XXI

A healthy, earthy smell penetrated Seven’s nostrils as he walked into Zella’s herb and vitamin store. Bells jangled as the door closed behind him. Zella emerged from the backroom, smiled warmly at Seven and asked if she could help him. When it dawned on her who she was talking to, the smile disappeared from her face and her eyes widened in surprise.

“I was hoping to schedule an appointment for a psychic reading session,” Seven Sallie said cheerily.

Zella put her hands on her hips and gave him a stern look, but he thought he noticed a smile trying to curl at the corner of her mouth. Then she put two fingers to her temple and closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. “I’m sensing that you are not a believer in psychic powers.”

Zella’s corn rows were gone. Her long black, coarse hair was combed back tight against her scalp and bound into a ponytail. Bangs hung right down to her brows and with her big dark intelligent eyes, she looked incredibly cute. With a form fitting green sweater and faded blue jeans, she also looked sexy.

Seven put two fingers to his temple and closed his eyes for a couple of seconds. “I’m sensing that you are no longer giving psychic readings.”

Zella put two fingers to her temple again and closed her eyes. “I’m sensing that you called my number and heard the message that I am no longer doing psychic readings.”

Seven kept his fingers on his temple and closed his eyes again. “I’m sensing you’re right.”

“That’s some intuitive ability, seeing how I just told you,” Zella said as she laughed.

Seven laughed too. But more due to relief from feeling like ice was broken than humor. He took off the Minnesota Twins baseball cap he was wearing and ran his hand through his hair. Zella marveled, not for the first time, at how much he looked like a prettier version of Brock. She even preferred Seven’s wiry toned physique to Brock’s bulging muscles. Although he could stand to be a little more toned. She didn’t like what she was feeling. She had sworn off men a few years ago. She covered her desire to flirt with a stern expression.

“So, if you know I gave up psychic reading, why are you here?” She asked with a cool tone.

“It must be a very recent development.”

“What?”

“Giving up your psychic gig.”

“I took down the sign and changed my phone message as soon as I got home last night.”

“Why?”

Zella sighed. “It’s really none of your business.”

“Wait, I’m getting something,” Seven Sallie said as he put two fingers to his temple again and shut his eyes tight. “I’m sensing common ground. I’m sensing last night was some type of last straw for both of us. I’m sensing pesky people from Cotton Creek Cove fellowship have been getting under our skin. I’m sensing you and I are falling for each other.”

This fourth element took Zella by surprise and her mouth gaped open. She quickly regained her facial composure, but she noticed her hands quivering slightly as she placed them on her hips.

“Three out of four ain’t bad,” she said and then wondered if she was lying.

“So I was wrong about the pesky Cotton Creek Cove people?”

“Nope.”

“I was wrong about last night being the last straw?”

“Nope.”

“I was wrong about common attraction?”

“Nope,” Zella replied before he finished saying attraction. Her eyes widened at her mistake. She assumed he was going to say common ground.

“Great!” Seven Sallie said and then moved his face toward hers with puckered lips.

“Back off, you fool!” Zella blurted as she shoved two hands into his chest.

Seven began to laugh as a dog emerged and began to bark fiercely.

“It’s okay, Free,” Zella told the chocolate lab with a sweet voice. “Go lay down, honey.”

The dog laid down right where she was and eyed Seven suspiciously.

“Well, I guess I’m definitely not a psychic,” Seven Sallie said as he threw up his hands and grinned at Zella. “I apologize, I thought I detected a mutual chemistry between us that was about to combust into incredible passion.”

Zella opened her mouth and closed it. Although she told herself that she did not like Seven Sallie, she ironically found him very attractive indeed. But after last night, she was determined to live honestly. The first step, and it was a big one, was shutting down her profession as a psychic and a life coach. So, maybe the way to not lie to Mr. Sallie, was to simply stay quiet on the subject.

“So I am wrong then?” Seven asked.

Zella crossed her arms and glared at him, but remained silent. He grinned merrily. Anger and irritation welled within her.

“Cat got your tongue?” Seven provoked as it occurred to him that she might not want to lie to him. Zella amped up the fierceness in her gaze and he chuckled. “Would you say yes or no please?”

“Can I punch you in the face?”

“Ooooh, I’m afraid not I’m into that, Zella.”

“How about I tie you up and whip you?”

“Noooo, not that either.”

“So what are you into?” Zella blurted with out thinking and instantly regretted it.

Seven’s face suddenly became serious and he spoke quietly. “I want what Brock and Destiny seem to have.”

Seven stared at her with a warm sentimental smile. Yet in his eyes she saw he was lost, lonely and confused. This made her even more drawn to him than she already was. She both hated and liked the vulnerability that she felt. It was like he was gazing into her soul and seeing how lost and lonely she  was too. After all, it’s been said the eyes are the windows to the soul. Were the thick, tough shades she had installed on her eyes stuck open? She wondered this as he seemed to wallow in the silence that spoke volumes between them. Finally she couldn’t stand the deafening silence that seemed to have lasted an hour, even though in reality it was less than a minute.

“What do they have?” Zella asked and then felt her toes curl at the squeaky quiver in her voice.

Seven sighed and looked away from her. As he began to speak, he almost seemed shy. “The way they are two, but seem like one. The way they complement each other in their individual spiritual journeys.  When they converse, whoever is listening seems utterly fascinated with what the other is saying. When they walk together, they hold hands. They can sit quietly at breakfast and seem to speak volumes to each other without hardly saying a word. At night they share a mug of sleepy time tea by the fireplace and read Bible verses to each other. I don’t know, things like that. It’s hard to describe.”

“Well, you did a fine job describing them,” Zella replied matter of fact as she tried hard to hide just how intrigued she actually was. “But you and I aren’t Brock and Destiny.”

“We could be,” Seven said quietly. “It seems we are both being drawn to something bigger than ourselves.”

“I don’t think so, Mr. Sallie,” Zella replied, trying to undo the bond that was beginning to solidify between them by addressing him formally. “I’m not interested in a romantic relationship.”

“Are you coming off a breakup?”

“It’s been a few years, but I rather like being alone,” Zella answered and then realized she uttered a falsehood. Since her roommate moved out a few months previous, she sometimes felt like loneliness would consume her.

“Look, how about we forget all about this mutual attraction you’re denying and I’m trying to embrace, and we just focus on being friends?”

Zella snorted, refolded her arms and raised a skeptical eyebrow at Seven.

“Listen,” Seven Sallie said. “I know I tend to be, a, um…”

“Obnoxious?”

“I was thinking witty.”

“Smarmy?”

“I was thinking charming.”

“Annoying?”

“Okay, now you’re just hurting my feelings.”

Zella laughed and extended a hand to shake. “Okay, friends. Nothing more.”

“Fair enough,” Seven Sallie said as he took hold of her hand. “However, may I kiss your hand?”

“Now, Seven,” Zella whined in exasperation. “What part of nothing more do you not understand?”

“Look, I just want to kiss your hand as a gentleman. That will help me with the keen disappointment I feel over being denied your succulent lips now or ever in the future.”

“Seven, how are we ever going to be just friends?”

“Is that an indirect way of admitting attraction to me?”

“Yes, I find you slightly attractive, okay, Seven. Are you happy now? I mean, you’ve looked in a mirror. Nature has been quite good to you physically. But you are going to have to prove your worthiness as a friend. And if you do, nothing more. Ever! Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Seven Sallie said meekly.

“Then kiss my hand and be done with it,” Zella said quickly and then sighed.

Seven smirked as he grasped her lightly by the fingers and brought the back of her hand to his mouth. His lips were warm, soft, and he let them linger. Zella’s brain told her the kiss was plenty long and to pull her hand away. But her lonely heart caused her own lips to part as she felt a thrill ease up her spine.

“Mm, is that lavender I smell?” Seven asked as his head lifted and their eyes met.

“French lavender,” she replied with a squeak as her toes curled again.

Seven lowered his head to her hand again and she feebly tried to pull it away. “Just one, Seven.”

“I just want to sniff the French lavender again, if I may.”

His nose ever so slightly touched her hand and his lips barely brushed her knuckles. It tickled and she giggled as she jerked her hand away. “No more kisses now period. Got it?”

“I got it,” he smiled as he showed the palms of his hands in a show of submission.

“Alright then, let’s go back to the beginning. What did you want to talk to me about?”

Seven’s face became stern as he frowned. “I’d simply like to get your thoughts and perspectives on what we saw and participated in last night.”

“Well,” Zella sighed. “Other than when I thought a former boyfriend might kill me during a beating, it was the scariest thing I have ever been a part of.”

Zella stared heatedly at Seven, testing his response, and expecting him to look away. Maybe her response would cool his jets about any romantic notions. Instead he gazed at her with warmth and sympathy exuding from his eyes. She could almost hear the drippings of her heart melting.

“Zella, I’m so sorry,” he said quietly.

“It’s not your fault I had a habit of choosing bad men. Do you hear me? Had!”

“Not just for that. I mean for coming on to you. Especially since we don’t know each other very well. I guess over the last few years, I got used to talking to attractive women at bars, you know, trying to hook up and what not. So once again I’m sorry. I was trying to be lighthearted and funny. But I ended up being forward and rude. I truly want us to be friends. I promise I will put my attraction to you in the same place I have with finding Destiny attractive. By that I mean that I’m aware of it, but it’s strictly off limits.”

Zella was surprised that part of her wanted to shout: No! I want you to find me attractive, I want you to flirt with me, and eventually I want to give in so we can live happily ever after. However, real life isn’t a fairy tale. It’s hard and dangerous. So, she simply smiled sadly and nodded.

“Okay,” Seven Sallie said as he clapped his hands together. The chocolate lab lifted her head, growled and glared at Seven for a few seconds before lowering it to her paws again. “Talk to me about being terrified.”

“Well,” she shrugged and waved a hand at him. “You should know. You probably would have fled if you had managed to get the door open.”

Seven felt his face flush with embarrassment.

“I didn’t mean that as any type of slight, Seven,” she said as she put a hand on his, and then jerked it quickly away. “If anyone knows that it was especially dangerous for you to be there, it was me. I was the one that warned you about Lexi a week before it all imploded.”

Seven nodded, and then asked. “Did last night have anything to do with you suddenly stopping your psychic reading profession?”

“It had a huge part to do with it.”

 “I don’t get it. So last night changed how you think and what you do, just like that,” Seven Sallie said as he snapped his fingers. The chocolate lab opened her eyes growled once, snorted, and then shut her eyes.

“No, my, what would you call it, change of heart?” Zella pondered. “I would have to say it began with my best friend and former roommate Willa. Actually this guy that came to see Willa is where it began for me. You might have met him. His name is Billy Bob Booker. He goes to Cotton Creek Cove.”

“I’ve heard the name and good things about him, but we haven’t met.”

Zella looked over Seven’s shoulder and sighed. Seven turned to look and saw a figure approaching the store. “Not him again,” Seven heard Zella say under her breath.

“Hey, Zella, may I use your restroom?” Seven Sallie said.

“Sure, through those curtains and then the second door on the right.”

Seven was washing his hands when he heard Free barking ferociously. Then he heard Zella emit a bloodcurdling scream just as the chocolate lab cried. Why did he insist to Brock that he wanted to go to Zella’s alone? Nonetheless, Seven flung open the restroom door and ran out of the back room. Free laid in a pool of blood as Zella ran down an isle with a knife wielding man chasing her!