Intertwined

their cups. Mary Ann had to look away. Once, her parents had been like that, happy just to be with each other. Then her mother had died.

“Drink, drink,” Penny said. “And while you’re savoring, tell me what held you up.”

Mouth watering, she sipped at her grande white chocolate mocha. Ah, de-freaking-licious. “Like I said, I’m sorry I’m late. I really am. But sadly, my tardiness isn’t the worst of it.”

“Oh, no.” Expression pinched, Penny fell back in her chair. “What’s going on? Don’t break it to me gently. Just rip the Band-Aid.”

“Okay. Here goes.” Deep breath. “I’m not actually done for the day. This is only a thirty-minute break. I have to return to work.” She cringed, waiting for the shouted—

“What!”

And there it was. A small infraction, really, but Penny would see it as a grave offense. She always did. She was a high-maintenance friend who expected their time together to be uninterrupted. Mary Ann didn’t mind. Really. She actually admired the trait. Penny knew what she wanted from the people in her life and expected it to be given to her. And it usually was. Without complaint. Today, however, couldn’t be helped.

“The Watering Pot is providing the floral arrangements for the Tolbert-Floyd wedding tomorrow and all of the employees have to work overtime.”

“Ugh.” Penny shook her head in disappointment. Or was that disapproval? “When are you going to quit your loser job at that flower shop? It’s Saturday, and you’re young. You should be shopping with me as planned rather than slaving over thorns and potting soil.”

Mary Ann studied her friend over the rim of her cup. Penny was a year older than her, with platinum hair, bright blue eyes and pale freckled skin. She liked to pair lacy baby-doll dresses with flip-flops no matter the weather. She was carefree, experienced, had no thoughts for the future, dated who she wanted, when she wanted, and skipped school as often as she attended.

Mary Ann, on the other hand, would vomit blood if she even considered breaking a rule.

She knew why she was the way she was, but that just made her determination to be the “good girl” worse. She and her dad only had each other, and she hated to disappoint him. Which made her friendship with Penny all the stranger, since her dad (silently) objected. But she and Penny had been neighbors for years, had even attended the same preschool when they’d lived miles away from each other. Despite their differences, they had never stopped hanging out. Never would.

Penny was addicting. You didn’t walk away from her without wishing you were still with her. Something about her smile, maybe. When she flashed it, you felt as if all the stars had aligned and nothing bad could happen to you. Well, girls felt that way. Boys caught a glimpse of it and had to wipe away their drool.

“Could you please, please, please call in sick?” Penny begged. “A little dose of Mary isn’t going to be enough.”

When she flashed that smile this time, Mary Ann steeled herself against it. “You know I’m saving for college. I have to work.” Only on the weekends, though. That’s all her dad would allow. Weekdays were devoted to homework.

Penny traced a perfectly manicured fingertip over the rim of her espresso. “Your dad should pay for your education. He can afford it.”

“But that wouldn’t teach me responsibility or the value of a hard-earned dollar.”

“God, you’re quoting him now.” A shudder rocked Penny’s petite frame as she grimaced. “Way to ruin my mood.”

A laugh escaped Mary Ann. “If he paid my way, he’d be screwing with my fifteen-year plan. And no one screws with my fifteen-year plan and lives to tell about it. Not even my dad.”

“Oh, yeah. The fifteen-year plan I can’t get you to rethink no matter what temptation I throw your way.” Penny anchored a strand of hair behind her ear, revealing three silver hoops. “Graduate high school, two years. Bachelors, four. Masters and Ph.D., seven. Intern, one. Open your own practice, one. I don’t know what I’m doing tonight, much less in fifteen years.”

“I can guess what you’ll be doing tonight. Or rather, who. Grant Harrison.” The pair had been on and off for six months. Currently they were off, but that didn’t stop them from hooking up. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a little preparation.”

“Little. Ha! I suspect you have your life mapped out to the second. You probably even know what underwear you’ll be wearing in three years, five hours, two minutes and eight seconds.”

“A black lace thong,” Mary Ann responded without hesitation.

That gave Penny a moment of pause. Then she chuckled. “Almost had me, but the thong gave you away. You’re cotton briefs, baby, all the way.”

And all that coverage was a bad thing? “Honestly, I don’t have everything planned. Not even I’m that anal.”

“You said anal.” Penny snickered. “Look, I’ve known you most of your life, and asking people about their feelings wasn’t always what Mary Contrary wanted to do when she grew up. She wanted to dance a ballet to a packed house, kiss whichever celebrity she was crushing on and tattoo her entire body with flowers so she’d look like a garden. You didn’t decide to become a shrink until after your mom—” Realizing she’d taken a wrong turn at Foot In Mouth Lane, she finished with, “You just didn’t!”

Slowly Mary Ann’s smile faded. Deep down, she wasn’t sure she could refute her friend’s claim. She had been a rambunctious girl at one time, giving her parents fits, talking and laughing too loudly, always desperate to be the center of attention and throwing tantrums when she didn’t get her way. Then her mom had died in a car accident. A car accident Mary Ann had been part of, as well. She’d spent three weeks recovering in the hospital. Her body had healed, yes, but not her soul.

Upon her release, the Gray household had fallen into a spiral of sadness, Mary Ann and her father whirling further and further away from the loving if combative family they’d once been. Over time, that sadness had bonded her and her dad. He’d become her best friend, making him proud her biggest goal.

When she’d told him she thought she might like to be a clinical psychologist like him, he’d smiled as if he’d just won the lottery. He’d hugged her. Spun her around, and laughed for the first time in months. No way she could’ve chosen a different path after that. No matter how much she hated studying. Still. Now she couldn’t imagine herself being anything other than a doctor of the mind. And for Penny to give her grief about it, well…

“Let’s talk about something else,” she said stiffly.

“Great. I’ve pissed you off, haven’t I?”

“No.” Yes. Maybe. Usually, they stayed away from the topic of her mother. Though several years had passed, the memories were sometimes too fresh, too raw. “I’d just prefer it if you looked out for your future, not mine.”

Penny sighed loud and long. “I shouldn’t have gone there, and I’m sorry. It’s just, all work and no play makes Mary a dull girl, and I want my sparkly girl back.” When Mary Ann offered no reply, Penny reached out and squeezed her hand. “Come on, Mary Contrary. I can still see the hurt. Forgive me. Please. We’ve only got, what? Fifteen minutes left, and I don’t want to spend it fighting with you. I love you more than anything or anyone and you know I’d cut off my leg and kick my own ass if I could. Maybe even cut out my tongue and nail it to your bedroom wall. And then I’d—”

“Okay, okay.” She laughed, the silly images her friend’s words evoked soothing her. “You’re forgiven.”

“Thank God. But seriously, girl. You really made me work for that one, and you know how I hate to work for anything.” Grinning that irresistible grin of hers, Penny dug a pack of ultrathins and a lighter from her beaded purse. She lit up, inhaling deeply. Soon a thick haze of smoke surrounded them and Penny was reclining in her chair, legs extended. “So what do you want to talk about? Girls we hate? Boys we love?”

Mary Ann cradled her mocha against her chest, leaning back as far as she could go. “Why don’t we discuss the fact that smoking kills?”

“No need. I’m indestructible.”

“You wish,” she said with a grin. But her amusement faded as a short but forceful gust of wind nailed her in the chest. She rubbed the spot just above her heart and gazed around.

That stray wind hadn’t seemed to affect anyone else.

Only one other time had she ever felt such a strong kick. Her stomach began to churn.

“If you won’t put the cigarette out for you, then put it out for me,” she said. “I don’t want to return to work