Free Warming Trend by Karin Kallmaker

vanquished by her cheeky smile. “I’m thirty-two, oh great bartender. I never wanted lots, not like my folks. My dad upgraded the cars every two years, we were always moving to larger houses. I left home when it was a golf course out the back door. I only ever wanted just enough. The perfect life in my head was an endless curl of surf, a long beach, a bonfire, and it was always today. Never tomorrow.”
    “Was? What’s perfection for you now?”
    “When what’s-her-name took what little I had and I realized I was going to have to live five or six years, financially, all over again, I knew that I wanted a better tomorrow. Guess that means I have to grow up. Start using my brain. Be a Myra.”
    “You could be a little less Lisa, maybe a little more Myra, I guess.” Since Lisa was fond of pointing out her mistakes, Ani added, “A Myra knows better than to pay for half a car and not get her name on the title.”
    “I know,” Lisa snapped.
    “Besides, that’s not the picture of a perfect life using your brain. That’s just a way to get a life you like.”
    “Look what all your brains did for you.”
    Stung, Ani said, “I already admitted I messed up my life.” Out of her hurt, she had a new thought. “So I messed up my life. Maybe that’s better than not doing anything with it.”
    For a moment Lisa tried to peel Ani with her eyes, but she abruptly blinked and went back to staring out the window where the creamy level floor of cloud cover made it appear they were barely moving. “I deserved that, I guess.”
    “You’ve been a bit harsh.”
    “I figure if I help you get your life together, I’ll know it can be done, and work on mine.”
    “We’re not getting my life together. I mean… We’re going to get my stuff so Eve can get me out of her life and I can finally start over. Most of my stuff should just go to the dump if it hasn’t already.” There, that sounded reasonable. That was achievable.
    “If you say so. Personally, I think you should try to bag the babe again.”
    “Eve wants nothing to do with me.”
    “You don’t know that.” Lisa huddled into her sweater.
    “I was there and you weren’t. Why do you think you know what she felt? Or what I felt?”
    “How do I know? This is going to sound really sappy…” Lisa blew out a long breath and appeared lost in thought.
    Ani decided it was a good time to wait. She’d been wrong about Lisa’s age and in the breakneck speed in which they’d become traveling companions, she’d had to revise her opinion about her more than once. Irritating as hell, yes, but not mean. She reminded Ani of Tan Salek, in some ways. They were night and day on the outside. If anything, Tan was a bit of a mother figure, even though she wasn’t old enough. Her sympathetic smile made her comforting to talk to, except when she was frowning over paperwork and especially if that paperwork in some way involved you. Lisa had bounced from job to job, while Tan was contentedly ensconced in a university desk job and had already planned her retirement, two decades in the future. It was something deeper that Tan had in common with Lisa they both listened with more than their ears.
    Finally, Lisa continued, “I’ve been in denial that I’ve changed. But it all came together in my head when you looked at the picture. When I said it was Eve you’d cared about, the look on your face I realized I’d give a lot to have someone look like that at the mention of my name.” She twisted a lock of blond hair around her finger. “I can fend for myself, and I always have. I’m not weak. But I would really like to be on someone’s pedestal. To have someone think that the sun can’t rise without me. So here I am, helping you win back the love of your life. I figure if it works for a loser like you” She softened the words with a smile. “It might work for a loser like me.”
    Ani was glad of a sudden interruption by the pilot, updating their arrival time into Atlanta. When she