The Blessed - By Tonya Hurley Page 0,34

altar cloth, and tossed it to her.

“Dry off,” he said.

“Tease,” she jibed, turning away and wiping the droplets of cloudburst from her face, neck, and arms.

Cecilia stood there for a moment, gathered herself, and pulled a Clove cigarette out of her wet bag and tried to light it with her soaking-wet matches. Sebastian took it away from her, put it in his mouth, leaned over the candle, and lit it for her. He slowly took a drag, inhaled it, closed his eyes, took the cigarette from his lips, and held it to her lips, gently rubbing it from side to side until she relaxed and let it in. He tilted his head upward and exhaled. He wore the satisfied look, she observed, of a man who’d been trapped on a desert island or a maximum-security inmate with his hour outside.

“Amazing how quiet it is in here,” Cecilia said, straining to see as much of the space as she could. “You can barely hear that insanity outside.”

“Yeah, it’s peaceful,” Sebastian agreed, looking completely at ease to her.

“So now we know why I’m here, but what about you?”

She stepped in closer to him, removed the cigarette from her mouth, and brought it to his lips, waiting for his answer.

Lucy was taken aback at the sound of chatter outside the confessional booth and cracked the door. She peeked out and saw Sebastian with a stranger and watched for a while. She was curious at first, then jealous, and suddenly furious.

Lucy charged out of the confessional loudly, holding Sebastian’s sweater, drawing as much attention to herself as she could. Cecilia barely knew this guy, but her face flushed as if she’d been caught cheating, or had caught him.

“Oh, so this is what you’re doing here,” Cecilia said.

“What’s going on here?” Lucy huffed as she sidled in closer to them.

“It’s not how it looks,” Sebastian tried to explain to both of them before CeCe cut him off.

“Sloppy seconds taste terrible, don’t they?” Lucy snarked.

“Only on a cheap date,” Cecilia replied.

“Honey, there’s nothing cheap about me.”

Sebastian didn’t say a word.

“So, not only do you cruise hospitals, but you cruise churches, too?” Cecilia said, stomping out her cigarette and gathering her things to leave. “Classy.”

Sebastian moved toward her, but Cecilia backed away. He couldn’t get a word in edgewise as Cecilia rambled on angrily, dropping her matches and then her cigarettes in her haste.

“The confessional?” Cecilia sniped. “Definitely rock-star points for creativity, though—baring your body and soul. Screams ‘hot and steamy’ to me.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Lucy snapped.

“I didn’t know you went trends gender,” CeCe said with a laugh. “And just out of the closet, too. I bet you don’t even know her name. Oh, but then maybe you got it off the clipboard on the edge of her hospital bed. Like mine.”

“Hospital bed?” Lucy asked. “Wait, what’s going on here?”

Coming closer, Lucy got a better look and was surprised. This girl didn’t look like the jealous type to her. She was cool and gorgeous and, judging from her outfit, tough.

“You know each other?” Lucy asked, her heels clicking louder against the marble floor the closer she got.

“From Perpetual Help,” CeCe explained. “I was there last weekend. No big deal.”

“So was I,” Lucy chimed in.

Lucy rolled up her cardigan sleeves and Cecilia spied her chaplet.

Cecilia shot Sebastian an angry, disgusted look.

“You got one too?”

“Found it on my nightstand in the ER,” Lucy admitted.

“I really thought I’d seen it all,” CeCe huffed. “This guy was fishing. In the ER, no less! Spread a few lovely little parting gifts to see who he could reel in. I mean, I was only kidding when I asked if you had a thing for sick girls.”

The girls looked at each other, feeling humiliated, shaking their heads in unison, as if to acknowledge their astoundingly bad judgment when it came to guys. They made a good team, he thought, even if they had suddenly turned on him.

“I didn’t drag you here,” Sebastian said, pushing back. “Either of you.”

“No, you just planted a few seeds,” Lucy said, feeling deceived as well.

“Don’t turn this around,” Cecilia interjected.

“You came of your own free will, didn’t you?” Sebastian said. “And you can leave of your own free will.”

“Good idea. There are other Dumpsters to crash in. With smaller rats.”

Cecilia was hurt. Lucy was crushed.

“I thought this was special!” Lucy shouted while removing the chaplet, and then threw it back at him.

Cecilia followed, taking off her chaplet and tossing it casually to Sebastian. “This