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“You could move out here, too.”
“Not a chance, honey. I love you, but living without a mall just isn’t in my bag.”
Laurel sipped the woody vintage from the plastic cup and grimaced.Add wine glasses to the list of must buy next.“I know. But this works for me. It’s far enough away that no one knows me and I can really start fresh.”
“As a cat lady?” Teri shot over the rim of her cup.
“I am not going to be a cat lady.”
“You said you were done with men. Not that I can blame you, after taking a look around this place. The tight wranglers are nice, but once you move past that…it’s just dirt and the scent of manure. I can smell it everywhere in this town. I’m pretty sure the neighbors in the house behind you have chickens.”
“Maybe I can get organic eggs from them.”
“Always the optimist. Seriously. Can we just mourn the lack of shopping for a few minutes?”
“I can order everything online that I could possibly want.” Laurel kept her tone light for her friend’s benefit. She was slightly concerned about being bored in a town the size of Somewhere, but it had been cheap to find a house and easy to secure a lease for an office space in town. Once she got her new match-making service up and running, she’d have plenty to keep her occupied and content.
“When is the furniture getting here?”
“In a few days. Until then, it’s an air mattress and this nice carpet,” she said, brushing the shaggy flooring where they sat against the wall of her empty living room.
“You don’t even have a fridge.”
“I have an ice chest. It will work until the fridge comes in a couple of days. Apparently there’s no such thing as rush shipping out here. You wait for your turn and that’s that. The lady in the store said I was lucky they weren’t backed up more than a week. She said normally it takes three.”
“Three weeks.” Shock stretched Teri’s mouth into a large “o” shape.
Laurel nodded. “That’s about what I looked like. She just shrugged and laughed. But it’s the norm out here. Every single person I dealt with seemed un-rushed and not the least bit concerned that I would’ve preferred more speedy service. They didn’t even care that I offered to pay more. It just wasn’t an option. So I’m stuck with no furniture for a week and no fridge, washer, or dryer for a few more days.”
“Please don’t take your clothes to a laundry mat.”
Laurel almost spit her mouthful of wine. “Never. There’s a dry cleaner just down the street. I need the washer and dryer for my non-existent sheets and towels.”
Teri smirked. “At least you haven’t gone and lost all your sense.” She climbed to her feet and nodded toward the open wine bottle on the counter in the kitchen. “More?”
Laurel shook her head. “I’m good.”
“Do you really think you’ll be able to get another match-making business going out here in this little college town?” Teri finished off the bottle and dropped it into the large black plastic garbage bag in the corner of the kitchen. The bottle clinked against the other bottles they’d consumed over the last few days. “Should I open another?”
“No. It’s nearly midnight. We should probably call it a night and yes, I think if I reach out to some old contacts, I can get the business profitable by next year. I’m not crazy though. It will take a little time. But I got a decent settlement from Lance per our pre-nup. If I’m careful, I can make it work.”
“I still can’t believe you didn’t take his ass to court. You could’ve gotten more.”
Laurel’s throat constricted and the sip of wine in her mouth suddenly tasted like mud. “No. It wouldn’t have worked out in my favor.”
“Why?”
“It just wouldn’t.”
“He has something doesn’t he? Some type of leverage?”
“It doesn’t matter now, Teri. It’s over and done. I’m finished with Lance. I never have to see him again. Never have to hear his voice. Never have to think about that little blonde tramp sitting inmyoffice. Never again, Teri.”
“They’ll go out of business in a year or two. You know you were the heart of that company. The brains behind all the matches. He’s just a snake that saw how he could make a fortune with your intuitiveness.”
“Never again, Teri. I don’t want to talk about it any more. I’m done with letting my bitterness over him ruin my mood.”
“You swore off men. Is that changing? Cause if it’s not, you’re still letting him win.”
