by Tonya Kappes
“That’s why you are off.” Benji flung her hand to the ground. “You go be with him. I’ve got this.”
“I have an hour left in the show.” Benji’s suggestion did sound good, but she’d never left her audience. Never. Especially not today, the first day of streaming everywhere.
“We can pop in the lube tape with Dr. Moriarty.” Benji always had times like these in the back of his head. “I kept the interview going after his allotted time on the air when he was here and we got that good hour on lubricants. Everyone loves a good lube session.” Benji’s body did a human wave. “Slip and slide. Slip and slide.” He snapped his fingers.
“You are brilliant!” Harper clapped her hands together. “Thank you!” She rushed over and flung her arms around Benji’s neck and kissed his cheeks several times. “Thank you! Thank you!”
There was no time to waste. Instead of jumping on the golf cart Rob had bought her to go back and forth between the house and the studio, she flipped off her flats and ran as fast as she could. Not that she didn’t want to see Rob; she wanted to make sure she could see Melanie before she left. Something wasn’t right and Melanie would give her the clarification she needed. Her intuition told her that Melanie would know.
Chapter Two
It was divine intervention how Harper had met Melanie. At least that was the way Harper saw it. Maybe it was wishful thinking that there was a great power here on earth to validate that she was doing the right thing by marrying Rob and her life was going exactly the way it should.
Harper and Rob had just gotten married. She was hosting their first dinner party and she needed the perfect cocktail dress. She went to one of the many small Louisville boutique dress shops, where she had found the perfect dress.
Harper and Melanie walked out of the dressing rooms at the same time in the same cocktail dress. It was fate. Instantly, they were attracted to each other, especially after Melanie told Harper to buy the dress because she would look fabulous hosting the cocktail party. Harper was flabbergasted that Melanie knew about the party. Melanie told Harper about her gift for psychic reading and how she visualized Harper at the party. Somehow Melanie knew because Harper hadn’t said a word about the party.
“All eyes will be on you. You are going to shine,” Melanie had told her.
Melanie had been right. Harper’s dinner party went off without a hitch. The party even made headlines in the “Who’s Among Us” column in the society section of the Courier-Journal.
Harper couldn’t wait to get a reading from Melanie. A real reading, not like the one in the dressing room at the boutique or like the ones from the county fair when she was growing up, but a real reading. Her five-year relationship with Melanie had turned into a great friendship. Harper trusted Melanie with everything. Even the deepest, darkest secrets of her past. Melanie had practically become Harper’s best friend.
The way Harper saw it, Melanie was a psychic, so she obviously couldn’t hide anything from her.
“Great.” Harper’s heart pounded when she saw Melanie’s convertible Mercedes still parked in the circular drive with the top down. It was a spectacular day. The birds were chirping and, in the distance, the horses were neighing. The air was humid and the trees were starting to turn the farm into the picturesque painting of fall’s color pallet of red, gold, and yellow. The blue grass was nice and springy under her flip-flops as she crossed the yard.
For a second, it crossed Harper’s mind to jump in the pool and swim across because it would be faster; instead, she rushed around it. The pool water was crystal blue and the flowing fountain was definitely enticing. Maybe she could get Melanie to stay for lunch and a swim. Harper was never sure how to thank her for all the times Melanie had shown up unannounced at just the right times.
Over the past few months, Melanie’s friendship had been invaluable. She had told Harper not to worry about her sex life or lack thereof. Melanie could see in the stars that Rob was trying to take his career to a new level, reassuring Harper about his stress.
Then Harper recalled the time Rob had come home with lipstick on his shirtsleeve after a long weekend away at some horse sale. Rob had pleaded his innocence after she had accused him of cheating. During the middle of their throw down, Melanie had shown up and given them both a reading. It had worked like magic. Melanie had recalled the same thing Rob had said. There was a drunken lady at the bar. Rob had his jacket off and the woman had passed out next to him, face planted on his shirt. Harper was so relieved and grateful for Melanie’s gift of insight. Rob was not happy, though, that Harper had believed a psychic over him when he didn’t really believe in what Melanie did for a living.
“She’s a wacko,” he’d tell Harper about Melanie. But lately he had been going back and forth about a business venture with some Derby contenders, and Harper knew Melanie could help him with it. At least she hoped Melanie could help him come to a business decision he could live with.
Stepping up on the covered outdoor space, Harper could feel the breeze from the fans circulating the air. Rob had insisted the space be added to the renovation of the mansion. Every night after Rob got home, they enjoyed a cocktail and a late-night supper sitting silently side by side at the farm table. Harper watched him as he ate and read the Wall Street Journal or caught up on the daily events on Fox Business Network on the television that hung above the mantel of the large fireplace.
Harper didn’t complain. At least they were there together. Once she’d served supper naked to catch his attention but ended up eating naked without him even noticing. But today she knew Melanie would help change all that and put his mind at ease.
Harper turned the handle on the back door, but it was locked. Harper looked through the window and frowned when she didn’t see Rob and Melanie at the kitchen table, where Melanie held all her readings. Cleansing the house; Melanie said it was important for all major decisions, and it was the first thing she did when she came in. This happened to be Harper’s favorite part because she loved the ritual of Melanie whispering blessings over the house and fanning the smoldering sage stick with a large eagle’s feather around the house.
Of course Melanie was saging the house before she read Rob, Harper thought. This horse thing was worth a lot of money and a big deal to propel Rob into the big league of horse racing. He had let Harper finalize her dreams of the radio studio; now that she was living her dream, it was his time to work on his.
Harper fluffed the cushions on the outside furniture and then hurried around the side of the house to the other kitchen door.
Immediately the smell of Melanie’s sage stick floated through the air, greeting her when she let herself in the door. It was a smell Rob hated. He would seethe about the stink Melanie left behind.
All Harper had to do was follow the smell to find them. She noticed Rob’s wallet and cell phone on the kitchen counter, so she knew he had come home like she had asked. She ditched her flip-flops by the door and opened up the windows in the house as she went on her search for them. The sage would float out and all would be good in her world. Rob would get the advice he needed, the perfect birthday gift, and she would get the weird feeling behind her with Melanie’s encouraging words.
Her feet sounded flat on the marble flooring Rob had insisted they get instead of the hardwood Harper had wanted. He said the marble fit with the lifestyle and the entertaining they would be doing in the seven-thousand-square-foot mansion. A much too generous gift from his parents. Rob was the baby of the family and his parents never said no to him. Actually, Harper had never heard anyone tell Rob no. Even her.
Harper’s nose led her upstairs. At the top of the stairs, she looked down the hall, where all the doors were closed. One by one she opened them, letting the sunlight from the windows spill out into the hallway. She loved how much sun came into the house.
She opened her bedroom door to find it pitch black. She knew she had made the bed and opened the automatic shades, letting in the sunshine when she got ready. She loved how the wi
ndows overlooked the lake and her studio. She would sit on the Persian rug Rob had imported at an ungodly cost to lay on the marble in the bedroom. It was perfect cushion for Harper to sit and apply her makeup by the natural light of the sun.
Rob didn’t like it when she did that. “I built you that beautiful bathroom and your own dressing area just for your makeup,” he’d yell after he’d get home from work and see her makeup left on the rug. “If you get makeup on that rug, you will be spending your own money to replace it.”
She’d gotten smarter and made sure she remembered to put her makeup away but still continued to use the rug and windows as her dressing area.
There was a faint murmur coming from the dark bedroom. She stopped when she recognized Rob’s voice. She ran her hand up the wall and flipped on the automatic shade switch to open. Slowly, the sunlight crept into the room as the shade rolled up.
Harper blinked, trying to see through the sunlight beaming in through the windows because she knew her eyes were deceiving her. At least she hoped for Rob’s sake they were.
“Son of a bitch!” Harper’s eyes zeroed in on Rob’s naked body in their bed with a naked Melanie on top of him. Her long blonde hair cascade down her back like a horse’s mane. Rob’s face flushed and his normally perfectly gelled hair was mussed up. His legs were planted firmly on either side of Melanie as she jockeyed up and down on top of him.
“Harper?” Rob flung Melanie to the side.
“Oh my fuck!” Harper screeched and slammed the bedroom door behind her with all of them inside. She turned the lock and didn’t let go until she heard it click. She wasn’t going to let anyone go anywhere. She picked up the expensive vase her mother-in-law had shipped back from China off the dresser next to the door and held it over her head.
“Put down the vase, Harper.” Melanie scrambled into the corner where her clothes had landed when Rob must have playfully undressed her.
“What? Were you reading his balls? Those tiny little things won’t give you ten minutes’ worth of pleasure, much less see into the future.” Harper’s head had flung back and the most godawful fit of laughter escaped her lips. It was all she could do to dampen down the urge to throw the vase. The actual throwing wasn’t her dilemma; it was the fact that only one could be the recipient.
Harper narrowed her eyes as if she were looking through the sights of a gun, calculating how she could swing the whole two-birds-with-one-stone thing. She glanced around the room, looking for another object for her other hand, while her first hand lifted the vase above her head. She could quickly discharge this vase and reload with something else.
“Not that vase,” Rob warned, grabbing the sheets up around himself with one hand, the other stuck out at Harper. “You know that vase is an heirloom and very expensive.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Melanie went down like a graceful ballerina to pick up her clothes.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Harper swallowed hard before throwing the vase down at Melanie’s feet, causing Melanie to jump the other way.
In one swoop, Harper grabbed Melanie’s clothes and held them close to her own body.
“I paid you to give him a reading on horses, not ride him like a horse!” Harper grabbed another vase with her free hand, flinging it toward Melanie. “You bitch!” Harper cried.
Melanie danced around the broken vase pieces that were all over the marble floor. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide open. Harper danced back and forth from side to side at the end of the king-size bed, trying to plan the quickest way to get her hands on Rob, but not without noticing that Melanie’s breasts were much smaller than they appeared in her clothing.
“No, no.” Harper stopped and glared at Melanie. She shook her head violently. “This is not happening. This is not happening.” She reopened her eyes only to find the reality was still there. “This is fucking happening! Bastard!” She flung herself across the bed, not caring about the piece of vase that cut her foot.
“This isn’t what you think.” Rob continued to dance on the bed in the opposite direction from Harper, ducking when she flew right at him.
“Shut up! Not what I think?” Harper screamed, her eyes full of rage. She surprised herself by how quick she was, and Rob wasn’t fast enough. “Let me guess.” Her crazy was getting 100 percent crazier. “This is some sort of New Age psychic reading. Not reading palms now? Reading other women’s husbands!”
“I . . . a . . .” Melanie babbled, on the verge of tears.
“‘I . . . a . . .’” Harper mocked her, her hand still curled around Rob’s biceps but digging her fake nails deeper and deeper.
He squealed like a stuck pig, making her dig deeper still. Oddly, she found pleasure in his pain.
“How could you do this to me?” Harper cried, punching him in the chest over and over.
For a moment, she felt like she was watching a movie of someone else’s life. Someone else’s husband having sex with another woman. It wasn’t Rob. He loved her. He didn’t care that she’d grown up in a trailer. He didn’t care she wasn’t groomed to be a debutant like all the other women he had dated. He’d married her. He loved her.
But it wasn’t a movie. It was her life.
“Harper, calm down.” Rob’s chest was plastered in red handprints.
Her neck swirled around and her eyes focused on Melanie, who was stuck in the corner of the bedroom. She had picked up the sage stick and was twirling it all over her body, chanting something.
“What? Are you channeling your spirits to get rid of the wife?” Harper waved her hands in front of her. “Ohhh. Boo! Still here!”
Melanie merely stared, tongue-tied.
“What? Spirits got your tongue? Ooo.” Harper’s brows lifted and she wiggled her fingers in front of her like some ghostly spirit calling and sashayed up to Melanie, grabbing the sage stick out of her hand. Harper jabbed the lit stick at Melanie’s naked body. Melanie ducked her head in her hands, flinching with each jab. “I’m cleansing your skanky ass.”
“Rob?” Melanie’s voice quivered. “Help.”
Harper twirled the sage stick in front of Melanie a few times before she threw Melanie’s clothes on the floor. A pair of dental floss thongs fell out of the pile on the expensive Persian.
“Sicko.” Harper grunted and threw the sage stick on top of them. Smoke danced in the air.
“Jesus, Harper!” Melanie’s eyes spooked wide with astonishment.
“What? You didn’t see all of this with your fucking fake psychic ability?” Harper screamed, gesturing around the room. “Did you plan this? Did you tell Rob that he had to sleep with you? I didn’t pay you to fuck my husband!”
The pile of clothes puffed with smoke, the sage smell now becoming a burning smell. Small blue flames started to dance on the fancy fibers of the rug.
“Harper, calm down.” Rob used the reasonable voice Harper used to love when he would help her through her own business situations. “You are a little out of control.”
“No.” Harper didn’t move. She wasn’t going to let any of them leave. She didn’t give a shit if the house burned down, and them in it. She reached over to the bed and slowly pulled a sheet off the bed, throwing it onto the smoldering sage stick. “I’m not out of control. How do you expect me to act when I walk in my house and my bedroom to find you fucking another woman, not to mention the woman you call crazy!”
“You called me crazy?” Melanie asked.
“Shut up! You don’t have the right to talk or question him!” Harper grabbed Melanie by the arm.
“Ow,” Melanie cried out and jerked away.
“Harper.” Out of the corner of her eye, Rob was coming toward her. “The house will burn down if you don’t let me put that pile of clothes out.”
“I don’t give a shit!” Harper jerked back around when she saw a naked flash out of the corner of her eye. Melanie was butt naked hightailing it out of the bedroom. “I don’t think so!”
Harper ran out behind her. The spirit gods must’v
e been on Melanie’s side because she was faster than a bell clapper up a goose’s ass; that was just one of many phrases Harper had learned throughout her southern upbringing.
Melanie ran down those marble steps and out the door.
“You better run, you bitch! Home wrecker!” Harper found herself wishing Melanie would’ve slipped and busted her head open as she watched Melanie’s Mercedes’s tires screech the entire way down the drive. “Damn,” Harper moaned and turned back toward her no-good, cheating, fleabag of a husband.
“Now that she is gone, we can talk calmly about this.” Rob bolted down the steps butt naked, passing Harper on his way into the kitchen. “Where is the fire extinguisher? I can explain after I put out that pile of clothes you set on fire.”
Harper’s eyes darkened with emotion. The thought of his dangling bits inside Melanie sent the strawberries and champagne up in her throat.
“Harper?” Rob clapped to get her attention. “The fire extinguisher?”
“Fuck you! Happy birthday!” Harper turned and grabbed the old, tattered and torn Bible off the entry hall receiving table and stuck her hand in the urn where Rob hid money, though he didn’t know she knew about it. She pulled out a bag of cash and walked out of the house. “But you knew this was going to happen because Melanie read your teeny, tiny balls. Your ass is grass and I’m the lawn mower!”
“Really? No matter how much money I invested in making you a socialite, you still talk like a hillbilly. I took you out of the slums of your past. You owe me. Now be a good girl and get me the fire extinguisher!” he yelled after her.
Harper held her middle finger up in the air and continued to wander around the yard in a head fog.
If he wanted the fire extinguisher, he was going to have to find it. Only he wouldn’t. It was in the studio, where Harper kept it in fear some of the expensive equipment might catch fire.
