Chapter 19: The Viper

Luna downed another glass of champagne as she looked around the hall. It seemed like her little spar with Justin had cleared her head of the little buzz she had felt from the two other glasses she had downed earlier.

“Damn you, Justin,” she muttered to herself.

The man had taken almost everything from her, now he was taking away her ability to get drunk? Where in the world was that even fair?

But then again, the world wasn’t fair now, was it? Luna let out a breath, placing her empty glass back on the table. If the world was fair, she wouldn’t be going through a world of hurt as she tried to get back at her ex-husband and his mother for ruining her life all those years ago now, would she? If the world was fair, she wouldn’t even be hurt in the first place. If the world was fair, she would have been loved by Justin, and she would have been happily married to him. If the world was fair-

“Luna,” a voice said from behind her.

Now what? Luna asked herself silently. She rolled her eyes as she turned back. A woman of about her age was standing in front of her, she had curly brown hair and curious brown eyes that stared at her like she was searching for confirmation.

Luna raised an eyebrow when the woman said nothing and just continued to stare at her.

“Yes?” Luna prompted, a glass of champagne short of polite.

“You don’t remember me?” the woman asked, she placed a hand on her chest, surprise in her voice and eyes. “I’m Lily, Lily Davis. You and Justin had dinner at our place a handful of times.”

Recognition dawned on Luna. “Lily,” she said. She shook her head a little and chuckled. “I don’t know where my head is at these days, of course, I remember you. How are you?”

The two women leaned towards each other at the same time to hug. Luna turned her head sideways both ways to accept Lily’s air kisses, as she knew they were coming. They separated, and Luna pasted her realest fake smile on her face.

“You look amazing,” she said to Lily.

Lily laughed a little and waved her hand to brush off Luna’s compliment like it didn’t matter to her.

“Oh please, I think that compliment should be reserved for the women who actually work hard at it,” she said. “Oh, I use a cream here and there, now and then, but I hardly take such vigorous care of my skin as some women do. I guess when you’re blessed, you’re just blessed,” she added, shrugging.

Luna nodded, already remembering why she never liked Lily in the first place.

“I guess,” she replied, and said nothing more.

“Well,” Lily said and looked Luna down, “you look good too. I was so worried about you when I heard you and Justin had split up.”

She placed a hand on her chest again, a worried look on her face. A look as fake as Luna’s smile. Maybe even faker, Luna thought to herself.

“Why were you worried?” Luna asked.

Lily blinked. “Well, because,” she said, obviously surprised by the question, “divorce is such an ugly business.” She shook her head. “I really don’t envy people who go through it.”

“Well, it wasn’t designed to be an envious practice,” Luna pointed out.

“Exactly!” Lily agreed, Luna’s sarcasm obviously flying right over her head. “It is such a terrible business, and I think if both parties involved could just be more understanding and tolerant of each other, it would be reduced. And most especially women-”

“Well, thank God no one asked for an opinion then, huh?” Luna interrupted and wished for another champagne.

Lily shrugged, Luna’s concealed insult obviously flying over her head again like the sarcasm had done.

“When I saw you up there, I almost couldn’t believe it was you,” she continued. “Where have you been? What have you been up to?”

“Oh, just here and there, doing this and that,” Luna replied.

Damned if she’d be clearer than that to that viper Lily.

“Oh,” Lily said, obviously disappointed with Luna’s reply. “Well, I guess you would have had to make do, with the way you were treated after everything.”

The pitying tone of Lily’s voice grated on Luna’s nerves, she balled her hand into a fist at her side.

“And what way was that?” she gritted out through her teeth.

“You know, that awful news about your father that Justin must have leaked. I mean, who knew him better than Justin, right?” Lily shook her head. “I know what your father did was a distasteful thing, but Justin could have been a little more merciful due to the love you both shared now, couldn’t he? He didn’t have to release a press release on your father the way that he did.”

“Mrs. Davis,” somebody suddenly said beside Luna.

Luna turned to see who it was, she saw Jake through the red haze of anger already clouding her vision. He put a hand on Luna’s arm, lightly, as both restraint and support.

“I think your husband was looking for you,” he said to Lily.

Lily blinked. “Oh,” her hand went up to press nervously against the pearls around her neck.

She turned to walk away, Luna and Jake watched her go.

“You know she’s just an unhappy woman who is in a passionless marriage with her husband and looking for someone else’s misery to needle at, to make her feel better about herself,” Jake said beside Luna after they stared at Lily’s retreating back for a while.

“Maybe,” Luna replied. “But she wasn’t making anything up that wasn’t true now, was she?”

Jake said nothing. Luna swallowed the bitter feeling in her throat as she turned to look at him.

“She didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, and she didn’t bother masking her true intentions behind a pretense of friendship.”

She walked away from Jake without another word, leaving him standing by the table.