Entangled Moments (Moments in Time) Read Online Free Page B

all before.
    “Yes,” I lied. Oasis would always take me back, but I wanted
to prove to Lynnette and Melisa that I could survive outside its walls.
    The caretaker studied my face for a while and placed his mug
on top of the fridge. “I’m not supposed to do this, Carlene, but you seem like
a nice, honest person. Give me what you have and pay the rest within a month,
along with the first rent payment.”
    “Thank you so much...”
    “George,” he said with a toothless smile.
    “George.” I grinned. “I’ll get you the money, I promise.”
    “Good. The room is yours. You can move in anytime.”
    Ten minutes later, I’d signed a lease, handed George the
money I had, and flew out of the building. I felt so good; I could almost
pretend to be normal, like everyone else I passed on the street.
    As planned, I moved into my new apartment before nightfall.
    In the middle of the night, while lying on my bed, I thought
of Nick. I had no idea who he was, where he was from, or what such an
expensive-looking man had been doing in a small chapel in the poorer section of
Serendipity. But in a strange way, I missed him—as if he had been a piece of me
that had gone missing.

 
    Chapter Five
     
    As the last dinner guests left, I sighed and began rinsing
the glasses behind the bar while my colleague, a German woman with a svelte
figure and a limited English vocabulary, counted her tips at a corner table. I
had made good tips myself. Sometimes during my breaks, I would sneak to the
toilets to count them. I’d been working at the Surry Hotel for a month, and the
tips covered half of my rent. As promised, I’d paid George what I owed him,
which pleased him so much, he offered me an old television set he wasn’t using.
    In the changing rooms, I slipped out of my black-and-white
uniform and into my own clothes—a pair of jeans and a beige T-shirt. Finally, I
combed the knots out of my long hair and redid my ponytail. I looked forward to
a quiet night at home with a pizza and an episode of Friends.
    Outside, I stopped at the entrance and inhaled the warm
summer night air. I was startled when a woman who smelled of lilies bumped
right into me.
    “Excuse me.” She gave me an apologetic smile and hurried off
to a red Mercedes parked across the street, in front of the Lux Hotel.
    I stared after her, admiring her flowing hair, which looked
like spun gold in the moonlight. She had to be in her fifties, and looked
amazing.
    The woman slid into the backseat of the car and leaned
forward toward the man behind the wheel. He must have said something funny
because she threw back her head and laughed.
    How would it feel to laugh like that, with no shadows of the
past hanging over my head?
    As I moved forward, I stepped on something bulky. I looked
down to see a sleek leather purse. The woman must have dropped it when we
collided. Her car was still sitting there. If I hurried, I could return it to
her.
    How much money could be inside? Curiosity drove me to pick
it up and take a peek. I blinked as a wad of bills enticed me.
    A sudden thought crossed my mind. I could take it all. The
woman might not even notice the purse was missing until later. Finders keepers,
right? I could just walk away. The thought of what I could do with the money
skyrocketed my heart rate. I’d be able to pay my rent and save what I earned
instead.
    Suppressing my surfacing guilt, I began walking deliberately
in the direction opposite the woman’s parked car. But then I halted. I couldn’t
do it. I wasn’t a thief, and I’d done enough wrongs in my life.
    If I walked away with the money, the guilt would eat away at
me forever. Just like Chris’s death. From the looks of her, the owner might not
need the money as much as I did, but it would be wrong to take it. It wasn’t
mine.
    I swiveled on my heel and caught sight of the car reversing
from its parking spot.
    Gesturing with my arms in the air, I ran toward it. I caught
up in time and knocked on the woman’s