Still, Grover’s gentle but serious comments once again reminded her that yes, she had a fantasy come true, but it was one that most of her community might seriously frown upon. And one that could easily lead her to a shattering heartbreak that would make her divorce feel like a splinter in comparison to a serious bodily impalement.
I wonder what Mandaline’s doing. She called out to Grover, “I’ll be back in a few,” and headed out the door.
Apparently, Libbie’s shop wasn’t the only one in town having a slow day. When she walked across the square, she found Mandaline and Sachi were the only ones in the New Age shop.
“Hey,” Mandaline greeted her when she walked in. “How you doing?”
“Do you have a few minutes?” Libbie asked. “To talk?”
A small furrow momentarily appeared in Mandaline’s brow before her skin smoothed again. “Sure. Let’s go in back. Sachi, can you watch the store for me?”
Sachi, who was engaged with an amethyst rune set, didn’t look 144 Tymber Dalton
up. She waved her hand at the empty storefront. “Sure. It’s packed in here and you want to goldbrick.”
Libbie didn’t miss the smile on her face.
Mandaline laughed. “When’s your client coming?”
Sachi glanced at the clock on the wall. “Two hours. You have plenty of time. I’ll holler if we get an early Black Friday rush in here.” She snorted.
Mandaline led Libbie through a beaded curtain and down a short hallway to a small private room. A tall, antique iron floor lamp with an imitation Tiffany glass lampshade stood in one corner and cast warm light through the room. A short bookshelf on one wall held many tomes new and old, mostly concerning New Age and mystical topics.
Mandaline indicated Libbie take a seat at one of the two chairs at the small, round table, which was covered with a fringed tablecloth in swirling rust and turquoise patterns. Before Mandaline sat, she turned to a white, antique cabinet behind her, which had glass-front doors.
From the top shelf, her finger paused over several different small boxes before she chose one and removed it. When Mandaline turned back to the table, Libbie saw the box was a Tarot deck.
“I didn’t mean for you to give me a reading,” Libbie said.
Mandaline waved her objections away. “For you, no charge. And since you’re looking for an ear and advice, the best advice I can give you comes from here.” She tapped the deck’s box with an unpolished fingernail. “You strike me as a Celtic Dragon Tarot kind of soul.”
Mandaline removed the cards from the box and smoothly shuffled them with practiced fingers. “So talk to me, girlie.”
Libbie had a hard time taking her eyes off the cards quickly flowing through her friend’s fingers. “You…” She lowered her voice.
“You have two guys.”
A sultry smile curled Mandaline’s lips. “Yeesss. It doesn’t make you a slut. It makes you a smart woman for seeing a golden opportunity. Lots of people are poly. It’s not just something that It’s a Sweet Life 145
happens in those sexy books you read.” She set the deck on the table in front of Libbie. “Cut it.”
Libbie reached out, hesitating only briefly before pinching the deck partway down and moving the top stack beside the lower half.
Mandaline quickly reached out with the speed of a Vegas pit boss and scooped the cards up, regrouping them into one pile with the cut lower deck on top. She pulled the top card and flipped it right-side up, laying it on the tablecloth in front of Libbie.
The bottom of the card read Three of Cups. On it, a dragon stared at three chalices in what appeared to be shallow water.
Libbie looked up and saw Mandaline grinning ear to ear.
“What?”
“In this deck, this card usually signifies prosperity, good times on the horizon.” Her grin broadened. “Three of Cups? Seriously? Three?
Do you not see the significance?”
Libbie felt her face flush. “It’s just one card,” she mumbled.
Mandaline cocked her head to one side “Are you looking for permission to be in a triad? Because you don’t need it from me or anyone else.”
“I don’t know what I want or what I’m looking for.” Her gaze fell to her lap, where she twisted her hands in the hem of her T-shirt. “All I know is the thought of losing them breaks my heart. And it scares the crap out of me that I’m this much in love with them this soon when I barely know them. And I can’t even tell them.”
“Can’t, or won’t because you’re worried what they might or might not say?”
She didn’t answer, but she stared at Mandaline.
Her friend’s smile faded. “We all have to take chances. That’s what separates us from those who’ve moved on to the Summerland.
Or Heaven. Or Valhalla or reincarnation or take your pick of hereafters.”
“I don’t know what I believe.”
“Then all the more reason to take chances in this life, no? If we’re 146 Tymber Dalton
all wrong and it’s only one time around this existence followed by a forever dirt nap, we shouldn’t waste a moment of it worrying about what others think of us as long as we aren’t harming anyone else in the process.”
She flipped over another card and placed it, faceup, next to the first.
The bottom read 8 - Strength. On it, a woman in a yellow dress caressed the chin of a large, orange dragon while several smaller dragons gathered around her feet.
Mandaline let out an amused snort. Libbie thought she muttered “fuck me” under her breath, but couldn’t be sure.
“What?” she asked.
“In this deck, Strength means you should use your intuition. Have the courage to take a stand and follow through with it, basically.”
Mandaline lifted her gaze to Libbie’s. “We can do this all day, but I can already tell you what the cards will keep saying.”
“What?”
“Shit or get off the pot.” She grinned and turned the Strength card over so its back was visible. The background of the card was a marbled light grey, with a round, pewter-colored symbol in the middle. Three stylized animals surrounded a center of three spirals.
“What’s that?” Libbie asked.
“It’s a type of triskele,” Mandaline said. “Tri. Three.” All that was missing was the audible duh. “Why are you afraid to let this happen?”
Mandaline asked.
Libbie finally blurted it out. “Because my ex lied to me and cheated on me. I ended up divorcing him, and just the thought of both of them lying to me breaks my heart. How do I survive it if they really do it?”
Libbie didn’t miss Mandaline’s sympathetic sigh. “Oh, sweetie.
You don’t know they’ll lie to you and break your heart,” she gently said. “You really don’t. You’re painting them with your ex’s sins when they haven’t done anything to earn your mistrust. Have they?”
It’s a Sweet Life
147
Libbie tried not to think about how they never really talked in great detail about their past. How they always managed to distract her from the topic with other topics…or really good, hot, raunchy sex.
And her mind flashed back to the Florida tag on the back of their truck and the troubling, niggling thought in her mind that maybe they weren’t telling the truth about that. That she never remembered seeing a Nebraska plate on the truck, front or back.
Then again, she couldn’t be sure, either. Especially not with how bad her fibro fog had been lately. Hell, there were mornings, literally, she awoke with no idea of what day it was.