2. Lisette
Chapter 2
Lisette
A nother day, another dollar.
The one thing I liked about working as a virtual personal assistant was that I could spend times like this doing more things with my little land. For the last few months, I’ve been setting up a little farm stand, where people all could come and buy produce from me. Sometimes I would take my wares to the farmer's market. I had turned it around and made it into a pumpkin patch for the holidays. Word of mouth helped my number of customers grow. They especially loved the pumpkins. I still had some produce from the garden behind my house and I sold them at my stall. Since I had a Wi-Fi extender, I had my laptop out working to help pass the time.
A car drove up to my little stand, and I looked up. It was my friend, Tonya. This was her cottage that was renting from her for a fantastic deal. Too good. She knew how bad my life was with my ex. This was a ‘girls looking out for girls’ situation. Plus, she just got married, and she moved in with her new husband. She rolled down her window. “Hey girl, hey.”
I smiled and leaned over my booth. “Are you gonna leave on your honeymoon?” I asked.
“It’s gonna be a blast. Are you gonna be okay? How are you holding up?” Her face was etched with concern.
Contemplating whether to tell her what happened last night, I let out a sigh. As I remembered the events, I instinctively touched my forehead. “I’ll be fine.”
Tonya’s lips turned into a thin line. “You’re lying.”
My fake smile turned into a straight line on my face. “He came by last night.”
Tonya threw her hands up in the air and groaned. “I still don’t know why you married him. You didn’t even tell him your secret.”
I laughed uneasily. “Obviously, I was right about that gut feeling. Do you think he could’ve been trusted with our secret about magic?”
Any lightness in Tonya’s body shifted away. “No,” she said coldly.
Turning away from her, I swallowed. “I’ll be fine. I have wards up and I can always call the cops. And surely he won’t harass me anymore. I told him off and told him to get away from me.”
My friend rubbed the side of her neck uneasily. He shook her head. “I have a bad feeling.”
“Did you scry or something? I don’t think you have extra powers.”
Tonya glared at me. “Fine. I’ll leave you alone.” She rolled her eyes before continuing. “I didn’t scry or anything. I don’t know. He’s dangerous. There is a reason the court gave you the divorce with him trying to refuse and everything. All those times your neighbors called the cops on you?”
She was right. They were called constantly over the yelling and fighting. Sometimes my old neighbors would ask if things were okay with that subtle ‘we can help’ voice tone. I waved my hand. “And I will go to the authorities if I need to. I’ll be fine. You are finally good to go on your honeymoon. You relax and enjoy. I am out in the boonies. I have my little garden. I’ve been able to work at home and manage the stand. People are loving the pumpkin thing. Things are going good. He just needs to get through his head that our marriage is over. If I need to, I’ll go get an EPO.”
“If you need to, I will come home and pop to save your life.”
“I do not want to get in your mind while you’re fucking your brains out,” I said as laughter filled the surrounding air, her tiny, her gentle, tinkling laughter and my loud and deep chuckles. Tonya’s my best friend forever. She helped me get out of my abusive marriage when I couldn’t see a way out. She was the best. And she deserved her honeymoon. Sometimes I worried I was the reason she didn’t leave yet because she was trying to protect me. She waved bye and rolled up the window. Her husband drove her off, and the tires crunched on the gravel. I was gonna be fine. It had to be fine. I would just need to make sure my wards were up. I’ll get plenty of warning if he came back. And if not, I do have my magic. I didn’t use it before because I was afraid he would tell people, but he wasn’t stupid. He’s going to get the fact that we’re divorced. I’m not his and we’re not married anymore.