Page 52 of Four Dates and A Forever
“Because you have moon-eyes.”
Elsie snorted. “What are moon-eyes?”
“That sappy-happy look people get when they’re crushing. And you are crushing hard.”
“I am not.” Elsie looked at herself in the mirror behind the bar and,oh my god, she had moon-eyes. “Plus, in a few weeks, he’s leaving for an extended work thing that could be up to a year. And what happens then?”
“You celebrate that you’re no longer a divorcée but a single woman on the town. All the lingering anger from the divorce will vanish and then you’ll get your fresh start. Trust me. Rebound sex is the best therapy one can get.”
“No lingering here,” she said, then paused. Every time she thought about how Axel had duped her, first by the affairs and then by selling her house out from under her, it got her blood boiling. She’d had a few fantasies where Axel lost everything and had to start his life over like she had.
He still had no idea how hard it had been to keep her chin up while he squashed her like a cockroach. “Okay, maybe a tad bit of lingering. In fact, I may have stolen his drumsticks.”
Carla’s mouth dropped open. “The ones Dave Grohl gave him that he had framed in his studio?”
“The ones I had framed.” Axel had been “too busy” to do something as domestic as buying a frame, so Elsie had surprised him. “The judge said I could take anything from the house that belonged to me. I framed those suckers, so technically the frame belongs to me and, I figured, what’s inside was up for grabs.” So she’d snagged them when packing her personal belongings. It was petty and immature and felt liberating as hell. How she saw it was that he’d stolen eight years of her life, so she’d stolen his most prized possession.
“You stuck it to him by stealing his sticks?” Carla clapped her hands. “How poetic. I knew you had a little rebellious side in there. And maybe that’s who you need to channel. That inner wild child.”
Elsie hadn’t been in touch with her adventurous side since that weekend with Rhett. Her heart had been so bruised she’d decided the safe route was more her speed. But playing it safe by marrying a man who openly spoke about marriage had bruised more than her heart. It had fractured it.
Not totally broken, she realized. Just a hairline fracture.
“If this is going to work, I need to set some rules.” Some concrete, unbreakable, keep-her-heart-safe rules.
“Oh, for god’s sake. How many times do I have to tell you? Rules are like kale, full of regret.”
“Rules keep people safe.”
“Oh, babe. You went the marriage way, and you were miserable for years. Maybe it’s time to give fun a try. Who knows? You might actually find yourself smiling like you were a minute ago.”
Wasn’t that exactly what Rhett had said? And what did it say about her that the two people she spent the most time with thought she was unhappy? “I guess it’s just dinner and seeing where it leads from there.”
Right to the bedroom, her inner horndog said. And would that be so bad?Yes, her warning bells rebutted.
“Leap and the orgasms will come.”
Elsie covered her eyes and grimaced. “Can we talk about something else? Anything else?”
“Fine. Only because I know that you’re going to say yes.”
Elsie rolled her eyes. “I got an email back from the editor atModern Masterpiece.”
“You did not!”
“I totally did. This afternoon. And it turns out the architect who lands the cover also wins a three-year lease on a downtown studio and fifty-thousand dollars to set up shop.”
“This is your big break, Elsie! This is the moment you’ve been working toward since I met you.” Carla studied her seriously. “Why aren’t you smiling?”
“There are still a lot of hoops to jump through. Being considered is a dream come true, but making the cut, let alone landing the cover, is still a pie-in-the-sky thing for me to wrap my brain around.”
Carla took both of Elsie’s hands. “Stop undercutting your talent. You are cover worthy. You just have to believe in your work. Visualize yourself with a thick wad of fifty grand and a sweet studio downtown.”
“Visualize?” Elsie chuckled. “You sound like my mom.”
Carla made a face. “While that is an insult, maybe this one time she’s right. So what’s the next hoop to jump through?”
“The editor wants to see more pictures of the house.”
