Page 28 of The Paid Wife: A Lesbian Romance

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anger was dry and caught immediately.

“Come on. This shop is just as touristy and fake as all the

rest. And what’s with the hair? The scarf? If you’re trying to

come across as some gypsy knock off, one in a million, unique

kind of I don’t even know what, you’re failing miserably.”

All Dani did was shrug. She actually looked beyond bored

now. “I like the scarf, I like the hair, and I like black. What can

I say? My shop is my shop. It works for me. Now.” She

glanced at the cards on the table. “Do you want a reading or

not?”

As she dropped her eyes to the table, Emily felt like the last

of the oxygen had run out in the place. It was stifling. Her

lungs were on fire, her insides ached, her stomach spun, and

her head was starting to pound. She stood so fast that she

dumped her bag on the ground and had to bend for it. She

bumped her shoulder on the edge of the table on the way up,

but didn’t even wince at the sharp crack or the pain that spread

like trickling raindrops down her arm.

“This is dumb.”

The whole thing, she meant. Herself. Not the store. She was

sorry that she’d insulted someone who was just sitting there

listening to her complain about problems that most people

wouldn’t consider problems. Not that I did a very good job of

actually trying to get her to understand. Or anyone else. Emily

hated that she felt trapped. Trapped in that room. Trapped in

her life. Trapped so that she felt like she was always going to

be forced to just exist.

Emily dug in her purse, grabbed her wallet, ripped it open,

and produced a few twenties. She threw them down on the

table. She had no idea how much a reading cost, but she

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