She knew it was funny. She should laugh, right? Instead, though, she swallowed too much scalding liquid too fast, making her nearly scream from the burning pain. If she coughed, she’d scald her throat and mouth even more. The alcohol tasted weird, anyhow—a little too...something. As she gagged and choked, poor Josie ran between the living room and the kitchen, shouting, “Are you OK?”
“Ice,” Laura hissed. Josie returned with ice water, which Laura eagerly sucked into her mouth, keeping her lips closed and pooching out her cheeks to retain the cold balm against her torn, raw mouth. Great. Just great. She couldn’t even manage to drink a fucking cup of coffee without something going wrong. Don’t try to walk and chew gum at the same time. Might break a leg.
Finally, she swallowed, refilling her mouth with the ice water and feeling the sting abate somewhat, little ridges on the roof of her mouth throbbing horribly. That raw, scratchy feeling that comes from a good scalding started to sink in, and she knew she was in for a good two to three days of this. The universe could stop shitting on her. Seriously. Cut it out, God, she thought. My middle name isn’t Job.
“...well, now, he can bring his fire hose to my garage any time...” a voice said, wafting into the living room.
“Fuck!” Josie shouted, sprinting for her bedroom. The sound cut out fast. Laura’s eyes filled, less from mouth pain and more from life pain. This hurt. This was going to hurt for a good, long time. And the hurt was like Ryan times a thousand.
No.
Times two billion.
Laura nursed her ice water, Josie drank her coffee, and the two said nothing, comfortable the way old friends could be, knowing that friendship meant that silence was sometimes the best form of support. She needed someone there, someone to witness her pain but not to comment on it, or judge it. A few years ago she would have needed Josie to join her in spewing rage about her being betrayed and lied to, but that wasn’t what she needed today. Instead, Josie’s calm, steady presence gave her the room to let reality fill in the cracks of her heart and to come to her own ready place for processing it all.
One of Josie’s cats, an old calico named Dotty she’d adopted from a local rescue shelter a few years back, settled on the couch next to Laura. Her own cats weren’t nearly as social, hiding away and largely independent, three puffs of fur who had come to her the same way, two of them Persians that had been owned by an elderly woman who had to go into a nursing home. No one had wanted cats the ages of teenagers, so Laura had taken in Miss Daisy and Frumpy. Snuggles had come to her from an abused animals rescue network, her ears clipped in jagged wrecks and part of her tail mangled. Snuggles liked patches of sunshine and to be left alone. Somehow, Miss Daisy and Frumpy respected that, and all three coexisted nicely.
Too bad other threesomes couldn’t be so smooth.
“How’s Snuggles doing lately?” Josie asked. “I never see her when I come over.”
Laura laughed, petting Dotty, who tipped her chin up as if granting permission. “I never see her, either. I only know she’s real because I see a tail under the bed and she eats her food.”
Josie nodded and finished off her mug. “Like a teenage boy. Needs sleep and food.” The joke fell flat. Laura was done talking.
“More coffee?”
“God, no.”
Josie winced. “Sorry. More ice water?”
“Yes, please.” She was starting to sound like Mike. Two word sentences weren’t her style but right now, it was all she could manage. Maybe this “woman of few words” schtick was something she should try on, see how the other half lives in a world of low verbal output. Was there something to not spilling every thought out of your mouth? Could Mike be on to something, being the quiet but steady type who was a deep presence without contributing to the non-stop flow of words that filled modern life?
Why was she even thinking about this? Her open mouth called out to her hands to fan cool air inside her, her tongue drying out quickly. She couldn’t even drink a cup of coffee correctly. Why mull over esoteric ideas?
Because it was easier than facing the fact that they had destroyed this burgeoning relationship yet again. And, most likely, once and for all.
“So,” she and Josie said in unison. Startled, both laughed at the other, the nervous tension that filled the room making Laura’s stomach turn again. She’d been queasy all day, her stomach bearing the brunt of the stress.
“You first,” Josie deferred.
“So, it looks like I managed not only to find two amazingly hot, wonderful guys who happen to be in a secret, complicated—” Josie snorted as Laura emphasized that word “—relationship and we turned it into a great threesome. Oh. Yeah. And they happen to be billionaires and never bothered to tell me because—because—” She faltered there. Why in the hell hadn’t they told her about their money?