Something tightened under my ribs. “Mayzie, did you go to Pet World and buy Gabriel on purpose?”
“Well, I didn’t buy him on accident,” she said.
“You know what I mean. You read my note, my pig note. Did you buy Gabriel just to
mess with me?” I
felt my lower lip tremble.
Her eyes widened. “Sweetie,
no!”
“I went to Pet World, and Gabriel wasn’t there . . . and do you know how frantic I’ve been?” I fought
back tears. “And I had to deal with Nathan, who hates me.” I sniffled. “Only it’s possible he doesn’t hate
me anymore.”
“Of course he doesn’t,” Mayzie said. “How could anyone hate you?”
“And
then I had to deal with Charlie, which, believe me, you don’t want to hear about.” I ran the back
of my hand under my nose. “Although weirdly enough, I handled it pretty well.”
“Go on,” Mayzie said encouragingly.
“I think he’s even more messed up than I am.”
Mayzie looked intrigued. “Maybe he’ll be my next case.”
With those words,
my next case, I remembered that Mayzie wasn’t my friend anymore, if she ever had
been. She was just a kook who had my friend’s pig.
“Are you going to give Gabriel back?” I said, keeping my voice as level as I could.
“Why, yes. I was never going to
keep him.” She lifted Gabriel so that she and he were nose to snout.
“Although I will miss you, Mr. Gabriel. It was nice having company in this lonely apartment, even for just
a while.” She nestled him back into the nook of her elbow and kissed the top of his head.
I curled my toes inside my boots. “Are you going to give him back to
day?”
“Oh, dear. I’ve upset you, haven’t I?”
“Whatever, just let me have Gabriel.”
“And here I thought you’d be happy to have an angel looking out for you. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Enough with the angel bit,” I said. “I’m not kidding. If the universe gave me
you as my angel, then I
deserve a refund.”
Mayzie chuckled. She
chuckled, and I wanted to throttle her.
“Adeline, you make things so much harder for yourself than you have to,” she said. “Silly girl, it’s not
what the universe gives
us that matters. It’s what
we give the universe.”
I opened my mouth to tell her how stupid and hokey and woo-woo that was—but then I didn’t, because
something shifted inside me.
Big shift, like an avalanche, and I could no longer resist it. The feeling inside
of me was so big, and I was so small. . . .
So I let go. I gave myself over to it and let go . . . and it felt marvelous. So marvelous that I couldn’t
understand why I’d resisted at all.
So marvelous, in fact, that I thought,
Holy cow, has this been here all
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