Word Count: 469<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a witch,\u201d she said and she looked it. Gorgeous long black hair and a dress cut down to there. Huge lavender eyes with a corona of thick lashes; full, full garnet lips. At least that\u2019s my version of witches.<\/p>\n

She was walking her cat on a leash in the rain. New York is loaded with pets both pampered and trained to attack, but a cat on a leash is unusual and this one looked like a small panther and I was alone and looking for someone to talk to. Divorce does that; though you think you\u2019re going to be fine, it\u2019s the quiet of after the bustle of an office and a fast meal at a loud restaurant when the loneliness sinks like night into your mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cNice cat,\u201d I said. I\u2019m less than brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis name\u2019s Hector,\u201d she said. She stopped and smiled, those pouty red lips splitting open on perfect white teeth. \u201cMine\u2019s Vivian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vivian didn\u2019t have an umbrella and the rain misted her face like dew on a petal. It never collected and rolled off, just hung there like a netting of diamonds catching the streetlamp light.<\/p>\n

We went for coffee. We went back to her place. We made love as the mini-panther watched. I tried to do the right thing and pretended to like him, though I could tell he clearly did not like me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou named him after your ex-boyfriend?\u201d I asked. She just grinned wide and nodded. I never asked again about Hector the guy and she didn\u2019t offer much more.<\/p>\n

Things go along so much better when you feel you\u2019re in love. I saw Vivian almost every day after that. In a few months I found myself talking marriage, and I<\/em> brought it up first.<\/p>\n

Some women like mystery, like to keep a man guessing. I just wasn\u2019t the curious type. I\u2019ve learned to live in the present. I was anxious to let go of my past. Wasn\u2019t interested in what her life was like before the rainy night we met on the street. She was elusive, never let me stay the whole night. I\u2019d sneak out like a thief in the early gray morning. Hector was up on her bed before I\u2019d closed the bedroom door.<\/p>\n

She called me one day at work, something she\u2019d never done before. Through the sniffles I heard her tell me Hector had been hit by a car. I cut out of work a bit early, raced over and held her tight. She let me stay over that night. And every night after.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like the leash but I don\u2019t mind the collar. She feeds me caviar for treats, steak for dinner, and I\u2019m not alone anymore. I\u2019m Jason, her Golden Retriever, and she lets me sleep every night on her bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word Count: 469 \u201cI\u2019m a witch,\u201d she said and she looked it. Gorgeous long black hair and a dress cut down to there. Huge lavender eyes with a corona of thick lashes; full, full garnet lips. At least that\u2019s my … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[25,24],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-days-2012","category-horror","tag-100-days-2012","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}