Free Longing for Love by Marie Force

are talking about what a fool you’re making of yourself parading around half naked in broad daylight. You’re acting like a common tramp, and I won’t have it.”
    As Tiffany listened to the vitriol spewing from the face she’d once found so handsome and arresting, she realized she didn’t love him anymore. The discovery made her giddy. He no longer had any power over her. If he hadn’t been standing right there, she might’ve danced a little jig of joy.
    She held the shopping bag close to her. While she didn’t love him anymore, she certainly didn’t want him seeing the other items in Blaine’s bag of tricks. “What won’t you have?”
    “You. This.” He gestured angrily toward the store. “I won’t have my wife prancing around half naked in the town where I’m trying to build my practice. You’re doing this to embarrass me.”
    “Have you forgotten that you divorced me after I worked like a dog to put you through law school? So that and the papers I finally received yesterday make me your ex -wife and give you no right to tell me what to do. And P.S., you ought to stop in sometime. I might be able to help with your little problem .” She glanced down at his crotch. “In the bedroom.”
    His eyes narrowed, a sign he was about to blow. “What the hell are you talking about?”
    “I never had any idea what I was missing. But now that I’ve got something to compare you to, I gotta say, your technique could use some fine-tuning.” She patted his face. “Don’t worry, though. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”
    Batting her hand away, he leaned in close to her. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you’re bounced out of here, so don’t get comfortable.”
    “Give it your best shot,” Tiffany said with more bravado than she felt.  
    “Oh, I plan to, and until then, see if you can keep your clothes on in public.”
    She forced a careless smile even though her heart pounded. “Now what fun would that be?”
    “You won’t be so flippant when I shut down your smut shop.”
    “As interesting as this conversation has been, Jim, I have somewhere far more exciting to be. So if you’d please get out of my way, I’d like to get to my car.”
    Rather than move, though, Jim dug in.  
    For the first time since she met him in high school, Tiffany was a tiny bit afraid that he might be angry enough to strike her. “I asked you to get out of my way.”
    Jim leveled a furious stare at her before he finally stepped aside. “This isn’t over, Tiffany.”
    “Yes, it is. You saw to that. Now go away and leave me alone.” Tiffany brushed past him and fumbled with her keys but finally managed to get into her car. Her hands shook and her stomach ached but not because of the ugly exchange with her ex-husband. No, it was the threat to her fledgling business that had rocked her. Jim cared more about what others thought of him than he did about anything else. She didn’t doubt he had the wherewithal to put her out of business before she even got started.  
    She had expected some people in the town to disapprove, but she hadn’t expected anyone, least of all her ex-husband, to try to shut her down, especially after the town had approved her business application. Despite her bravado in the face of his threats, he had scared her. Right when all her energy was needed to get her business up and running, now she’d have to face off again with him, too. The idea of it exhausted her. Jim was a lawyer with significant resources at his disposal. What chance did she have against such a formidable foe? Especially one who had a law degree in his arsenal that she’d paid for.  
    By the time she got home, the earlier excitement and anticipation for her night with Blaine had turned to nervous despair. She poured a glass of wine and dropped into the single chair in her spacious living room. Sitting in the dark, she tried to figure out when, exactly, the man she’d once loved with all her heart had