“Then it’s true,” said Nancy.
“That I’m not an expert on Jesus.”
She slapped my arm, a gesture that surprised both of us. “Oh, shit,” she said. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“You really are a vampire.”
“I’m something that has vampiric traits,” I said. The suggestion always rankled me, although, to be honest, few people suggested it. “What, exactly, I am is open to interpretation.”
“You’re not going to, like, kill me, are you?”
“Only if you sleep with my next husband.”
“I’m really sorry about that.”
I nodded toward my house. “You didn’t sound sorry earlier.”
“I guess I was feeling a bit defensive...and didn’t think about your feelings.” She made a small face at the word feelings. Speaking of feelings, I had a strong feeling that Nancy didn’t much like talking about her own.
“And how do you think I feel?” I asked.
She scrunched up her face at the question, as if she’d bitten into a sour grape. “Well, it’s like...I can feel how you felt. It’s weird.”
“Go on.”
“You felt abandoned. Alone. Jealous. Scared. Heartbroken. And I...”
“And you what?”
“And I contributed to a lot of that.”
We were silent some more, each sucking and puffing and sitting closer than I ever thought I would sit next to my ex-husband’s mistress.
After a moment, she said, “It’s no secret that I was a stripper. And when Danny showed an interest in me...I mean, he was a lawyer, for Christ’s sake.”
“You couldn’t help yourself,” I said.
She shrugged and I sensed her getting defensive, so I mentally pushed her to continue. If anything, hearing her side helped me to heal a little. Helped me understand a little more, too. Danny was a shit, but I had been in love with him and his actions back then had been a dagger to the heart. Mercifully, not a silver dagger.
“I had a rough life,” she went on. “I’d been turning tricks since I was fifteen, after I left home.”
Despite my best efforts to shield myself from her own memories, I saw them now, flashing through her mind, each more disturbing the next. She had been abused by her parents and grandparents. Her memories made me want to never let my kids leave the house again.
“How did a hooker...” My voice trailed off.
“Go on, you can say it.”
“Fine. How did a former hooker end up as Danny’s legal secretary?”
“I have a funny how-we-met story.” She paused. “I had a car wreck when I was hit by a drunk driver on the way home from the strip club. I had to be cut out of my car with the Jaws of Life and Danny was there when they took me to the hospital.”
“Let me guess. He wanted to take your case on contingency.”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“Lucky guess. Did someone rich hit your car?”