“It’s humiliating! He’s manipulating me.”
Melanie suddenly looked stern. “He’s not doing anything that you didn’t willingly allow Stanley to do. Stanley never helped you in any way at all. He dragged you down and shoved your face in the dirt, remember?”
Piper felt her cheeks heat—the truth did hurt. “I wish people had told me how much they hated him when we were together.”
“Nobody wanted to hurt you, Pipes,” Melanie said softly. “And would you have listened?”
Piper sighed. “No, I wouldn’t. I’d have dumped everyone in a rage and Stanley would have had me completely isolated from anything that distracted me from him.”
“That’s what real manipulators do. It got to the point where he’d be derogatory to you in public and you wouldn’t even defend yourself anymore. It hurt me to have to stand by and keep my mouth shut.”
“Thanks for sticking with me, Mel. Those were some bad years. I can’t believe I let him crush my self-esteem like he did. He even ran me down in front of his boss, for God’s sake.”
“You can see it now, that’s the important thing, and now it’s time to move on. Move upward. You’re free from him and all the toxicity of that relationship.”
“So the upshot of what you’re saying is that I should go along with what DeLeo wants me to do and just grin and bear it?”
“I say it could be a whole lot worse and you might actually enjoy yourself.”
“Jesus, that’s what he said!”
“Looks like you’re outvoted then.” Melanie drained the last of her coffee and slipped the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “And I have a hunch that the wedding of the year you’re going to in a couple of weeks is one of my commissions because we have pink beer at the banquet. You might even recognize the coral tealight holders you sold me. So I’ll see you there, looking fabulous and very expensive at the bankable brewer’s expense.”
Piper watched Melanie leave, and then squeezed her eyes shut tight against the world. Her fate was apparently sealed.
The walk from the coffee shop to the retail premises that Silver Bells and Cockle Shells shared with other craft stores and then back to her apartment was a vicious experience. The weather had been growing progressively worse and now high winds lashed bitter snowflakes into her face and hair. By the time she’d walked down Fourth Street, she wished she’d taken a cab to avoid this hell. The streets were emptying fast so she couldn’t expect any walk-in customers. At least she’d managed to get her stock updated in the ten minutes she’d spent at her store and arranged some cover for the times when she wouldn’t be around.
Sophie was supposed to take some of it on anyway, her way of repaying Piper for putting a roof over her head, picking up her mess, and feeding her. Something told Piper she was getting the rough end of the deal, but family was family and she was sure Sophie would put herself out in the same way if their situations were reversed. Maybe.
Outside her apartment in the freezing cold, she fumbled with her keys as she tried to get the right one in the lock, but her fingers were clumsy and the key ring fell with a clatter onto the metal walkway. “Damn it.” The awkward grind of the lock mechanism seemed even more infuriating than usual, the last twist of the knife after a painful day. Her tiny foyer was dark, biting cold, and silent. Until a pitiful mewl came from deep inside the gloom.
“Sophie?” The place was empty. Piper put her purse on the telephone table in the hall and shrugged off her coat so as not to trail melting snow through the place. Icy fingers of dread crept up her spine as she acknowledged her furnace had probably broken down again, just what she needed. She flicked on the front room’s light and saw the pregnant cat curled up on the sofa.
“Has Soph abandoned you, kitty?” Her attention was caught by a sheet of paper taped to the television screen.
Dear Piper, had a chat with Mom and Dad and they said I could come visit for a few days, maybe even move back if things work out. You were right about telling me to try to make up. They don’t seem nearly so mad with me now. :0)
There was no hot water this morning and it’s really cold!
Sophie
P.S. The cat got its tail stuck in the bathroom door, but it looks okay.
xoxoxoxoxo
Her heart sank. The cat was mewling and had been licking at the end of her tail since she’d come in. Closer inspection revealed that the end of it had been degloved. A pink shiny tip protruded from the gray fur and made Piper want to wince. It must hurt like hell, poor thing.
“Shame on you, Sophie Reilly,” she muttered quietly so as not to distress the animal further. “This cat is not okay, are you, kitty?”
At five p.m., it was far too late to get a veterinary appointment as a new patient. She should have found a vet earlier, but life had just got out of hand in the last few weeks, so she needed to think fast. There was a late night drop-in vet clinic on the outskirts of Passion Creek. She’d seen the signs for it a few times when she’d been on the way to the shell wholesalers. That would be her best bet, and the quicker she got there, the better with the way the weather was turning.
Five minutes later, having changed into jeans and a sweater, she was on the highway out of town with a snarling cat strapped into the front seat in a cardboard box. The cat was not happy and the noise coming out of the box was pretty much the same as a child screaming—absolutely horrible and very distracting. The snow was also falling faster in great thick lumps that hit the windshield and splattered into wet bursts, battering the windshield wipers that struggled to keep up with the onslaught.
“Not far now, kitty,” she soothed and turned the heater up full blast. It made the old Dodge Intrepid smell like a junkyard, an unpleasant combination of hot electrics, burning dust, and ancient air conditioning gas. “Just another couple of miles, sweetheart.”
Perhaps the sound of the radio would calm both their nerves. Some local radio was bland enough: easy listening, local news stories, nothing too abrasive.
…polar vortex forecasted to cause extreme weather conditions in Passion Creek over the next two days. Residents are advised not to venture out unless absolutely necessary. Shortages of batteries, milk, and bread in stores have already been reported. Stay indoors and please do not call on the emergency services unless the situation is critical.
Piper turned the radio sharply off. “Great.” The cardboard box of pregnant cat rocked in the car seat like something possessed. “We’re three quarters of the way there, might as well keep going now. Maybe they’ll have a nice big dog basket I can crash in overnight, huh?”