Her Bear In Mind Read Online Free

to her on the coffee table. She’d been sketching before she went to sleep. On her sketch pad was a drawing of Sierra and Joe, making out and covered in mud. Sierra rolled her eyes and tucked the blanket around Molly before heading to bed herself.
     
    In her dream, she was back in the woods with Joe, trying to get her car unstuck. She was in the driver’s seat, watching him in the mirror.
     
    “Give it some gas!” he called out.
     
    She eased on the gas, but he didn’t push on the car like she expected him to. Instead, he reached down to the bumper and picked up the back end of the car.  She felt the rear of the car lift, pushing her body forward towards the steering wheel just a bit. The back wheels spun in the air for just a moment before the front ones pulled the car forward and out of Joe’s grasp. No, that wasn’t right. The bumper wasn’t pulled from his hands. He let it go and then the car pulled forward because he wasn’t holding on to it anymore .
     
    In slow motion she saw him stand up again. He’d had to crouch down to lift the bumper. He smiled at her in the mirror. He hadn’t even strained himself.
     
    Sierra woke with a start. She lay there a long time, trying to decide how much of that detail was memory and how much was invented. After laying there for an hour, unable to get back to sleep, she found herself standing barefoot in the parking garage staring at her mud splattered Prius.
     
    The car weighed 3,042 pounds. She had Googled it. The hybrid battery alone was 150 pounds. Even if he had world-record-level strength it would still take three of him to lift that much. She thought about those stories you always hear where little old ladies lift school buses off of their grandchildren. This hadn’t exactly been a life or death situation. And he had made it look so easy .
     
    She bent down and grasped the bumper, trying with all her might to lift the car. She succeeded only in breaking a nail as her hands slipped and she was falling on her ass for the third time today. This time it was onto the unforgiving concrete which bruised her tailbone.
     
    She struggled to her feet and headed back into the building, hoping no one had seen her. This, she decided, was completely crazy.
     
    So why was she so sure he had done it?
     
    *
     
    Friday night arrived before she knew it.
     
    Joe had called earlier in the week to tell her they’d be going to La Petite Mansion, which Google had confirmed was the most expensive restaurant in Olympia. Sierra couldn’t decide if he was actively trying to impress her or just had more money than he knew what to do with.
     
    She had tried on everything in her closet while Molly offered her opinion on each outfit. She finally settled on a classic little black dress with purple suede high heels dotted with metal studs and grandmother’s pearls. The shoes were Molly’s idea, who had insisted on a splash of color, and far be it from her to question an artist on color. Of course, Molly’s most recent painting was of a blue tree.
     
    Sierra tucked a pen and a small notebook into the matching purple clutch, still trying her best to pretend this was an interview not a date. She told herself that the black lace panties she had on were in no way purposefully selected.
    ,
    Joe arrived at their door right at seven as promised. He looked stunning in a tailored suit that no doubt cost more than her whole wardrobe. He smiled as he looked her up and down.
     
    “Better than what I looked like last time we saw each other?” she asked.
     
    “I don’t know.” Joe replied, studying her. “I think I might like you covered in mud.”
     
    He stepped into the apartment, uninvited, and began looking around. Sierra followed him nervously, grateful that she had pushed the white board into her bedroom.
     
    “You paint?” he asked.
     
    “I paint,” Molly said as she walked out of her room. “She writes. And we both drink too much and obsess over our work. Though this is