Page 22 of Mean Moms
Frost quietly changed into her white Eberjey pajama set, throwing her clothes in a pile next to the bed. Tim was passed out on top of the covers, but Frost snuggled underneath next to him, collapsing into an intense, dreamless sleep.
She woke up hours later. Tim was gone, only his body’s impression on the duvet remaining. She checked her phone to see that it was already 10:30 a.m. She pulled up her Gmail and saw Art had responded to her email. She opened it.
Okay, fine by me.
Okay? Fine by me? That was it? A year of sex and betrayal and sneaking around and all she got was: Okay? Men were such shits. She saw she had four unread text messages. One was from Flora, from 8:15 a.m.
King and Alfred are at school. Drop-off was fine, though some moms were acting a little strange. Alfred sounds like he’s getting a cough. I’m downstairs if you need me.
The other three messages were from Belle.
The first one read:
Have you checked the Atherton WhatsApp?????
Confused, Frost opened the second:
What were you doing out so late??
And then:
Frost, call me. Whenever you get this.
Frost wasn’t active in the Atherton WhatsApp group, which mostly consisted of moms discussing after-school activities and teachers’ gifts with a heavy dose of passive-aggressive sniping. She navigated to the Atherton Lower School Moms channel. There were hundreds of unread messages, but Frost started at the top. Whatever Belle was referring to was recent.
Dre Finlay
Ladies, this isn’t the correct forum to be discussing this! As administrator, I’m going to have to ask you all to please refrain from bringing it up again. What people do in their private lives is up to them. I won’t have this channel devolve into Deuxmoi!
Gabby Mahler
You mean Deux Moms.
Frost scanned down the chain to a few hours earlier, where she saw someone had posted a link to a Page Six piece in theNY Post.
Katrina Lowry
Uhhh, has everyone seen this?
Hattie McConBelle
Wow, looks like I’m missing out by dutifully putting my kids to bed and having dinner with my husband…
Dinah Grotton
Eeeeekkkkk.
Frost clicked on the story in thePost, which had gone up at 7:00 a.m. It was tiny, no more than a photo with a large caption. The headline wasUP WAY PAST BEDTIME, and underneath was a snapshot of Frost, her face partially obscured, dirty dancing with Ryan and Paul Newman on a banquette at ZZ’s, just hours earlier. She could see Sofia’s bare shoulder in the snapshot, but her face wasn’t visible.
A feverish feeling came over Frost as she read on.
ZZ’s, the exclusive members club from Major Food Group, is Manhattan’s go-to spot for celebrities, influencers, and professional athletes. And as of last night, add one more category: New York’s Hottest Mom. Pictured here is Frost Trevor, former It Girl and parent at downtown’s most prestigious private school, Atherton Academy, seen dancing and reveling until all hours with a mom friend and some boy friends. Cool kids… meet the Cool Moms.
She read it over and over, in disbelief. She’d never been more humiliated in her life. Who would have sent this to thePost? Why would thePosteven publish it?
She called Belle, the phone ringing twice before Belle picked up, sounding like she was in the middle of a workout.
“What the hell?” said Belle, in what Frost thought was an accusatory manner. “It’s all anyone is talking about! Drop-off was insane.”
