen the look on Julie’s face, because she pinched her lips and shook her head sadly. "How’s Jack?"
    "He’s crushed. The punch line: he got fired yesterday as well."
    "What?" she screamed.
    Julie held the door open and made air quotes as Cathy entered. "Someone turned in a bunch of old receipts he kept in his home office from sales trips that proved he took his clients to strip clubs, which was against corporate policy, so they fired him." After Cathy passed, she locked the door again.
    "And his ex-wife is the ‘someone’, right?"
    "That’s what we thought." They walked inside, as Julie turned off the alarm and turned on the overhead lights. "My heart breaks for the girls. They were really looking forward to spending weekends with their Dad. Why do people make their children suffer to score points? I swear I’m going to find a way to make that bitch pay, one way or another."
    They split up to finish preparing everything before opening. Julie started cleaning the equipment while Cathy set up the concessions counter. When Cathy finished she came out to help Julie disinfect the play area.
    "So, what’s Jack going to do for a job now?" she said as she sprayed and wiped the inflated vinyl equipment.
    "He’s going to work for his Uncle rough-necking out in the gulf."
    "Wait, they work in week long shifts, right? Is he going to have to move out there?"
    "It’s two weeks out, one week back for this company. He can’t move or Sophie will go to court to take away his monthly visitation. I’m going to help him keep an eye on his place while he’s gone."
    "I’m so sorry, Julie, that sucks."
    "Yeah, tell me about it." She pinched her lips to prevent herself from crying.
    "When does he leave?"
    "Tomorrow." Julie could no longer hold back her tears so she sat down. Cathy sat next to her and put her arm around her friend’s shoulders as she sobbed.
    "Just think about all the free time you’ll have for plotting your revenge."
    Julie laughed as she wiped her eyes. "Good idea."
    Cathy looked at her with concern. "What are you going to do?"
    "I thought about taking pictures of the girls’ room and putting them on my table at the flea market to see if anyone would pay me to do something like it for their kids."
    "That’s a good idea!"
    "It’s a long shot, but it turned out so well. I’m sure other girls would want a room painted like that."
    They continued to spray the strong disinfectant on the play equipment, trying to get it done before time to open, splitting up to cover more ground.
    Julie continued to ponder Jack’s situation as she worked. He had worked for his Uncle before and said all they had to do was reactivate his old employee record. The pay was actually pretty good, but mostly to make up for being so disruptive to relationships and families. Jack seemed resigned to his change in status, but it was obvious it felt like he was going backwards. The last time he worked there was during his summers off from college, when he was younger and fitter. Julie privately worried that the job might not be as easy as he had made it out to be.
    Despite her snap decision in the bathroom the night before to consider Jack her own, she was still surprised how quickly she had become attached to him. In the previous four weeks she had broken almost all her relationship rules for him, including overnight stays and involvement with kids. At first, he had been so raw that she had just wanted to take care of him. Later it was easy to rationalize that one more night over wouldn’t make that big of a difference. When her mother finally had to call her to see if she was alive she realized how deep she had let him in. She smiled as she thought, I don’t care, he is mine, all mine.
    His good heart showed through his actions with her and the girls. She considered herself a good judge of character, so she found herself unable to imagine why Sophie had come to hate him so much. She had gone past the common stories about vindictive