Page 10 of Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates
She blamed Valerian and feared the pattern would continue on the ship.
Bring her mother, she thought. Great idea, she thought. Don’t waste a perfectly good ticket, she thought.
Big mistake.
Valerian followed Mari around, constantly updating her star chart and loudly announcing anything that looked like a good omen. Her baby was suffering, and she would do anything to ease the pain, if that anything involved complaining about Tomas and how Celestial Mates was rife with con artists and thieves.
It didn’t help that Valerian had just atouchof a flamboyant personality. Hardly worth mentioning.
Okay, okay. Within hours of the disaster that had been her wedding, Valerian shared the shocking details about what a cad and a heartless monster Tomas had been to her baby with business associates, shop clerks, and the neighbors. Everyone seemed to know about Mari’s personal life because Valerian couldn’t keep her mouth shut.
Valerian convinced her to come out for the yoga class. Or wore her down. The result was the same.
Still better than mopping her apartment. Marginally. Mari bolstered herself, knowing that in a few days she’d be at the resort, enjoying the sunshine and a beach. She’d tolerate her mother’s persistent gossiping for a few more days. Hopefully, she’d be distracted once they boarded the ship.
Mari gulped down her own glass of cucumber-infused water and looked to the window. The nebula swirled with purple and gold churning gasses.
The woman continued to prattle on, and Mari did her best to keep a placid expression on her face. The woman complained about the freshness of the lemons—she honestly expected fresh lemons on a space station? Apparently, the woman had to apply a thick layer of makeup and tease out her hair into an impressive updo before she was presentable enough for yoga. Mari guessed she also regularly visited a youth spa; that woman had an impressive amount of work done. She had modified her body into an ageless state that could be anywhere between forty to one hundred.
“You know, you’re not so old. You can get these lifted. They’re so droopy.” The woman grabbed Mari’s ear and pulled her down for inspection.
Mari knocked her hand away, furious. How dare she grab her! She opened her mouth to give the opinionated woman a piece of her mind when a familiar hand touched her shoulder.
“I don’t like your aura. It’s not normally so peaky,” Valerian said.
Mari did not understand what that meant. “I’m fine.”
Valerian frowned. “We should consult your star chart and sort this out.”
Mari knew what was wrong with her. She opened her heart to the wrong man. “I’m going to take a nap. I’m sure the peakiness will pass.”
“If you’re sure…” Valerian did not look convinced.
Mari’s unwanted companion turned her attention to Valerian. “You do star charts?”
“I do.”
“Fascinating. Is it true—”
The two women wandered off, deep in conversation.
Twenty minutes later, Mari sat on the bed in the apartment she once shared with Tomas, staring in disbelief at the eviction notice on her tablet.
How did everything keep getting worse?
She threw the tablet across the room. The new landlord wanted payment now.
When she and Tomas moved in together, he told her he’d handle the rent and she should put that money toward the wedding. So she did, like a chump, month after merry month. Turns out, Tomas hadn’t paid the rent at all. Like, not even once. Fortunately, she worked out a payment schedule with the landlord to avoid eviction.
Something changed, and now she had thirty days to pay up or move out, all because Tomas gambled away their rent at the casino.
Perfect. That’s what she got for checking her messages. She should have avoided those like she’d been avoiding Nox.
There had to be a reason for all this bad karma barreling down at her. She believed herself to be a kind person. She didn’t kick puppies or spread malicious gossip. Why in the ever-loving heavens did the universe send Tomas DeWitt her way?
Mari sank into the bed. The sheets were crisp and clean and the comforter fluffy like a cloud. The mattress must have been made out of a marshmallow because the bed felt divine. She fidgeted to get comfortable. Yoga usually eased the tightness in her lower back, but not today. She was wound so tight she felt like she’d implode.
The mattress didn’t help. Her body ached. Her soul hurt.
