I clear my throat as I reach for Bea’s hand and squeeze it.
She’s breathing quickly. Just as she was when I pulled her out of the toilet last night. “Ah, perhaps we’ve had enough fortunes for one day?”
She squeezes my hand back, and something odd happens in my chest.
Something that feels disturbingly like protective instincts roaring to life.
The bitter taste of guilt floods my mouth.
More changes need to be made to my script.
She cannot ever suspect she was the inspiration for it.
That I might be the person Madame Petty suggests will betray her.
I could stay angry with Bea for the situation she put me in, but I don’t wish to.
She apologized.
She made me dinner.
She leaked zero photographs of the events that transpired in her burger bus.
She told me upfront today that her ex wants her back.
Madame Petty pulls a trinket from her shelf. “Your children will get a dog,” she says to me. Then she looks at Bea. “And your brothers will live long, happy lives, and all four of you will have children.”
“I’m not having kids,” Bea says quietly.
“I’m merely telling you what the spirits are telling me. Take it up with them if you don’t believe it.”
“My boys would love a dog,” I interject. “Marvelous idea. Thank you, Madame Petty.”
“Tell Daphne not to do anything stupid,” she says to Bea.
“Sure,” Bea replies, though her tone says she will definitelynotbe passing along the message.
“I’m so for real right now. She’s going to do something stupid, and it might cost her everything.”
“You’re a few years too late. Some people might not learn their lessons, but Daphne? She’s not doing anything to fuck her life up again. She’s finally happy. She’s finally at peace. Leave her alone and let her stay that way. She’s earned it.”
Madame Petty sighs.
Bea’s squeezing my hand hard enough to cut off circulation.
And more guilt joins the first round of guilt.
I badgered her into this.
“I’m suddenly craving a steak pie. Bea, did I see a truck selling pies?”
She looks at me as though she knows exactly what I’m doing.
Deflecting.
“They’re sweet. Not savory. And probably closed up for the day.”
“I see them reopening for a celebrity request,” Madame Petty says.
