Page 87 of Empowered
“Me? Come on, Luke! You’re the one dating a…”
“Call her something I don’t like, and you’ll regret it, Jill.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No, but it should be.”
Something snapped open. “I don’t have to stand here and take is. Fact of the matter is, Luke, Victor isn’t going to be anywhere near this mess if I can fucking help it. That’s it. Do whatever you like with your new woman. Cast her in more porn if that strikes your fancy, but Victor will not be within fifty feet of it.”
“Are you saying I have to choose between my girlfriend or my son?”
“If you’re half the decent man I’ve always assumed you to be, it shouldn’t be a difficult decision to make.”
“That’s absurd. Sarah is my girlfriend. She and Victor get along more than fine. Don’t get jealous, Jill. She’s not going to threaten your relationship with our son.”
“Threatenme?Jealous? What the hell are you talking about? I don’t want anything to do with her! Don’t you get it, Luke? You bring in an influence like that, and there are consequences! Sometimes those consequences include shit you don’t like. Grow the fuck up. I had to.”
Is she comparing his choice in a girlfriend to her alcoholism?Sarah pushed away from the door around the time Jill finally called her a whore. Sarah had heard enough.
Lucas raised his voice more than once while Sarah sat by his bedroom window and stared at the orange clouds moving across the evening sky. When Jill finally left and Lucas entered the bedroom, it was hardly with a desire to return to their previous, interrupted frivolity.
“Isn’t the sky lovely this time of year?”
Lucas closed his mouth before he had the chance to complain about what had happened between him and his ex-wife. “What?”
“The sky.” Sarah pushed her finger against the glass, leaving behind a smudgy print. “I love the color orange. It’s so underused, yet it appears all the time in nature. You ever see orange daisies? My mother has a daisy garden back home. The orange ones have always been my favorite.”
“Sarah…”
Whatever happened to Angel?Sarah folded her arms against the windowsill and rested her head atop them. “We should go to the botanical gardens outside of town sometime soon. I wonder if they have orange daisies.”
Lucas squeezed her shoulder, his thumb brushing against a pressure point on the back of her neck. “The tea’s ready, by the way. Let’s not let it go to waste.”
Even so, they stayed by the window for another minute, Sarah committing the sensations welling up within her to memory.
