It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a good security company.

My name is Stephanie Plum. I am thirty-two years old, divorced from a cheating scumbag, and proud owner of Plum Lingerie.

It has been four months since I last spoke to Ranger Manoso.

My divorce from my cheating scumbag husband became final today. I have five million dollars in my bank account, and kept sole ownership of Plum Lingerie. Dickie kept the townhouse, and I have an apartment. It's a two-bedroom apartment in a new building, so there's room for my nieces to come and stay. I was a bit lonely after I moved out of Rangeman, so I got myself a hamster. His name is Rex and he's a trained attack hamster, but since he can't get out of his enclosure, I also got Rangeman to do up the security for my apartment.

Hector installed the cameras, then stayed to watch The Passions of Santos with me. My Spanish skills are slowly improving, although they do flair toward the dramatic thanks to learning it from telenovelas.

My phone beeped and I looked down. I smiled. It was a text from Mary Lou.

"Freedom!" it said, accompanied by a dancing emoji. Today was the day that my divorce from Dickie became finalised. I'd woken up this morning a free woman.

I did feel a bit sad today, but mostly I felt like dancing. I decided to turn some music on and dance away while I worked. Mary Lou had offered to come in on her day off to keep me from moping around, but I'd told her that it wasn't needed. I'd gotten my share of our assets, kept control of Plum Lingerie, and said goodbye to Dickie.

I may have agreed not to share certain information around in order to keep control of Plum Lingerie and still leave with the money, but that's okay. I'm certain that Dickie will find it much harder to hide the information that he wants to keep quiet anyway, and that he will sink his political ship without my input.

Then again, looking at the quality of politicians out there, maybe Dickie is exactly what they're after.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Jane Austen wrote that in 1813 and from the speed that my ex-husband has moved on, it must still be true today.

But enough thinking about Dickie. I was officially done with him.

My phone pinged. I couldn't tell who it was from until I held it up and it gave me a preview once the facial recognition unlocked. I was thankful every day that this security feature didn't come in until after I'd caught Dickie cheating. The message was from Lester.

"The Dark Knight returns," said the text. I was confused, so I rang Lester.

"Are you watching Batman?" I asked him.

"You didn't get it."

"Didn't get what?"

"I should have sent it in meme form. Batman's back."

"Ranger? When did he get back?" I asked Lester.

"Three days ago."

"Is he okay?"

"In one piece."

"And he didn't call me?" I said. I was a bit hurt by that. With the send off that I'd given Ranger, I'd thought that he'd have been knocking on my door the minute that he returned.

"He won't call you because he's acting all tortured and shit. All I'm tainted, she's too good for me, blah blah blah. At this point I'm ready to just start calling him Edward Cullen."

Lester and I had a Twilight movie marathon a few weeks ago.

"I don't think that he'd get the Twilight reference," I told Lester.

"Anyway…" Lester said, trailing off.

"What?"

"Wait, I'm forgetting something, aren't I? What's going on?"

"I thought you were calling to congratulate me on being a free woman," I said.

"Free…? Oh it's divorce day! Congratulations! Great timing, now you can call Ranger and tell him. Either that or I can invite you over, then trap the two of you together in an elevator. Your choice."

"That sounds like a terrible plan."

"Well then come up with a better one," Lester said, and hung up on me.

Lester was not a military strategist.

I had been waiting for four months for my phone to ring. Now that I knew that Ranger was home, I picked up my phone and called.

"Yo," his voice said softly.

"I need your advice," I told him.

There was a pause.

"On?"

"I have a new product line coming out. Something to give newly divorced women the confidence to get back into the dating game. But I think I need some male opinions on the line. Would you care to give me your opinion on it? I'm testing out a sample right now." I crossed my fingers.

"I'm about to go into a meeting," he said.

"Oh," I said, deflated. That wasn't a response that I'd expected.

"Are you free for dinner tonight?"

"Dinner?"

"For the date experience for your testing," he said. Somehow he'd managed to get control of this pick-up line and turn it back on me.

"Well, I could do that. It would be important to get the full experience for scientific purposes."

"I'll pick you up at 7," he told me, and hung up. I guess he didn't need to know my address.

There was a knock on the door right on 7pm. I opened it and my breath caught. Ranger was dressed in his softer, corporate style black. His hair was long and shaggy, and he looked thinner than I remembered. I had planned to act casual but instead I threw myself into his arms.

"You're back," I said to him, and was rewarded with his beaming smile in return. "Why didn't you call me?" I asked him.

"I wasn't sure… it's been four months, babe. That's a long time to be out of someone's life. I'm still on a contract, they could call me up again at any time," Ranger told me.

"Tonight?"

"No, not tonight. But at some point they will. And I might not come back. I'm not good husband material, Steph. I'm not what you need."

"I just got rid of one husband, Ranger. What makes you think I'm looking for another one?" I asked him.

"You might one day." Lester was right. Ranger had slipped back into his Birch style darker self. Time to show him that I knew what his true colours were.

"I've changed my mind, Batman. We're staying in."

"You don't want to go out for dinner?"

"It's been four months, Ranger. Four very long months," I told him.

"I know."

"Here's the thing, Batman. I said that I was going to ruin you for all other women. I might have been joking, but for real, I think you ruined me for all other men," I told him.

"Estefania," he said, smiling at me.

"Let me give you a tour of my new apartment," I told him. "The bedroom is this way."

And that's it for now! Thank you for reading and for patience as this stretched on and on and one. It still didn't want to end, but now we're at the end of it all, and this is where we stop (at least for now!). I hope that you enjoyed it. Thank you for all your reviews and encouragement along the way.