by Ellen Mint
“Great!” He wanted to burst in excitement for this big date, but as he went to cram his stuff into the messenger bag, Marty paused. “Oh right, that thing you wanted to tell me.”
“Forget it,” Brandy said, pivoting her chair to the side so she could stare out of the door.
“No. I mean, it has to be a big deal if you called me up in the middle of the night about it.” As he said that, he felt Janeth’s interest grow, but he was focused on Brandy. “Come on. You can tell me.”
“I…I was just… Thinking about taking another catering job with Mel,” Brandy spat out fast. “And I wondered if you’d be willing to take my hours again.”
That was it? “Sure,” Marty said, feeling magnanimous. “How soon?”
“I’ll, um, have to check with her,” she whispered.
He chuckled at the thought of her being so swept up in getting to bake professionally she had to call him right away. It was nice to have a happy Brandy for once. “Well, you know where to find me when you do,” he said.
“Uh-huh.”
With one arm wrapped around the back of Janeth’s waist, Marty guided her to the door. “I have the most amazing day planned for us.”
“I can’t wait,” she said and held his cheek. To his shock, she pecked her purple lips against him. “Babe,” Janeth finished before resting her head on his shoulder.
This day was going to be one he’d never forget for the rest of his life.
* * * *
“Did you tell him?”
Brandy gritted her teeth, drumming her fingers on the counter as she tried to think of a technical not-lie to get Mel off her back. “I can’t really talk now. I’ve got customers.” Brandy peeked down the empty shelves that should have had a poetic tumbleweed rolling through them.
“Uh-huh. Is one of them a proctologist? Because you are lying out of your ass.” It was a good thing there weren’t any patrons, because the word ‘ass’ burst from her phone like a shot. “I don’t get what the problem is.”
“He’s not here, okay? He took the day off.”
“So?” Mel wouldn’t give up, her metaphorical teeth latched around Brandy’s leg. “Text him. ‘Your girlfriend’s fucking around on the side. Dump her ass.’ Easy.”
“No, it’s not. There’s a…I can’t.”
“Why? Two-second phone call. ’You should swab her cheeks for the EPA, ’cause them lips have been everywhere.’”
Brandy gripped the counter harder, her eyes screwed tight as the Mel-browbeating went into extra innings. Yes, she should tell him. She should have told him even with Janeth standing there, so she could’ve disputed whatever lie his ‘princess’ came up with. But her heart kept leaping about, confusing emotions pounding in her brain. Then he’d smiled, the same as how she imagined when he saw her naked, and Brandy lost all nerve.
“I can’t because I dreamed about him!” she fired back fast, then slapped a hand over her mouth.
“Girl, you did what? What kind of a dream?”
“The kind where, the one in which…” She strained her neck around, making dead certain a single soul couldn’t listen in. Even so, Brandy dropped her voice to a barely audible whisper to say, “A sex dream.”
“I fucking knew it!” Mel shouted. “Always claiming you’re only friends. As if I don’t catch you staring at him when he’s not looking.”
“We are just…” She crushed her palm into a fist, before the memory of dream Marty doing that snapped through her. Opening it wide, she darted her fingers above the lump where her ring hid. For the first time in six months, she’d almost put it back on her finger.
“So,” Mel continued stampeding on, “how was he?”
“Amazing,” she admitted. “He took me on the counter, and against the fridge.” It was the best she’d had in, well…two years. And it wasn’t real. “Then”—her heart caught in her throat, tears rising in her words as she confessed—“he ripped my ring off and crushed it in his fist.”
“Are you serious?”
“Mm-hm.” Brandy pawed at her face, trying to keep the professional mask on even as her body was consumed with fire. Not the good kind that her dream stoked. No, these were the flames of the bad place where they sent wayward wives. “I’m not…I’m not ready. Okay. I thought I could be. But I freaked out on the date you were way too nice to set up. And with Marty…”
Her phone gave its little ‘You should look at me’ noise. Half the time it was her reading app trying to get her to buy more self-help books. They’d started around the time she’d had to search for funeral information online and wouldn’t stop.
Brandy was about to swipe the notification away when she read it. Janeth was streaming her date with Marty live. She shouldn’t watch it. What good would it do her?
“Hm, looks like Ms. Dumpster Diving is posting right now,” Mel said. “And your sexy boy toy is with her.”
Fuck.
“Ooh, is he going to dump her on live stream? I have to watch this.”
No, you don’t. I don’t. We can just let them sort it out. Figure out their lives apart from…from me.
He’d looked so happy with whatever he was planning. Downright giddy to be once again sweeping someone off her feet. As if he lived to be Casanova and Cyrano de Bergerac in one body.
With no backbone, Brandy opened the app. The video loaded almost instantly, revealing an open meadow. Too much summer had aged the grass to a streaky yellow, but that didn’t lower Marty’s smile.
“Okay, babe,” Janeth said in her high-pitched, sing-song voice. “If you missed the post earlier, Martin here has a surprise for me.”
He hates being called Martin.
The video zoomed in tighter, revealing Marty had slipped on a silk white shirt and left a few of the buttons undone. A flush rampaged through Brandy’s body, her traitorous brain refusing to delete the dream. It clung to the touch, taste and sight of him, even if it was nothing more than a delusion.
“That’s right,” Marty said across the video.
“Is it that he’s going to rip her heart out and show all her followers the cold-hearted witch she is?” Mel cut in, causing Brandy to sigh loudly. She wished that could happen.
Maybe he did know. Maybe this was all some elaborate revenge plot. Shit, that editor guy was always around Janeth. No chance of him missing that. And Janeth didn’t seem the careful type.
“Close your eyes, sweetie,” Marty instructed. Perhaps she did, perhaps she didn’t. It was impossible to tell as the phone kept recording. Marty vanished from view, leaving only the sway of grass and wildflowers. She hoped that the calming scene would last for an hour, but Brandy could only cling to it for a minute before Marty appeared.
And with him came a long white nose covered in hair. The more Marty tugged, the more sleek hair—bright as new-fallen snow—appeared. “You can look,” he announced.
It took a moment, as if Janeth either didn’t want to or didn’t care. But when a squeal shredded the phone’s speakers, it was Mel who shouted, “He got her a horse!”
Marty tugged on the bridle and turned the white horse’s head. “I know how much you love unicorns…” As he pulled, he revealed a golden horn tied around the head of the horse and nestled between its ears. “So I thought why not take a ride together on one.”
Another squeal broke from Janeth, her hand appearing from behind the camera as she rubbed the horse’s flank. Its big brown eye rotated to find the strange woman touching it just as she drew her fingers up the horn. “Stars, I love it!” she shouted and the phone pivoted far enough away to show a closeup of Janeth falling into Marty’s arms.
Brandy turned away, her skin prickling at this enormous gift. It was Mel shouting her commentary that drew her back. “He can ride a horse?”
“He attended an equestrian camp as a kid. Said he loved it, but Eldon got freaked out and they started going to a computer one instead,” Brandy explained without pause, one of the numerous facts she knew about Marty.
The hug bro
ke and Janeth glanced from the saddle back to her generous boyfriend. “Can you…do you know how to ride?”
Marty smiled wide. “I do believe so. Shall I help you up?” He extended his hand and, with a loud grunt, helped Janeth up into the saddle. Maybe he was just going to tug on the reins, let her play as the excited kid going for a guided walk on a horse. That was almost pathetic, really.
And he leaped up behind her. The video extended out, revealing Janeth’s grinning face and Marty brushing his chin against her shoulder, his hands locked tight to her stomach as he pressed himself to her.
“Here we go,” he said, picking up the reins and guiding their ‘unicorn’ into a trot. Janeth gasped and clung to the saddle horn, but her joy was undeniable. Marty had given her a gift that no one could ever top. It was evident even across the shitty bandwidth.
The ride passed in surprising silence. Marty made a few comments along the way, mostly in the form of horse puns, but when Janeth didn’t respond, he quieted down. And all that while he held her so tight in his arms, his own smile stretched to the limits. As if…as if he was the happiest he’d ever been because he’d gotten to give a woman a unicorn.
“Let’s turn here,” Marty said, tugging on the reins and shifting the horse to the right. They’d been trotting along a small creek when he directed the horse directly into the water. It splashed up, Janeth crying out like it was acid.
Marty took instant offense, his face crumbling from over her shoulder. “Aren’t you enjoying yourself?”
It was barely a pause before Janeth turned on her hip. “I am, babe. I just wish I’d had some warning or I wouldn’t have worn these boots.”
“Sorry,” he apologized, as if his gift wasn’t living up to her high standards. It’s a freaking unicorn!
Leaning close, Janeth puckered up and placed a sloppy kiss to Marty’s lips. Maybe she’d realized she was being too harsh. Maybe she knew her judgmental fans were watching. Or maybe she really did care for him and whatever had happened at the party had been a fluke.
Maybe it was a good thing Brandy had stayed quiet after all.
The horse, at the behest of Marty, walked them under a willow tree. For a moment, the phone went dark as the lens struggled to adjust to the low light. But as it rose, so too did a mess of twinkling lights positioned all around the bowing branches. It looked like fairies dancing in the leaves.
“This revenge plot is taking forever,” Mel whined, somehow still involved in this.
After sliding off the horse, Marty turned and once again held his hand out to her. “May I help you down?”
She giggled, fully giving in to his little princess play. To act like having a man answer to her every whim, assist her in small inconveniences, pamper her relentlessly was a good thing. How sad.
Marty tugged the two of them closer to the trunk of the tree, which was when the camera panned away from Janeth’s beautiful face. There, perched instead of carved on the trunk was a bright red heart sign with the initials JW and MD on it.
Oh no. Brandy tried to close out the app, to shut off her phone and hurl it to the ground. But her limbs went numb and she couldn’t move, only watch helplessly as Marty brushed back the silver-blond hair that fell across Janeth’s face.
“You are the most beautiful, arresting woman I’ve ever met,” he said. “And I’ve been dreaming of telling you here in this little slice of fantasy with a unicorn as a steed that…”
No. Shit. Damn it.
“I love you.”
He’d said it. He’d put his heart in his hands and she’d broadcast it to the entire world. What would happen? Maybe she’d realize she couldn’t keep lying. Or that she didn’t care that deeply for Marty. Or…
“I love you too, babe!” Janeth cried and wrapped her hands around him. As the two fell to kissing, which Brandy averted her eyes from, she spotted the comments on the side blowing up.
OMG! They said the L-Word!
This is the most romantic thing ever!
I’m so jealous right now.
Get in line. No. She wasn’t jealous, she couldn’t be. She was heartbroken…for her friend. To be that deep into a woman who not even a day before had made out with another man?
“So you really didn’t tell him,” Mel whispered, sounding as stricken as Brandy felt.
“He’s…” Despite Mel not being there, Brandy gestured to the phone. The two lovebirds were chirping more platitudes at each other, then Janeth began giving her ‘please like and subscribe’ spiel to the camera. It’d grind her teeth, but there was Marty in the background grinning through it all like a loon. He didn’t care that she was more engrossed with her phone than him. He had his one true love at last.
“He’s happy,” Brandy admitted. “And I can’t crush him. Not now. Not when he’s so… It’s not my place.”
The line fell silent as the video finally snapped to black. Somehow that made her feel worse. What were they up to without two thousand people watching? A flash of dream Marty hoisting her up in his arms flooded Brandy’s body. She wanted to sink to her knees and cry, but she couldn’t afford to.
A jangle of the shop bell drew her away from the whole mess. Lucky for her, the customer barely glanced up as he shuffled back for a book. Get it together, Brandy. He’s one guy.
“I’ve got to go,” she said, straightening up and tugging on her drooping ponytail.
“Girl…there’s other fish in the—”
“Save it, okay. I’m not ready. It’s…I’m not,” Brandy snapped.
“Okay.” Mel sounded hurt, causing Brandy to feel even worse than before. “But you’re gonna have to choose to leap back in or lose him forever.”
No, she wouldn’t, because he’d already made that choice for her.
Chapter Thirteen
He’d never been happier. The sun beamed a bright hello. Birds sang their beautiful songs everywhere he stepped. And he was in love with a beautiful woman. Nothing could ruin the heavenly mood that Marty’d been in for the past week.
“We should talk.”
Nothing except his brother.
Marty’s jolly holiday crashed to the ground at the pinched cheeks of one Eldon Dashwood. He always wanted to add an esquire at the end, just to mess with him. But that’d end in Eldon pointing out how he wasn’t a barrister, thereby ruining the joke.
“Hi. Nice to see you. How’s your day going? Other normal platitudes people use upon running into each other,” Marty said to him.
That caused the polished man in a full suit, despite the fact it was both ten thousand degrees out and a Saturday, to stumble. “Yes, Martin. Your day, it’s…well?”
“Fabulous, Eldy, thanks for asking.”
Eldon’s jaw grinding at the use of the old nickname could be heard above the roar of traffic skipping out to the start of the Fourth of July parade and picnics. Normally, Marty’d be right there with them, sparklers in hand. But he had plans to spend the holiday with Janeth. Hopefully somewhere flameproof.
He’d only wanted to stop by for a quick donut and coffee before rounding back to pick up the massive pile of mostly legal fireworks. As long as he fired them away from any neighborhoods, no one should care. When he’d told Janeth about his plans for the holiday, she’d hemmed and hawed until he’d mentioned all the dramatic shots she could get. The thought of kissing her under the spray of red and gold crackles in the sky was keeping him running against the heat.
Speaking of which, Eldon looked like he was about to hit the sidewalk and crack his stupid glasses. “Shall we adjourn to the recycled air of the comestible store?” Marty asked, jabbing a hand behind Eldon to the bakery.
The glare told him that someone had already pissed in Eldon’s oatmeal that morning, but even his brother gave in to that smattering of common sense. “Yes, that sounds like a wise idea.”
While Eldon claimed a table, which wasn’t too hard to get in the place, Marty sidled up and placed his brother’s usual order as well as one for the biggest iced coffee they had. Aft
er his long night, he wanted one in a Big Gulp cup, but had to settle for twenty ounces. Still, it would all be worth it once the sun went down.
“Would you like anything else, sir?” their friendly neighborhood barista asked.
His stomach grumbled in response and he peered through the glass. Soft fairy lights highlighted a cracking array of scones, but he knew better this time. “How about a chocolate donut? With those stars and stripes sprinkles, please.”
“Coming right up.”
Armed with donut and frozen coffee in one hand and a steaming hot mug in the other, Marty waded through the tables to find Eldon. Instead of burying his face in a newspaper, he drummed his fingers arrhythmically. Placing the hot mug down, Marty said, “I don’t know how you can drink this stuff.”
“Consumption of too much sugar is bad for you.”
“I meant drinking boiling hot water when you could bake a cake on the sidewalk outside.” Marty stumbled into the chair beside his brother and hefted the donut to his lips. The chocolate frosting was good, a little too sweet, but as he bit down, he shuddered. “This damn thing’s stale. Who makes the food here, anyway?”
“They have it brought in,” Eldon said before sucking in his piping hot coffee. He was a total slurper, always making that ‘wet vacuum hoovering up Jell-O’ noise when eating hot liquids.
“Do you know where, ’cause I think someone needs to put that bakery out of its misery?”
Eldon shook his head, placed down his cup and drove straight to business. “I got into the schooling funds earlier.”
Shit. “What? Why?” Don’t spit your coffee out. Drink it slowly and think. “Going for a double PhD?”
His brother’s eyes narrowed to slits. “No.”
“Then…what were you even doing in there? It’s only for schooling, remember. And if you aren’t going to school…”
Eldon became flustered, a hand rising to hide away his cheeks. The man was the worst liar, which was why Marty had taught him how to play poker the second he’d watched a tutorial on YouTube. “That isn’t the… It’s not that I had any intentions to remove the money. I merely look after it. Renew any CDs, maintain the stock investments.”
