“They’re not much different than WASPy Boston manners. If there’s an elephant in the living room, you suddenly become deaf, dumb, and blind.”
“Elephant? What are y’all talkin’ about? And by the way, Iain’t dumb.”
Merry gave her a sidelong glance and looked as though she was reconsidering Gwyneth’s hospitality. “Are you talking to Chad?”
She brightened. “Yes! Isn’t it excitin’? I just discovered I could.”
“Thrilling. Yawn. Learn to swear without the phone in your hand, and then we’ll talk.”
“Oh, hush, you.” She did a quick double take at Merry’s wrinkled brow. “Oh! Notyou, hon. Please, come in. I’ll just have to ignore him.”
“That’s what I have to do most of the time,” Morgaine said, as she left her desk and strolled over to the women at the door. “Otherwise, people would think I was yelling at them.”
“Is he that bad?” Merry asked.
Morgaine shrugged. “Not really. He’s just a little sarcastic. Come on in. Sit down. Let me get you something to drink. Do you like tea?”
“Sure. But you don’t need to go to any trouble. I was just wondering…” She took a seat on their flowered couch. Gwyneth sat next to her and Morgaine retreated to the kitchen.
“What is it, hon?” Gwyneth asked.
“You sound like you’re talking to a six-year-old, Belle.”
Gwyneth cringed, but ignored him.
“I was wondering if you guys could tell fortunes? You know, like read palms or tea leaves or something?”
“Oh, yes. We both read palms. Morgaine reads tarot and tea leaves. I’m still learnin’ the meanin’s of all the symbols.”
“That must be fascinating!”
“Oh, it is.”
Morgaine called out from the kitchen, “Do you want us to read your tea leaves, Merry? I’m already making the tea and it would be a good chance for Gwyneth to practice.”
“Really? I’d love that!”
Gwyneth winked. “I bet you want to know if a certain tall, handsome baseball player loves you.”
“Oh, no. I know he does.” She smiled, sounding confident.
“Can’t you tell by the goofy grins on their faces every time they’re together?”
“Well, you’d better be careful, anyway.” Morgaine called. “I’ve heard he’s a heartbreaker.”
Merry cleared her throat. “Actually, I stopped by hoping we could schedule a date night? Since he doesn’t like going out in public, I thought getting our fortunes told might be a cool thing to do right here in our own building. I’ll pay you, of course.”
“Since I’m just learnin’, I wouldn’t feel right acceptin’ ya’ll’s money. Even though I’m so poor, I can barely pay attention.” She laughed. “Y’all can pay Morgaine, if she wants.”
“You bet your badonkadonk, I want to be paid for it,” came Morgaine’s voice.
Gwyneth giggled. “We’re a little poor now that we’ve lost our customers who wanted noisy phone sex. But I won’t charge y’all until I’m more confident.”
“Cool. Maybe Morgaine can read one of us and you can read the other?”
“Okay. I think we can do that. But, for today, do you have a particular question you want answered? We usually start by havin’ ya’ll make a wish, and then we try to say if it’s gonna come true.”
“Yeah, there’s something kind of bothering me. When I was in high school I had my fortune told by a psychic who said that someone was talking trash behind my back. And it was true. I’m kind of wondering if someone’s been hanging around, spying on me and Jason.”
