The Break-Up Psychic Read Online Free Page A

“From what I hear, Brook caught old Karl in the backseat of a pre-owned Miata with that actress who’s in all of his commercials. I guess he really does give the best service in town.”
    Amber winks a heavily lined eye at me and floats out of the stockroom on black platform boots. That girl loves misery. Placing the misshapen loofah back on its shelf, I hurry out of the back and find my boss, Brook Taylor, standing behind the counter wearing a tight leopard print dress and four-inch stilettos. Brook makes Luanne look like a senator’s wife, and that’s really saying something.
    “Hey, you!” Brook calls out as she spots me. “I’ve just picked up our new hot product, flavored body powders. Let’s see…there’s strawberry, honey, chocolate, caramel, and marshmallow,” she says, placing each on the counter in a long row. “They’re all shimmery powders but I think we can sell them as perfume too since they smell so good.”
    Brook pulls the lid off the chocolate-flavored product and uses the accompanying puff to lightly dust her wrist with the glittery powder.
    “Go ahead, taste it.” Brook, rather unceremoniously, sticks her wrist under my nose, eagerly awaiting my taste test.
    “Brook, I’m not going to lick your wrist.”
    “Oh, don’t be such a prude, Ellie, taste it!”
    “Yeah, Ellie,” Amber rings in, “lick Brook’s wrist.”
    I shoot Amber a venomous expression and take hold of Brook’s chocolate smelling wrist. I do my best to lick the powder off as prudishly as I can, but I’m pretty sure it still comes across as slutty.
    “Well?” Brook asks.
    “Actually,” I say, licking some errant powder from my lip gloss, “it’s pretty good. It tastes like chocolate and there’s no bitter aftertaste.”
    “See, I told you, Amber!” says Brook.
    Amber rolls her eyes and grabs the marshmallow-flavored powder from the counter. She liberally dusts the cleavage beneath her spiky necklace before leaning provocatively toward Brook and me. “Ok, Ellie, now taste me.”
    We all burst into laughter as Amber shakes her meager bosom side to side, the powder rising off her skin like a flour cloud. Brook and I claim two other flavors and the three of us set about administering a very formal taste test of each. The honey is by far my favorite and I lightly dust my neck and shoulders with the golden glitter.
    “So,” Amber says, licking some strawberry powder off her finger, “what happened with the Kar King?”
    Brook sighs heavily and bends over the counter, her ample bosom on shimmery display. “Lord almighty, Ellie, I should’ve listened to you. You told me you didn’t think he was ‘The One,’ but I wouldn’t listen. All I could see was his big house and fancy cars. Hell, I had my boobs done for that man and he didn’t even offer to pay for half the surgery. Anyway, I went to pick him up last night after closing and found him and that actress of his getting busy in one of the certified pre-owned,” Brook says, her angry excitement jiggling beneath the mini-dress.
    I step forward and wrap my arms around her in a hug. When she sniffles into my shoulder, I try to recall my mother’s method for getting eyelash glue out of cotton.
    “ Shh ,” I say, rubbing circles across her back the way Luanne did for me last night. “Don’t give him another thought.” I rock Brook from side to side for a moment until she stops her sniffling and pulls away.
    “I don’t know why you’re upset, Brook,” Amber says, thumbing through a magazine as she nestles into her chair in the shop’s only shadowy corner. “That guy is a sleaze ball and you can do better. He owns a used car dealership in the middle of Nowhere, Texas, and he’s got the worst toupee ever made. I say good riddance.”
    “I’m with Amber. My mama always says, ‘Men are scum,’ ” I say, bracing my hands on Brook’s shoulders.
    “Does that include Tim?” Amber asks snidely.
    I hesitate for a just a moment. On my way in to work I