“Can you swim?” she asked Ariel.
“I most certainly can. I was on the swim team in high school and college. My best stroke was the butterfly.”
Antonia felt her heart flip over in a way she didn’t recognize, a fish in a lake, a woman in thrall. In retrospect, she should have never called Ariel Hardy, or gone to the law firm, or opened mail that had been addressed to Aunt Franny. “We’re probably a mistake.”
“I believe in making mistakes,” Ariel said. She took a vial of the soothing jasmine oil that she always wore out of her purse and dabbed some on her wrists and her throat after she’d dressed. She found that the scent flustered other attorneys when they were opponents. It made them misjudge her and overlook just how resolved she could be. You’re a terrier, her grandfather had always said to her, and it took a while before she realized he meant it as a compliment, and that not letting things go was a plus when practicing law. As for her love life, he’d told her that she would know when she’d found the right person, and it was likely that she also wouldn’t let go in matters of the heart.
“What if I’m cursed?” Antonia said.
They were two rational, practical women who were flushed with emotion, and in Antonia’s opinion, emotion obscured truth.
Ariel sat on the edge of the bed. “I already know about the curse. I’ve read the files. Almost all. Don’t forget you have the key.”
“The key won’t help,” Antonia said. “You know we can’t fall in love.”
“Shouldn’t, not can’t.”
“Look at what happened to Gideon.”
“He was struck by a car. It was a horrible accident and it could have happened to anyone. Anyway, the curse probably didn’t include lesbians,” Ariel teased. “We probably didn’t exist.”
“We always existed and it’s always been dangerous to fall in love with us.”
Ariel leaned to kiss Antonia. “Everything is dangerous. That is the human condition. In any case, who said anything about love?” Antonia felt her heart sink until Ariel whispered, “I thought I’d wait till tonight to say it.”
Was this what love did? Make you so grateful for a word or two that you’d practically beg for such things to be said? Don’t go, cancel everything, stay here with me, I can’t wait until tonight.
“This is a bad idea,” Antonia said. “It’s definitely bad timing. With my sister missing, I can’t think straight.”
Ariel seemed disappointed as she headed for the door. She thought Antonia would have known better. “This is not about thinking,” she said.
* * *
Perhaps it was guilt that compelled Antonia to visit the Reverend later that afternoon, or perhaps she simply wanted someone to talk to. She called Kylie several times a day, but her sister never answered and now there were so many pleading messages on Kylie’s phone that there was no longer room to leave another. Reverend Willard was out on the patio behind the retirement home in his wheelchair, his face tilted to the sun. His skin was so fine his veins could be seen clearly. When Antonia pulled up a chair next to his, he opened his eyes.
“Annie!” he said. When startled his voice was a dry rasp, and he blinked several times, for it was becoming more difficult for him to tell the difference between his dreams and his waking life.
Had this been a week earlier Antonia would have reminded him that was not her name. Now, she let it go. If Annie was what he wanted, then Annie it would be.
“I’m getting used to you,” the Reverend said cheerfully.
“Don’t,” Antonia advised. “My aunt Franny and my mother and Gillian will be back soon and they’ll take over. You’ll be rid of me then.”