Free Holiday Magic (Second Chance) by Susanne Matthews

us. Anton got over it. You should too.”
    Georgia turned back and stared at her, too stunned to comment. The vision of Mark and Lucy flashed through her mind. Lucy had yelled something, what was it? ‘Lighten up? It’s not what you think?’ It must have been something like that.
    She stared at the woman in front of her who had the decency to look embarrassed. It was a prank? The moment that had ruined her life had been someone’s idea of a joke. Tears filled her eyes and blurred Lucy’s image. She shook her head, turned, and walked away without saying a word. She heard Lucy start after her, but in those silly high heels, she would never catch up. Georgia walked faster and faster until she was almost running.
    She careened into many people hurrying along the sidewalk, stopping only when she realized it was dark, and she was across the street from Independence Hall. She sat on the bench at the bus stop, and stared into nothingness. Buses came and buses went, and still she sat there in pain, reliving that conversation with Lucy over and over again.
    How many people had been in on the joke? Had Mark? Had he thought it funny to embarrass her that way? She looked up suddenly as a thought forced its way to the front of her mind. No matter how much she would like to believe differently, Mark wasn’t like that. What if he didn’t know either? What if they had both been used? How could a person she had trusted do such a thing to them? But then again, he wasn’t entirely innocent, since the possibility had existed that the child Lucy had thought she was carrying was his.
    The evening dampness chilled her to the bone. She picked up her dress in its plastic bag and turned to go back to the apartment. The last three years of her life ruined by her excessive pride and a practical joke. It was so sad, that it was suddenly funny. She laughed as tears of regret washed down her cheeks.
    How she managed to find her way home was a mystery. At some point it had started to rain, and when she finally unlocked the door to the showroom, she was soaked right through to the skin. The dress would have to be re-cleaned, and Lord knew if it could be salvaged since it had gotten as wet as she had. The good news was that since she had sobbed off and on, the incessant rain had mixed with her tears, and despite everything, she had not made too large a spectacle of herself.
    She had taken a hot shower, and sat on the sofa, wrapped in a terry robe, staring out at the blackness of the night. The rain ran down the windows in rivulets, matching the tears that still fell. How long could a person cry? She had read somewhere that women cried thirty to sixty times a year for no more than six minutes at a time. She must be setting the Olympic record today. Surely there was an end to the liquid that the tear ducts held.
    She raised her cup of mint tea and sipped, hoping the brew would comfort her.
    She continued to agonize over Lucy’s betrayal. She had thought her a friend. Eleni was right. Lucy must have hated her deeply to have done what she did. Even if finding them in the bed had been a joke, Lucy had moved in to stake a claim on Mark. How else could she have been carrying his child?
    She wanted to talk to Eleni, but she wasn’t sure that she could bear to have this painful discussion overheard by the ever-present Joe. She thought of calling Gwen, but it was after midnight in west Kansas.
    She felt so alone. For the first time in many years, she missed Grandma. When Mom had been traveling, it had been Grandma who had cared for them, who had nursed them through colds and every other ailment known to man that had afflicted them in their early years. It had been Grandma who had nursed her through her disappointments with her sayings and platitudes for every occasion. She would have seen through Lucy had she been alive, but she had died the year before her parents, and suddenly, Georgia missed them all.
    The phone rang. She looked at the clock. It was after