he's something of an expert with these matters. Am I right?"
"Yes, you are." I actually began to feel hopeful. Which was Jerry's power. His confidence that he could always put things right.
Jerry brushed my hair back from my face. "You look like you're feeling better."
"I am. Talking isn't such a bad thing, you know. We needed to clear the air." I pulled Jerry down to the bed. "Now I bet we have an hour before Penny gets home. How about we seal the deal on this promise you just made. One of the twelve steps is making amends. I'll lie here while you show me how sorry you are that you ever acted jealous of my men."
"Oh, I am very sorry." Jerry came down on top of me. "And I may have twelve different ways of showing you that, my love."
Jerry decided to leave just as Penny and Trey hit the door a few minutes before dawn. I was relaxed and naked in my bed and didn't bother to get up. But I could hear well enough as Jerry and Penny made plans to drive to San Antonio with the rats the next evening.
I made my own plans. I was going to church the next night. I'd been with the demons enough to feel positively filthy with evil. An evening of joyful music and the positive message from Pastor John at the Moonlight Church of Eternal Life and Joy would go a long way to restoring my soul.
When I woke up, I waited until Penny had showered, then listened to her excited chatter about her date and her meeting with Jenny the night before.
"I did what you said. Kept my cool and wasn't alone with her at all. We squeezed them in at the bar and Jenny tried to get me to go to the bathroom with her so we could gossip, but I wouldn't do it." Penny laughed. "Totally blew her mind. But I just kept going to hang out with Trey who had door duty and left her with her date. That solved the problem." Penny flushed. "She thought Trey was cute too. Was totally jealous. I read her mind."
"Why not? Anything else good in there?" I sat in my robe, thinking about trying to call Flo to see if my friend might go to church with me. Would she pick up if she saw on the caller ID that it was me? Sure she'd been all BFF last night, but Richard had probably been giving her an earful since then about my bad influence. And I couldn't blame him.
"She wasn't too happy with her date. Thought he was immature compared to Trey. Didn't help that his fake ID didn't pass at the bar. That embarrassed her." Penny had a really wide grin. "Can you believe she was jealous of me? Even liked my skirt!"
"Well, there you go." I patted her knee, then nodded toward the door. "Jerry's coming up the stairs. Get the door."
"Oh, yeah. We're taking the rats to a guy in San Antonio who has some homes lined up for them." Penny got up and unlocked the dead bolts. "Hi, Mr. Blade. I'll start bringing out the cages."
"Good evening, Penny." Jerry walked over and dropped a kiss on my lips. "Gloriana." He noticed Penny had disappeared down the hall and ran a hand inside my robe. "Mmm. Sorry you're not going with us. I assume you're not, since you aren't dressed yet."
"Nope. The idea of an hour in the car with fifty-three rats doesn't sound like my idea of fun." I swatted at his hand. "Don't start something you can't finish, big guy."
"Later." He leaned down and kissed me again, a wonderfully thorough job this time.
"Mmm. I'll keep that in mind." I pushed him back.
"It's up to sixty-seven rats now. They were supposed to be segregated in the lab but obviously somebody messed up." Penny carried in two crates. "Anyway, we've had some developments, so they are really crowded."
"I'll get the other crates." Jerry charged off down the hall. "Gloriana, you might want to air the place out while we're gone."
"Sure, after I get back from church." I got up to take my empty bottle to the kitchen.
"You're going to church?" Penny stopped in the open doorway.
"I told you I went. I thought I'd already proved to you that I'm not the fanged monster the comic books or movies portray, Penny. I pray, sing hymns, and there's a church that has night services. Maybe next