“Because these women here, I saw them getting murdered anytime,” she stated. “They were the kind who lived large and aggressively, and, if a killer was around, those two women were the kind to attract that attention. The couple after that, I don’t know anything about them, but it just seemed off to me.”
Kate studied the older woman. “Off?”
“Yeah,off, like I clearly knew these two women would get taken out. Hell, if I’d been a little younger, I might have done it myself. They were that obnoxious.”
Kate wanted to laugh, but it wasn’t very appropriate. It was all she could do to hold back her chuckles.
But the other woman nodded, seeing her reaction. “Those people in our world who are like that, they get your goat going, you know? It doesn’t matter if you’re supposed to be nice or not. You don’t want to be anything but honest about those two women because they’re just bitches.”
“Did you ever see them actually do anything that was bitchy?”
“Well, that Jenna, that one for sure,” she stated. “She degraded her husband all the time. It made me feel terrible. I mean, I was raised in a time period where you deferred to your husband. However, by the time I got rid of husband number three, I had ditched that philosophy too.” She giggled. “But never in all my years have I contemplated intentionally humiliating any person, man or woman, and never somebody I supposedly loved.”
“And that’s a truth, isn’t it?” Kate murmured. “When you love somebody, that’s not how you treat them.”
“Exactly,” she declared. “So, when I heard those two bitches were murdered, my first thought was the husbands. Yet they’re still walking around, free and clear.”
“Both husbands?” Kate asked.
“Hell, maybe not both,” she corrected herself, “but, I mean, the one for sure. I never saw that other woman humiliate her husband. Yet I figured that, if those two women were two peas in a pod—which is what I’ve always seen them to be—that there was a damn good chance that the other bitch treated her husband the same way as that Jenna did.”
“Well, I would hope not,” Kate murmured, as she studied Jenna’s house, right in-between these two women Kate had been talking to.
“Well, this one was bad news here,” she stated. “So, no matter what you say, I’ll never think of Jenna in a nice way.”
“Well, the thing is, even though we’re supposed to be nice about it, death doesn’t exactly change who they were or our view of who they were.”
“Exactly, which is why my opinion won’t ever change,” she claimed. “Jenna was a bitch in this world, and, chances are, she’s a bitch in the other world too.” And, with that, she stood up and said, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go in and take my fiber pills.”
Such disgust filled her tone as she headed inside that Kate burst out laughing.
The old woman turned and looked at her, then grinned and added, “See? Find the humor in the moment. The fiber pills await. Even you.”
With that, the older woman turned and slammed the front door.
Still chuckling, Kate headed back to her car. And honestly she was still laughing about it by the time she made it to Simon’s. She lifted her hand in greeting to Harry and smiled at him.
“There you are,” he said. “About time you got here to put him out of his misery.”
“I’m hardly the person to do that,” she replied, with a bubbling laugh. “But he is cooking dinner, so that’s a good reason to come.”
“Hopefully you’re coming for more than just dinner,” he replied, a frown forming on his face.
“Well, don’t you worry about it,” she said. “That’s between Simon and me.”
And giving him a laughing look, she headed up the elevator.
*
“She’s on herway and seems to be in a bit of an odd mood tonight. Laughing, yet not.”
“That’ll be fine,” Simon replied, waiting for the elevator to open.
She smiled at him. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he said, opening his arms.
She stepped into them, and he kissed her ever-so-gently.