Soraya imagined Daisy typing that with unsteady fingers.
Soraya let out a hard breath, the back of her head hitting the wall. The truth was, she had only ever casually been friends with Daisy, and Nora never had been her friend. But she hurt for them. Really. Genuinely.
I don’t suppose you guys want to come over to my sad, empty apartment.
Daisy’s response was quick.My mother-in-law said she would watch my kids.
Why are you sitting in a sad, empty apartment?That was from Nora.
Because I came up here to look and I can’t bring myself to leave.
I’ll be there in five minutes, said Nora.
I’ll be there in ten.
Soraya scrubbed at her eyes and set her phone down. Then she stood up and paced the length of the room. This old place should give her the creeps.
Being above Lady’s Mantle, first of all, when the store seemed evil to her initially, should have set off a lot of spiritual alarm bells. But by the end of the day today, the store hadn’t given her the creeps. Not after everything that had happened. Not after she had done the spell. She had waited for guilt to hit her about that. But it hadn’t. She didn’t feel bad, because he deserved to have his sin find him out.
She walked out of the living room for the first time, traipsing all the way down the hall and into a bedroom. There was a bed in there, and a nightstand. The dark, empty room did make her feel just a tiny bit creeped out. She flicked a light on and touched the bedspread, then walked to the side and looked at the end table. She opened the drawer and saw a deck of cards inside.
Tarot cards.
Goose bumps rose on her arm, a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck. She touched the top of the box. Then she drew her hand away.
Suddenly, she just felt tired of herself. Tired of everything. Why was she so afraid? All this fear hadn’t served her at all. It hadn’t guided her toward anything. She didn’t blame God. She didn’t blame faith, the church, or the steeple. It was all the people. They made her afraid to stand up for herself. To have any of her own opinions. She didn’t know who she was. All these people were trying to tell her who that was supposed to be, but she knew they were wrong.
She picked up the deck of cards and walked slowly back into the living room. Shortly after, there was a knock at the door. She let out a breath, walked over, and opened it. It was Nora. She had never seen Nora look sad. Angry, yes. Like she wanted to get into a fistfight with the world, sure. But sad? Not like this. Not like she had been crying until she couldn’t breathe.
With the tarot card deck still in her hands, she folded Nora in for a hug. “I’m sorry.”
She had always felt like she was better than Nora. Truthfully. Here they were in the exact same place. All of Soraya’s good decisions hadn’t protected her. All of Nora’s realism hadn’t spared her. They had both been betrayed by the men who were supposed to love them.
“You’re not going to tell me there’s a godly reason for all this, are you?”
Soraya barked a watery laugh, wiping at the tears that had fallen down onto her cheeks. “I surely am not.”
“Good.”
Nora stepped inside, and Soraya heard more footsteps in the hallway. “I’m here,” called Daisy, who came into view.
She hadn’t been crying, but she looked wrung out. “I was just telling my mother-in-law that her son is a coward who doesn’t want to tell her we are getting divorced. I just realized that I did that for him too. I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t doing it to do him a favor, I just thought she needed to know.”
“Oh, Daisy,” Nora said, dragging her inside.
Nora’s phone rang, and she pulled it out of her purse, the cheerful, mustached face of her husband clearly visible on the screen. Nora looked at the phone like it might bite her, and then clicked the answer button, and a shaky, darkened video and the sound of sex filled the room.
A look of horror crossed Nora’s face. “Oh my God,” she said. “Oh my ...” She held the phone out toward Soraya and Daisy. “Is this ... is this happening to me right now?”
Soraya felt like she was back in that church bathroom, getting a misdirected picture of her husband’s dick. She hated this for Nora.
The camera wasn’t showing anything, but the sounds were unambiguous.
“Yes, Dr. Ben!”
“Jesus!” Nora dropped the phone onto the floor with a clatter, and Soraya wasn’t even mad about the blasphemy.
“Oh no,” Daisy said, covering her mouth. “Oh ... oh no.”
