Broken Pasts

Broken Pasts.

C.M. Stunich.

"Nathaniel, I ... "

"Theresa," he said in that strong, authoritative voice. He was so friggin" sure of himself that it was hard for me to entertain option two for very long. He"s just looking for s.e.x, Theresa, I tried to tell myself and then immediately followed that up with, but is that a bad thing? Maybe you could use a little unattached s.e.x right now? I looked up into Nathaniel"s heated face, his warm eyes, so unlike Gary"s that they"d be listed as antonyms in a dictionary, and I knew that there was no such thing as unattached with this man. Once he had a hold on me, he wasn"t going to let go. "I know that you don"t know me and that this is a long shot, but I think there"s something here that could work."

"I ... " I tried to protest, but then he was just there, wrapping his strong arms around me, pressing his mouth to mine, trailing his heated kisses down my neck. "I don"t know if I can do this. I"m still ... Gary is ... oh G.o.d."

"I"m not asking you to marry me," Nathaniel said as he paused and pressed his forehead against mine. "Or make promises you can"t keep. I just want to get to know you. Is that so bad?"

"Nathaniel, ... " I whispered, but it was the only word I could think to say. Nathaniel didn"t pause for long, grabbing me gently by the upper arms and spinning me around so that he could tug down the zipper on my dress.

to Brandy Little, friend, editor, and all around amazing woman.

CHAPTER 1.

"I swear to G.o.d, if you don"t leave me alone, I"m going to file a restraining order against you," I screamed in the middle of the grocery store. Faces turned to look at me, most of them lined with the telltale signs of age. Wrinkled mouths pursed angrily and older men in polo shirts snorted gruffly. I adjusted my stained tank top and tried to hide my flannel pajama pants behind my cart. "Stop calling me, Gary," I said, lowering my voice to a whisper. Yelling wasn"t helping; it had yet to get him off my case. All I was doing was p.i.s.sing off the other early morning shoppers. Normally I wouldn"t have come out at this time, but I needed alcohol. Hard alcohol. I was thinking Jagermeister.

"But I love you," he told me as I rolled my eyes and tried to keep to the edge of the cereal aisle. When we"d first broken up, all I"d wanted was for Gary to call. Now I couldn"t get him to stop. "I want to be with you, Theresa. I"m sorry." He paused and I could hear him breathing against the receiver. "Look, I didn"t mean what I said, please. Let"s just get back together." I shook my head, not caring that he wasn"t there to see me. If I never saw Gary"s face again, that would be more than enough for me. The things he"d said, the things he"d threatened, I would never forget those. I had given him a second chance and that had been one too many.

"I"m hanging up now, Gary. Don"t call me again." I ended the call and threw the phone in my purse. It promptly started ringing again. I pulled it back out, turned it to silent and put it away. Thirty missed calls in two days. Incredible. I wrote it off as simple desperation. I knew what it was like to be lonely. It wasn"t easy, especially not for someone as emotionally shallow as Gary Harper.

I grabbed a couple boxes of cereal without looking at them and tossed them into the cart. Purple, red, pink. As long as they were colorful, Rhea would eat them. I smiled. Rhea was like the wick that kept me burning. Without her, I would"ve gone out a long time ago. But you still need oil, I thought as I turned the corner and forced myself to go down the next aisle. I was not checking out at eight in the morning with a few boxes of cereal and a bottle of Jager. If I was going to keep my dignity in check, I was going to at least pretend I was here to buy the week"s groceries. Somehow I made it into the ice cream aisle without realizing it, and stood staring at the pints of chocolate. If I was going to spend New Year"s Eve by myself, I might as well enjoy it. I opened the gla.s.s door to the freezer and pulled out several cartons, refusing to look at the calorie counts on the back. It wasn"t like it mattered anyway. I was thirty-two, single, and hopelessly alone.

With a sigh, I continued my shopping and was halfway across the parking lot, grocery bags in hand when I saw him. Gary was leaning against my car with his arms crossed over his chest. I paused near the cart return and debated turning around and heading back into the store when he saw me. He raced over and rescued one of the drooping bags from my tired arms.

"G.o.d, Theresa," he said with a chuckle. "What have you got in there?" I walked quickly ahead of him and unlocked the trunk. I tossed my bag in first and whirled to face him.

"You can"t keep doing this," I said as I stared him down. He was still handsome, of course, but in a shallow way. I knew what kind of person lurked behind those warm, brown eyes, the rush of anger that had clenched that perfect, square jaw. I"d been afraid he was going to hit me, really afraid. That was something I was never going to go through again. I had the gun to prove it. It was stashed in a drawer at home, brand new and unused. I was going to learn how to use it someday soon, but I hadn"t yet gotten around to it. Seeing him in the parking lot made me wish I"d already done that. "This is getting weird, Gary. How did you even know I was here?" He put the grocery bag in the trunk and stepped back, hands up like he was trying to prove his own innocence.

"I didn"t know you were here," he said with a shrug. "I just stopped in to pick up some things and saw your car, that"s all. Come on, Theresa, what do you take for me?" He tried to reach out and touch me, but I pulled away.

"That"s enough, Gary," I said as I moved around to the driver"s side of the Camry. "Just sign the divorce papers and let"s be done with this." I didn"t wait for him to answer, just climbed into the vehicle and started the car. With barely a glance in his direction, I pulled out of the s.p.a.ce and left the parking lot. Five minutes later, when I checked my phone, I already had two missed calls. "What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you?" I wondered as I saw that the most recent was from Gary. With a sigh, I skipped past it and returned the other call.

"Theresa, don"t say a word," Jamie said as a chorus of "Mom!"s echoed in the background. "I"ve only got a minute. All of Joel"s family is here for the barbeque."

"I"m not intruding on your family time, Jamie," I protested before she could ask again. She shushed me and shouted something about cupcakes to the a.s.sorted children that were no doubt driving her completely nuts.

"That"s not what I"m calling for. It"s like beating a dead horse trying to get you to come over here." I heard quite a few ewws in response to her idiom. "Is Rhea with Glen tonight?" I wrinkled my face as I pulled into my driveway and turned off the car.

"Rhea is spending the week in Hawaii with Glen," I said as I tried not to sound disappointed. Glen had three other daughters; I only had one. The least he could"ve done was let her spend the holiday with me. Sometimes, I had the feeling that Glen would be happy if something were to happen to me. I wasn"t Rhea"s biological mother after all. If I gave him the chance, he"d slap his new wife"s name on the adoption papers before the ink was even dry on my death certificate. It was not a good feeling. I had one crazy ex-husband and one vindictive one.

"Great," Jamie said as I climbed out of the car and opened the trunk. "Then you"re free tonight?" I grunted noncommittally, unsure where this was going. "Then let me set you up. Joel"s friend, Stuart, is in town and he"s " I groaned.

"Stop playing romantic comedy cliche roulette with my life," I said as I tucked the phone against my shoulder and grabbed a bag in each hand. My big hips came in handy, working in unison with my elbows to create a shelf for the groceries as I struggled to shut the trunk. "You set me up with Gary and look where that went."

"Yeah," Jamie said as she put something in her mouth and tried to talk around it. "It led to a marriage."

"It lasted six months," I said as I set the bags down on my front porch and tried to reason with Jamie. It wasn"t easy: she was a prosecutor for a living. "And now he"s calling me a hundred times a day and "b.u.mping"," I made little quotes with my fingers even though there was no one there to see. My neighbors probably thought I was crazy. "Into me at the grocery store."

"So he"s stalking you?" she asked, but she didn"t sound concerned. It was the first time I had thought of Gary in that way. It would not be the last. "All the more reason to go out with Stuart tonight."

"I already have a date with a pint of ice cream and a gla.s.s of Jager."

"Now who"s romantic comedy cliche?" she asked, pulling whatever it was she"d put in her mouth, out. It was probably a lollipop. Jamie had some oral fixation issues that were a frequented topic on girls" night and, according to her, the reason she had such a peaceful marriage. Long as he returns the favor, she"d always say.

"I"m not romantic comedy cliche," I said as I finally got the door unlocked. "More like tearful drama cliche." Jamie sighed and I could just visualize her, dark hair pulled back, eyes narrowed and rolling. "Besides, think about what you"re saying. Stuart. Stuart. Think about calling that out in bed. I just can"t imagine screaming Stuart in the throes of pa.s.sion." I slid the bags of groceries into the house and went inside, locking the door behind me.

"Then call him Stu," she said as I heard Joel shouting behind her about Kool-Aid on the carpet. "Just say yes or I"m going to have to call him back and tell him not to pick you up at your place tonight at six." I groaned and slid down the wood of the door, already fishing around in the grocery bag for my Jager. I was going to need it to get through another blind date. I twisted the top off, took a swig and sighed my deep, heavy, I give up sigh. "Perfect," Jamie said as she kissed the receiver and put the lollipop back in her mouth. "Tall, dark, and handsome will see you at your door, dressed to kill." She paused. "G.o.dd.a.m.n it, boys, don"t put cold meat on the grill." I smiled as Jamie returned her attention back to me. "I gotta go. Men these days don"t even know how to barbeque right. What"s wrong with society today?" She ended the call on that note as I stood up and tried to convince myself that I was going to have a good night.

"I should"ve just gone to the d.a.m.ned barbeque," I said to no one as I picked up the groceries and tried to figure out what the h.e.l.l I was going to wear.

CHAPTER 2.

Stuart Moore was a well dressed, relatively handsome middle aged man with a nice car and perfectly fine manners.

He was one hundred percent, absolutely not my type. It"s not like I was into cavemen or bad boys or anything of the sort. It"s just, I liked some spice. I liked my guys to be complicated, interesting. And you have such great taste, Theresa, I said to myself as I adjusted the fabric of my dress and tried to convince myself that it wasn"t too short. Stuart"s eyes had traced the long lines of my thighs more times that I would"ve liked to admit. You chose Glen and Gary for death do you part. Give this guy a chance. So I followed Mr. Khaki Suit out of his BMW and into the restaurant. He didn"t hold the door open for me which was a bad sign, but I a.s.suaged my fears by saying that feminism went both ways. I can open my own door. But if he asked me to pay half the check, I was out of there. Call me old fashioned, but it"s true.

"I hope Jamie didn"t guilt trip you into this," I said, trying to lighten the mood with a joke as the host led us through a bustling restaurant filled to capacity with noisy New Year"s parties. Stuart didn"t respond until we got to the table where he didn"t pull out my chair for me. I pulled it out myself and sat down, smoothing my hands down the red fabric of my dress. It didn"t fit quite as well as the day I"d first bought it, but I thought I looked nice with my black pumps and the silver eye of Horus gleaming on the golden plane of my chest. Rhea had bought the necklace for me with her own money on one of the trips she"d gone on with Glen. Since you couldn"t be there, she"d told me, pooling the silver chain in my palm. It"ll protect you. I let that warmth fill my smile as I looked over at Stuart"s broad forehead and blue eyes. His curly, black hair was perfectly arranged atop his head and his mouth was quirked into his own smile, one that didn"t quite reach his eyes.

"I don"t know what you mean?" Stuart asked turning our date from blind to awkward. I shook my head and picked up my menu.

"Never mind," I said as my eyes scoured the prices. He is definitely a split the check kind of guy, I thought as I picked out the cheapest thing there.

"Shall I order a bottle of wine?" he asked, taking off his jacket and revealing rather broad shoulders. Okay, okay, I told myself. This could work out. Mr. Moore has a good body under that boring suit.

"That would be great," I said as he held out the wine list. "Oh, I"m not picky," I told him, waving my hand dismissively. "Whatever works best for you is fine with me."

"I don"t drink," Stuart said and I think I knew then and there that the night was going to go sour. Jamie had sent me out on New Year"s Eve with a teetotaler for a date. I hid my cringe and took the list between two fingers. I scoured it for a moment and once again let price make my decision. If I was ever going to get out of my brother"s rental house and into one of my own, sacrifices had to be made. I had a good sized down payment built up already, but there was no sense in wasting any of it on a date with a man I knew I wasn"t going to like. "So, Ms. McMaster," Stuart continued, clearing his throat. "Joel tells me you have a daughter?" I nodded and reached up to finger the necklace. The silver eye was my life raft whenever I was lost at sea. And by lost at sea, I mean sitting in the middle of a crowded five star restaurant with overpriced food and a man with a nice chest but no tact. "But that she"s not your biological child?" I tried not to sigh.

"My first husband and I adopted her when she was an infant," I said not bothering to go into details. Rhea had the same dark hair and olive complexion that I did. It was easy to pa.s.s her off as my biological daughter. Even she didn"t know otherwise. One day, I would have to tell her, but for right now, things were perfect between us. Why throw her a curve ball?

"Because of your miscarriage?" he asked and I did grit my teeth at that. I was going to kill Jamie when I saw her. "I"m sorry," he said suddenly, as if he"d finally realized what he"d just said and how completely and utterly inappropriate it was. "I haven"t been on a date in awhile. I think I"m just nervous, how about you?" He tried to smile then and it was much more pleasant, definitely more genuine. I took a deep breath and tried to think of his comments as a sign of his curiosity rather than his disrespect.

"It"s okay," I said as I relaxed the muscles in my forehead and leaned my elbows on the table. "I"ve never been a big fan of first dates. With my second husband," I paused, wondering how smart it was to talk to my date about my ex. I decided that Stuart and I most likely were headed nowhere and forged on with the determination to enjoy my night. "I spilled a cup of steaming coffee into his lap and gave him second degree burns on his thighs." I smiled and Stuart chuckled. I had taken Gary to urgent care and spent a wonderful night just talking. Once upon a time, he"d been perfect. I reached down to my purse and snuck a glance at my phone. No missed calls. I nearly sighed with relief. Finally. If I could start out the New Year with anything, it would be a fresh start. No men, just me. And Rhea, of course.

I looked over the bal.u.s.trade and down into the lower portion of the dining room. A chandelier hung over the white table cloths and glimmered like a promise. I made a New Year"s resolution right then and there not to get involved with anyone else until I was fully comfortable with myself and the choices I"d made. Your life is not a mistake, just an experience.

Why is it that when you finally find your feet, life always finds a way to knock you back down again?

Stuart and I didn"t leave the restaurant until well after midnight.

Despite our rough start, things were actually going fairly well. We"d shared dating horror stories like the best of girlfriends and after I"d gotten a couple of gla.s.ses of wine down, we"d actually started to flirt. I"d spent half the night with Stuart"s warm hand caressing my thigh. Previous declarations aside, he was a handsome man and I was lonely. I told myself that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my asking him to come home with me. In all honesty, he"d given me the best holiday I"d had in years. I wasn"t alone and I wasn"t thinking about the past. On their own, either of those things was enough to make my day. Combined, they practically made my year.

"Hey Stuart," I asked as we walked across the parking lot to his car. "Do you want to come over for a little while?" Stuart paused and looked down at me. His eyes caught on the line of golden cleavage above my red dress for just a moment before he met my gaze. "Just for tonight," I added, hoping I wasn"t giving him the wrong impression. I"d had fun, but I was no way ready to jump into another relationship. I wasn"t sure when or even if that would ever happen again. "No strings attached." I let my fingers touch the crisp fabric of his shirt and when he didn"t protest, I let my hand slide under the edges of his khaki suit jacket. Stuart didn"t say a thing, just let his own fingers slide up the side of my neck and tangle in the dark waves of my hair. He removed my clip and watched hungrily as ebony cascades tumbled down around my shoulders.

"I"d love to," he told me as he ran his tongue across his lips and his blue eyes twinkled softly. Leaning down just a bit, he pressed a sensual kiss to my mouth. There weren"t any fireworks or explosions of light and sound, but then, there never are, right? But the kiss was enough to get my body warm and my thighs moist. "Shall we?" he asked as he unlocked the car with his key fob and started around towards the driver"s side. I had just the briefest of moments to think, "He"s still not going to open the door for me?" when Stuart looked up and his eyes widened in alarm. An arm went around my waist and tugged me against a firm chest. I smelt cologne and a spicy aftershave that had once made me swoon, but now were just reminders of good times gone wrong.

"Theresa, baby, why are you doing this to me?" I pulled away from the intruder and spun around to find Gary behind me, eyes red rimmed and mouth tight. He barely looked like himself. Even angry, Gary had always been able to hold onto some semblance of pride and at least the appearance of self-control. Now he looked disheveled and anxious. His hands were shaking and he was running his left hand through his hair, again and again and again.

"What are you doing here?" I asked without turning around to look at Stuart. I could only focus on Gary right now. He looked dangerous. The last time he had looked this way, I had feared for my life and I had left him. I was not going through this again. At least this time, there was a man at my back and a parking lot still partially full of people. He couldn"t hurt me here even if he wanted to.

"I tried to be nice about it," he told me as he turned away and rubbed his hand down his face. "I called you several times, left several messages. I even met you at the store like you wanted and you didn"t hear me." I shook my head.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, thoroughly confused.

"G.o.dd.a.m.n it," Gary said and he looked down at the pavement, eyes closed like he was trying to come to terms with something. "Our date, Theresa. Where do we always go for special occasions? You stood me up." I just stared at him and he whirled to face me. "The Vertigo. I was at The Vertigo." I looked up as Stuart came around the front of the car and closed the pa.s.senger side door. I didn"t even get the chance to ask what he was doing. I was more concerned with Gary.

"We went there once," I said, still not quite understanding what was happening. It"s hard to realize you"ve made a mistake, married the wrong person. It"s even harder to accept that they could be dangerous. That they could take that emotional pain and take it another step further. "We went there one time to celebrate our engagement, Gary." An engine roared behind me and I turned around just in time to see Stuart pulling out of the parking s.p.a.ce. His tires were barely six inches away from the toes of my high heels. "What the h.e.l.l?" Gary grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, pushing me back until I was slamming against the side of a white van emblazoned with the name of the restaurant. He pointed at my face, hands shaking, jaw tight. This was the anger that I had seen before, that I had fled. I looked around for help.

"You stood me up and you came out with another man," he said through gritted teeth. n.o.body was coming this way. It was like we were hidden in plain sight, caught in the shadows behind the van and blocked from view by the bright lights that lit up the majority of the parking lot. I thought about screaming for help, but I didn"t want to make a scene. Why didn"t I bring the gun? I wondered as Gary released my shoulder. "You"re a cheating, lying wh.o.r.e," he told me as I started to move away. Gary punched the side of the van and finally caught the attention of a couple near the restaurant"s entrance. They didn"t come over to us, but they were looking. "But I forgive you," he said, changing tactics suddenly. He reached up and took my face between his hands. "I forgive you, Theresa," he told me. "I love you."

"Gary," I said as calmly and as firmly as I was able. This had to stop now. I was not going to play his games. "We are no longer together, remember?" He was already shaking his head and turning away. "You need help, Gary," I told him. I didn"t say all that I was thinking. I didn"t tell him that I thought he was a complete f.u.c.king psycho that deserved to be locked up. Maybe later, over the safety of an e-mail or a text, but not now. Not with him three feet in front of me pacing like a caged animal. Gary"s personality had always been ... malleable. I"d seen him go from laughing to crying to stoic. But nothing like this, not even during the two fights that had made up my mind about him.

"I don"t need help," he said, almost pleaded. "I just need you. My life isn"t complete without you." He turned away and put his hands on his hips, took several, big breaths of the cool night air. I started to move away, sidling down the side of the van. "Until death do us part, Theresa," he said calmly and when he turned to face me, his brown eyes were like black pits, swallowed by shadows and anger. "You made a promise to me."

I turned around and started to run.

CHAPTER 3.

"I"m so sorry about your date," Jamie said as she stood in my kitchen and unpacked a bottle of wine, a package of brie and a loaf of French bread. It was our favorite get together snack, one that I knew I wouldn"t enjoy. Not today. Last night had left me feeling shaken and defeated. I hadn"t told Jamie the whole truth yet, wasn"t sure if I wanted to. If I did, she"d blow it all out of proportion. Gary was sick. Maybe he was bipolar, maybe schizophrenic, I wasn"t sure. I just needed to watch my back and carry my gun in my purse. That was it. Period. It was over. I was changing my phone number tomorrow and my e-mail address. I decided to glaze over the events that happened after Stuart had left. "So he just ditched you in the parking lot?"

"Yeah," I said with a heavy sigh. "Gary just showed up and popped over to say hi and then Stuart was gone. He practically ran over my foot." She sliced me a piece of bread and I grabbed it, using it to gesture at her like it was a pointer. "Don"t ever set me up again. Your date choices are horrible." Jamie sighed and poured us both a ma.s.sive goblet of wine. They were huge, medieval looking even. I picked mine up and downed half. I had a right to.

"I wish Joel had a brother," she said as she leaned her hip against the blue tiles of my countertop. "Then you"d marry him and we"d be sisters legally and not just spiritually." I rolled my eyes and scooped a ma.s.sive lump of brie onto my bread. I didn"t even spread it around, just ate it as is.

"That would never happen," I said as I tried my best to smile. "Because then I"d be obligated to go to those terrible MacMillan get-togethers." Jamie rolled her eyes and spilled a ma.s.sive amount of alcohol on her white blouse.

"You have no idea," she said as we both laughed. "There were fifteen underage kids at my house yesterday and at least three balding, middle aged babies." I chuckled. "The new sofa is just trashed and there"s still a million plastic cups and paper plates scattered over the backyard." She took a bite of bread and kept talking while she chewed. "That"s not my job, just so you know. That"s Joel"s." Jamie paused as the doorbell rang and raised her eyebrows at me. "Expecting someone?" she asked. I shook my head and moved across the kitchen and through the living room, pausing at the peephole to look out. It"s not like I expected anything bad to happen, just that after what had happened last night, I wasn"t taking any chances.

Standing outside on the porch was my daughter, Rhea.

With a squeal, I flung open the door and she threw herself in my arms. I saw Glen sitting in his car at the curb and gave him a little wave. He honked once, waved back, and was gone. That was the extent of our interactions nowadays. Deliver Rhea, confirm delivery, checkout.

"What are you doing back so early?" I asked as I held her by the shoulders and looked her over. "Did Winnie have another mommy temper tantrum?" Rhea giggled and shook her head, her straight, black hair flying around her small face.

"Angie fell off a rock at the beach and broke her leg." I raised my eyebrows. Angie was Rhea"s younger sister, Glen"s biological daughter, only six years old. "She got a cast and we all signed it." Rhea leaned in conspiratorially. "I even drew a p.e.n.i.s on it with Sharpie." I heard Jamie snort behind me and tried not to break out into a maniacal grin. G.o.d, I love this kid. "Winnie made us cover it with stickers, but she bought the wrong kind and Angie had a huge screaming tantrum in the airport. It was really fun." I picked up her bag as she skipped into the house and went straight for her bedroom.

"I"m glad you had a good time," I said as she disappeared around the corner into the hallway.

"I"ll be right back!" she shouted as I tossed the black and yellow duffel bag onto the couch. Jamie grinned at me as I reentered the kitchen and leaned against the counter.

"What?" I asked as she shook her head.

"You two are too, too much," she said as she set her wine gla.s.s on the counter.

"Hey," I said as I gestured at the stack of books on the edge of the dining room table. "I am not the one that said it was time for "The Talk." That was you. You"re the one that gave her the d.a.m.n books and you"re the one that"s to blame for the subsequent drawing of p.e.n.i.ses, so just get over yourself, okay?"

"Uh-huh," Jamie said, straightening her black A-line skirt and picking at her panty hose. "Do you have any sweats? I need to get out of this d.a.m.n monkey suit."

"Of course I do," I said with a sigh as Jamie started to follow me down the hallway. "I have a whole drawer full of clothes just for you. Why don"t you pack a bag when you know you"re staying the night?"

"Mom." I paused just outside my bedroom door and looked down the hallway towards the pale blue walls of Rhea"s room.

"Yeah?"

"Come here for a second." Something about her voice made me want to run. It sounded ... forced. Rhea never sounded like that. She was always easy, calm, relaxed. I moved down the hallway briskly and paused in the doorway, fearing the worst. I was having Fatal Attraction flashbacks. Granted, we didn"t own any pets so finding a dead animal in my daughter"s room was a long shot, but Gary had freaked me out. I had a feeling it would be awhile before I was completely over last night.

"Where"s the fire?" Jamie asked as she trailed behind me.

I turned the corner and nearly had a heart attack when Rhea screamed out, "Surprise!" In her small hands was a necklace made out of what looked to be small, black beads. She"d tied a ribbon around it and even attached a small card. "I was hiding it in my pocket and you didn"t even see," she said proudly as I took the gift in my own hands and examined it. There were little red and pink hearts painted on each bead. "It"s a Kukui nut necklace," she stated authoritatively. "And it has magic, too. It will bring you love." She paused and giggled. "And p.e.n.i.ses."

"Rhea!" I said, trying my best not to laugh. I put a hand on my hip and couldn"t hold back a smile.

"Hey," Jamie said, leaning against the door frame behind me. "Can"t complain about that. I say, amen. Nice job, Rhea." Rhea grinned and gestured at me wildly, feisty and colorful in her bright pink shirt and yellow spandex pants. What can I say, the girl had style.

"Put it on," she whispered excitedly. I detached the card, smiled at the hastily scrawled "I love you" and slipped off the eye of Horus necklace. I put the new necklace on in its place and did a ridiculous and completely embarra.s.sing, wine inspired runway show.

I had just traded a symbol of protection for a symbol of love.