Chapter 32. Candi’s Game
Dr. Spock’s Commonsense Book of Baby and Childcarewas in the Medical section. She was immersed in its pages, reading almost in a state of ecstasy the doctor’s opinion that mothers were the best judges and should “follow their instincts” – God Bless America! - when her elbow was roughly grabbed, and she was jerked around face to face with Candi Pourfoyle. Candi looked terrible. She seemed to have given up the Cleopatra eye makeup, instead wearing peculiar white eyeliner and white lipstick that only made her sleepless face look bonier – positively skeletal. Her voice was rough as she pulled Scarlet closer. “Why don’t you just give him up?” Scarlet studied her pityingly. “I have given him up.’ “Then divorce him.” There was a definite note of desperation in Candi’s voice now as she scrabbled for a tissue in her bag. Scarlet saw pill bottles. “I AM divorcing him,” said Scarlet, “You must speak to Ian. He’s the one who doesn’t want a divorce.” Candi’s face collapsed before this terrible truth. She smeared her makeup with the tissue as she dabbled at her eyes. This was a far cry from the confident seductress who’d visited Wyvern only a few short weeks before. Was this what Ian did to women? Or was this what Ian so, so subtly suggested women should do to themselves? Scarlet pulled away from this depressing spectre, fearing that she herself had looked like this, only days ago. “He says he can’t divorce you,” gasped Candi. “I’m warning you, you can’t get away with that.” “You can stop worrying,” Scarlet told her. “Whether Ian likes it or not, we are definitely getting a divorce.” It’s none of my business if he lies to his girlfriend, she thought, stepping with relief into a stream of foot traffic headed for the cashier’s box. She would expect nothing less of the new Ian she had come to know. He said whatever was convenient for the moment, but made no effort to bring his lies into a consistent story. And soon she was once again free, outside in the brisk London December, clutching her parcel, signaling a cab and giving the address of her solicitor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Alysse AallynArchives
November 2021
Categories |