It was fascinating, really, Dana decided, to realize her old friend Brad turned a sensible woman likeZoe into a raving lunatic. “Okay, Ill bite. What is anAudemarsPiguet and is it really sexy?”
“Its a watch. A watch that costs more than my house. Or damn near. Never mind.” There was a long, long sigh. “Im making myself crazy, and its just stupid.”
“I cant argue with you about that.”
“Ill see you tomorrow.”
Shaking her head, Dana hung up. Now she had one more thing to look forward to in the morning. And that was hearing all about howZoe and Brad handled a chicken dinner.
But for now, she was switching gears. She was going to try out her tub book and a long, hot, soaking bath.
Chapter Five
SHE decided to make the bath an event. The first pure luxury of unemployment. Might as well celebrate it, Dana told herself, as cry over it.
She went for mango for that tropical sensation, and dumped a generous amount of the scented bubble bath under the running water. She lit candles, then decided a bottle of beer didnt quite measure up to the rest of the ambience.
Already naked, she headed into the kitchen, poured the beer into a glass.
Back in the bath, she anchored her hair on top of her head, then, for the hell of it, slopped on some of the hydrating facial creamZoe had talked her into.
It couldnt hurt.
Realizing she was missing an important element, she went out to flip through her CDs, found an old JimmyBuffett . Time to go to the islands, she decided, and with Jimmy already nibbling on sponge cake, she sank with a long sigh into the hot, fragrant water.
For the first five minutes she simply basked, let the hot water, the scents, the absolute bliss do their work.
A big white ball bearing Joans irritated face bounced down a long incline, slapping into rocks, picking up grit. The face took on a shocked expression as it rolled straight off the edge of a cliff.
A bouncy blond ponytail followed it. Tension oozed away, drop by drop.
“Bye-bye,” Dana murmured, well satisfied.
She roused herself to rinse away the facial cream with a washcloth, and reminded herself to put on some moisturizer when she got out of the tub.
She frowned at her toes, turned her head this way and that. Maybe it was time for a pedicure, ending it with some sassy, liberating color suitable for the recently unemployed and the soon-tobe entrepreneur.
It was coming in damn handy having a stylist for a friend and business partner.
Ready for stage two, she decided, and picked up her book from the edge of the tub. With a sip of beer, the turn of a page, Dana slipped into the story.
The tropical setting, the romance and intrigue, perfectly suited her needs. She drifted along with the words, began to see the deep blue shine of the water, the sugar-white sparkle of the sand. She felt the warm, moist, air flutter over her skin and smelled the sea, the heat, the strong perfume of the lilies potted on the wide veranda.
She stepped offsunbaked wood and ontosunbaked sand. Gulls cried as they wheeled overhead, and the sound of them echoing was a kind of chant.
She felt the powdery grit of the sand under her bare feet, and the teasing way her thin silk wrap fluttered around her legs.
She walked to the water, then along its edge, basking in the beauty of the solitude.
She could go wherever she wanted, or nowhere at all.
All those years of responsibility and work, of schedules and obligations, were behind her now.
Why had she ever thought they mattered so much?
The water rolled toward shore, foamy lace at its edges, then waltzed back into its own heart with a sigh. She saw the silver flash and leap of dolphins at play, and beyond, so far beyond, the delicate line of the horizon. It was perfect and peaceful and lovely. And so liberating to know she was completely alone.
She wondered why shed ever felt compelled to work so hard, to worry, to care about what should be or had to be done, when all she really wanted was to be alone in a world of her own choosing.