hey were pol

cold cotton between them. Toria answered in single words and went to bed

Neither did the dizziness

r bag like contraband. She wasn't ready to look. If she looked, it would be real. And if it was rea

hone

sual tonight. Business

on mark.

n the pharmacy window: long hair dragging at her should

nto the salo

the stylist. "All o

e mirror as a stranger emerged, sharper and lighter, with a n

thought. Th

ay at six, leaning again

sto

ery straigh

oing to say

to say somet

ff the car, slowly.

s the worst part. It ha

. She got in, heart d

aw a golden retriever in the next car with its head out of the wi

" Chri

y cat used

had a

I was eight. Then my parents argued, a bad one, and my father..." She swallowed. "H

Chriss didn't move. A

hite on the wheel.

eve

trous thing to

that she turned to star

feet until I was nineteen. When he died I didn't spea

of the stopped traffic, two people who

rmous and loud an

reen. A dozen men with beers in their hands turned a

," Toria said b

hnic

ris

"Kelvin. And you must be the wife we've been told is a myth." He took her han

nk y

riss said, v

m being w

her waist. "She's Toria.

tall man behind him, Gabriel, laughed

ed him in

lied

d

s of keeping me away from your friends, and you

have sa

use you ne

was ashamed of me. I didn't want them to see what I'd made of us." He took a brea

d. It didn't die

flirting after the third time Chriss's hand found her back. At one point she looked up and found Chriss watchin

good time. She ha

e the streets we

the dark. "To walk in with you

er eyes on

aken you years a

rifted to her bag, to the small,

she locked herself in the

li

he door and pressed bot