“Don’t!” Deva shouted.
I sprayed.
The air instantly became thick, and the peppery taste of the spray seemed to surround me. Deva and I both started coughing and ran for the door, but I could hear the sound of dozens of ghosts laughing behind us. When we got outside, we both continued to cough for a while.
At last, Deva looked at me, wiping her eyes. “Pepper spray doesn’t work on ghosts.”
“I realize that was a dumb move, okay? At the time, I just wanted to teach the little shit a lesson.”
“Well, you taught him one,” she said, smirking.
We found a water fountain and washed out our eyes. Then, with our faces half in our shirts, we went back into the office but found it empty. Deva switched off the music, cursed all the ghosts, and we headed back out.
Well, I felt like an idiot. But more than that, I was scared. The ghost had said Beth was in danger. And given the look on Deva’s face, I suspected that she trusted what he’d said.
Now, we definitely had a case.
10
Carol
“What a bitch,” I muttered as my knitting needles clacked in front of me. “They should vote her off.”
Beth giggled. “They don’t vote the real housewives off the show.”
I shrugged and grabbed my glass of wine. “They should, I bet it would make it more interesting if they had to compete to stay on.”
“I don’t think I could handle the backstabbing being any worse than it already is. The drama would just be too much,” Beth said, shaking her head as she mimicked me and took a sip of her own wine.
We’d had a few glasses each and I could tell we were both feeling it. Beth’s cheeks had flushed, and she was laughing at things that weren’t really that funny. I didn’t mind though, as long as she was having a good time. When Deva and Emma told me what was going on, I wasn’t sure that keeping it from Beth was the right thing to do. I thought she had a right to know she was in danger, but they’d convinced me she would be better off not knowing and now here we were.
I’d convinced her to come spend the evening with me at my house. Well, technically, it was now Deva’s and my house. When she first moved in, it kind of felt like she was a guest, unsure of her marriage or her future. Now, I couldn’t imagine the house without her. Having Beth here for the evening too only added to how much I loved my little cottage. I just felt comfortable here, around my own stuff. My yarn wall was bright and colorful, making me cheerful every time I looked at it. Plus, I could just imagine all the projects I’d be able to do with the yarn which always got me excited and my brain buzzing.
The opposite wall had my mural on it, a cherry blossom tree started in the corner and the branches spread over the entire wall sheltering the peacocks that were painted underneath. Their names were Blanche and Gulliver, and they were in a very devoted relationship with each other. Deva had insisted on moving the TV to the plain wall because she said she couldn’t concentrate on it when the wall behind it was so busy. Apparently, my fluffy cushions and disco ball were unusual decorations as well, I just thought they were fun. They made me feel sparkly and happy.
Deva had the place organized to the nth degree, but at least it had my flair. All my house plants were hanging or on windowsills, some even got pride of place on the coffee table. What can I say? I like having something to take care of and plants don’t exactly demand much, neither did cats for that matter. The plants’ leaves were all regularly dusted now, and she’d picked me up some of those automatic watering things that look like little glass balls that you stick in the pot so, even if I forgot, they weren’t going to die.
She had also picked up all the loose balls of yarn that had been all over the place and stacked them next to the yarn wall so I could find them more easily. It was very thoughtful, but I kind of liked the odd ball of brightly colored yarn here and there. Plus, my cats played with them, so it was a constant battle between Deva picking the yarn up and the cats dragging them all over the place. I let them have at it though because I knew my tastes weren’t the same as everyone else’s. I couldn’t predict who was going to come out on top, the cats or Deva. It varied every day.
My gaze flicked back to the television and I realized that all the blonde, tan women were starting to merge into one in my mind. Their perfectly coiffed hair, blemish-free skin, and bright white teeth were all a little overwhelming. Did real people look like that?
I drained my glass as I contemplated how realistic it was that those women all looked like that naturally. Unlikely, I decided. Probably years of surgery, strict workout routines, and horrible diets. I guessed I could look like them if I really wanted to.
And then, my stomach growled. I patted my soft belly, silently reassuring it that I’d never do that to us and thought about what I could start shoveling. Deva had sent over some brownies she’d made just for Beth. They had some sort of protection charm on them. And a brownie sounded good.
“Refill?”
Beth didn’t look away from the screen. “Yeah. And are those real? Isn’t she like our age? Why aren’t her boobs hanging in that dress?”
I laughed. “Nothing about that woman is real, trust me.”
“I don’t think there’s enough tape in the world that could keep my boobs up that high and not swinging out of a
