All Your Fates (Currently editing/updating)

Chapter 20: Slaphappy & Punch Drunk

"Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha," she cried (it actually went on much longer than that but to add any more hahaha's would only look like a gross exaggeration).

My countenance dropped while I waited for her to finish. "Oh my...teeheehee, oh, ho, ahaha," Pepper continued, dotting her tears with an embroidered handkerchief pulled from her purse. "Why, David, you...Cowboy...you are an absolute riot."

I failed to see what was so funny, and turned my back on her to continue working away by dusting the now empty shelves with a certain gusto. I wasn't about to let her kill my buzz.

"So..." Pepper drawled behind me, "What is she like...this mysterious woman who has gotten in between our...true love and all that."

"You are mocking me," I accused over my shoulder.

"Well...duh," she responded and I gritted my teeth. "But she must be something super special for you to be ready to throw away all that we have built together...when I think how I spent the best years of my life..." Pepper drawled.

"Okay, I get it, that's enough now," I interjected but too late. She was already in a fit of giggles again.

"No, but please do tell. I find this burgeoning love affair most fascinating. How did you meet?" Pepper inquired. I turned to face her now powdering her nose with a mirrored compact.

"Well...if you must know. We met at the flea market on the weekend and then again last night. And we shared an uber together," I grinned and realized I was bragging.

"As do all the great lovers do. In fact I think that's a line from a Cole Porter song, 'when Romeo and Juliet shared an uber...'" Pepper sang dryly and I knew it was just another attempt to take me down a notch.

"And tonight we are having supper at Maestro's," I boasted to deflect her cutting remark.

"Oh, wow. You are not pulling any of the stops. She must be a real humdinger," Pepper said flatly and I thought I sensed a hint of resentment.

"She is," I affirmed and continued my clean up. When I looked up again, I realized Pepper had hopped off the counter and was making her way out for the door.

"Heading out so soon?" I asked. And Pepper nodded with a faraway look on her face, "Yeah...I just remembered something I've got to do."

"Okey dokey," I said and that seemed to encourage a small rueful smile from her lips. "You coming to work, tomorrow?" I asked gently almost realizing that I wouldn't mind her company so bad.

Her broad face broke into a wicked grin as she rolled her emerald eyes, "Well, if I'm not here in body, I'll be here in spirit – at least that's what my paycheck will reflect," and with that she swiveled out the door, hips swinging like the Liberty Bell.

***

Emma's POV

After I had convinced David that there was no point for him to stick around for the night, I flopped into bed and fell asleep as soon as my face smacked the sheets. You would have thought I could have slept through a tornado after my day, but instead, the night was fraught with half-starts and wake-ups and stirrings. At one point I dreamt I was Jill sent up the hill to fetch a pail of water, only when I tumbled down it was with David not Jack...and we kept rolling and rolling down in a tangle of limbs. Sometimes it was the David from my reality, and then a few flips over and I would be enmeshed with the other David as we blurred faster and faster down the hill, fists over feet, until I woke up with a start while rolling off the bed and onto the floor, with my eyes open wide staring at Gabriel's surprised face looking after me on the bed as I descended. But when I quickly rose up from the floor and looked round my hotel room no one was there.