The fancy art on the walls, the rich jewel colors in the lounge, the state-of-art appliances in the kitchen mocked Laura. Money didn’t purchase contentment. Happiness came from within. Happiness came from friendship, from mutual trust. Happiness was the emotion she experienced with Dallas. She should’ve argued when he’d kissed her cheek and said goodbye. The phone rang and she absently answered it. “You’re home,” her mother said in an aggrieved voice. “I am.” Her mother had rung every day since the weekend. Two days of interrogations and nagging. “You should be here. James is looking lonely.” He missed his lover. If his boyfriend had any sense, he’d give James grief for even considering marriage to a woman. If Laura was the boyfriend, she’d pop James on his aristocratic nose. “I told you the pass is still closed because of the third slip.
