When Trevor and the two women returned from the spa, the bashment banishing old angers from Polly’s old cabin had the college rocking as one. They all stopped a beat as Trevor hit the light switch. And then, lights on again, they stared at underage Crescent and middle-aged Polly, who were done up like weird sisters.
[Click here to read the first episode, or here to read the previous one.]
Trevor caught Angelina’s eye and signaled, talk outside. She was vexed, just as he had anticipated. He had seen it in the lights but also knew it from common sense, which no longer so sweetly eluded him. No. These days, dreadful reality bothered him all the time.
Furious in the moment, Angelina would forgive Trevor soon. Well before dawn, she’d love him more than ever. Grateful but frightened when he offered to care for Polly.
Pressed beside Angelina, Brian asked, “Mind if I join you outdoors? I’ve gotta hear what Trevor has to say.” Despite having seen his brother woo a figment inside a tree—a lost spirit Brian had unconsciously supposed was Polly—her appearance here was unsettling and even ominous.
On the deck, Trevor smoked a spliff, going for massive intake. He offered it to Angelina and Brian, but they had already smoked plenty. “Angelina, I take the blame. But I just couldn’t see another way to keep her out of Babylon. Let me care for her and I promise I’ll call a hospital at the first bitty trouble. The truth.”
Angelina motioned them to the window. Crescent and Polly were sitting opposite each other, balanced on a small chair’s arm rests, their feet planted on the seat. With their platinum fringed foreheads touching, they whispered and giggled.
“Polly lived with me when Kaya was living with Alec Olson,” Angelina said. “And any reference to Kaya made her rage. Even though Polly and I were never physically intimate. She was too unstable.”
“Crescent’s found a new best friend and that’s all,” Trevor said. “Soon as Ya-Ya leaves for work, Crescent will stop by and put me in the mood. And no worries—it’ll be the farthest thing from pay-back for tonight. Crescent turns on her charms and I bow.”
Angelina shook her head. “Not one of your lovers has ever been jealous, Trevor?”
“No way on earth crazy Polly’s gonna be my girlfriend.”
Brian said, “Trevor, you’re the innocent. All those women and not one jealous symptom? Polly, who was nobody’s lover, was always jealous—which is why she had an angry cabin; I was here in those days.”
Angelina nodded. “She’s insanely envious of affection, Trevor. Now if I’m the target, she can’t stay. But if you are, keeping her under control is gonna take a miracle.”
“No miracles with Polly, mon. I absolutely can not see her in the light. Almost like she doesn’t fully exist.”
Angelina hugged her darling Trevor. “Remember, sweetheart. You can no more save every girl than you can sleep with every girl. Saving a lost soul is up to the Lord and not a prophet.”
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