Taking Chances by Ann Omasta (books for 7th graders .txt) 📕

As I got ready for work the next morning, I was thankful that I had remained coherent enough the night before to drink a bottle of water when I got home. Courtney would appreciate me making her have one as a preemptive strike against a hangover as well, even though she was pissy about it at the time. The second pitcher of margaritas may have been a bit much.

I downed a couple of aspirin and another bottle of water for the slight headache I had. Then I snuck into Courtney’s room and quietly left the same items, along with a piece of buttered cinnamon bread and some orange slices, on her bedside table. She looked so peaceful and sweet lying there. It made me wish there was a way for me to make her see in herself all of the wonderful qualities that I saw in her.

On a whim, I tiptoed through her girly bedroom and went to her en suite bathroom to grab a fuchsia lipstick out of her enormous makeup case. I drew a huge heart on her mirror. Inside it I wrote, “You make everything better.”

Since it was such a beautiful day, I decided to walk to work. I left the 100-year-old lakeside cottage that Courtney and I shared and headed down the shore side of the sidewalk. The breeze off the lake was a little chilly, but the sun was shining, and the lake was calm. I felt great about leaving those little pick-me-ups for Court.

She was always quick to say that I had saved her life. When she had arrived in Harbor Shores penniless and alone, I had taken her in and given her a place to stay. I knew the truth, though. She is the one who had saved me.

She had arrived in our quaint town just a few months after my parents’ deaths in that horrific car accident. They had been taken from this world in the prime of their lives due to a careless drunk driver. I had just left my ex, Larry, after walking in on our real estate agent, Trudy the floozy, sucking his cock in the living room of our condo. We had decided to sell our condo and move out of the city in hopes of finally starting our family. Instead, I moved alone to Harbor Shores to the cute, lakeside cottage my parents had left me.

I suppose I should thank Trudy because I had been unhappy in my marriage for a long time. It had never crossed my mind to leave him though, because I felt, as my parents had felt, that marriage is forever. Seeing Trudy on her knees, with her fake tits bolstered up by my couch as she cupped my husband’s balls in her nasty hands with their blood-red, cheap, press-on fingernails, and her bright red lips sliding up and down his dick, sealed the deal for me on getting a divorce. I couldn’t erase that hideous mental image, no matter how hard I tried to un-see it.

When I described the scene I had walked in on to Courtney - including the sight of Larry with his head tipped back, mouth agape, looking at me with a glassy, uncaring stare - unwanted tears had started to well in my eyes.

Courtney patted my knee and said, “Honey, that’s just head-face. They all get it when they’re getting a blow job.” Then she dropped her face into an exact replica of the blank look Larry had given me, and we both whooped with laughter.

The memory made me smile. The message I had left on Court’s mirror was perfect. She really does make everything better.

As I walked along the lakeshore, I noticed that tourists were starting to trickle into town. It was mid-April, still early for snowbirds and vacationers, but each year the tourism season seemed to be starting earlier and lasting later into the fall. For a small, quiet town like Harbor Shores, Michigan, that was great news for the local businesses, like the trendy shop that had employed me since I moved here.

As soon as I opened the door to Eck, Meck & Dreck, my wacky boss Annie attacked with questions. “How was it? Did you two hit it off? Was it love at first sight? Are you going out again? Why aren’t you telling me all about it?”

“I was waiting for you to take a breath.” I smiled at Annie. She looked lovely today with a sunshine yellow scarf tied in her unruly, red curls and a bohemian skirt flowing around her. In typical Annie fashion, she was wearing turquoise Converse high-tops. The combination would not be flattering on most, but somehow she made it work.

She looked so hopeful that I hated to disappoint her by telling her about my less than stellar date with Marcus. I decided it would be best to rip the bandage off quickly. “It’s a no-go,” I said.

“Not even one more date?” she tried. To her credit, when I shook my head, she let it drop immediately. “No worries,” she said as she breezed past me. “Plenty of sardines in the can.”

I chuckled at the motto she had chosen, as unique as Annie herself. Annie had become like a second mother to me when my own mother had passed away. She had been there to help me through the complete devastation of the loss of my parents, and the crumbling of my marriage in a way that only a mother could.

She knew that the money from my inheritance made it so that I didn’t need to work for financial reasons. I needed to work for my sanity, though, and she insisted on paying me. On the sly, I set aside almost all of the money I earned from working into a mutual fund for Courtney or Annie, should they ever need it. It felt good to know that the two women I cared most about would never have to worry about monetary problems.

I began turning on the myriad of twinkle lights that dotted the store as Annie propped the bright purple front door open, jingling the bells on the handle and yelling down the sidewalk, “Tchotchkes! Get your one-of–a-kind artsy-fartsy treasures here!”

As usual, people couldn’t resist Annie’s magnetic charm, and it wasn’t long until the store was bustling with activity. I liked being busy and helping people find the perfect gift for a loved one or a special souvenir. It was terrific getting to see people when they were at their most relaxed and happy.

I smiled as I watched Annie open a huge cardboard box that contained the new teapot line we would be carrying. The ceramic teapots were animal shaped, and they were beautiful. Annie exclaimed over each one like a child on Christmas morning. “Look at the giraffe! Oh, I think the dolphin is my favorite! Such beautiful colors on this parrot! Oh, Abby, look. The cow has a calf.” She bubbled with uninhibited joy as the crowd that had gathered around her leaned in to see what she would discover next.

Suddenly, I felt almost overwhelmed with gratitude. Courtney and Annie were two of the most wonderful people on Earth, and they were my family now. I was healthy and had a terrific job that I loved. My parents had left me a magnificent cottage within steps of the beach in a beautiful town, which I had been able to escape to after my divorce. I was an incredibly lucky lady.

The only thing missing was a man in my life, but who needed one of those, anyway? In my brief history with them, they seemed to be far more trouble than they were worth.