Survival of Love.

Frankie J Jones.

Chapter One.

Jody Scott swept mangled leaves and petals onto a piece of cardboard.

"I've finished sweeping the workroom," she called to her business partner, Denise Murray. "Do you need any help in there?"

"No, sweetie, I'm almost through, and we can get out of here."

Jody smiled. It usually took a team of mules to pull Denise out of their flower shop, but her daughter, Ellen, had taken a job transfer back to San Antonio and was due in tonight.

"When did you last see Ellen?" Denise asked her.

Jody frowned and thought for a moment. Ellen was a spoiled brat that she deliberately avoided, but to say so would hurt Denise's feelings. "I guess it was eight years ago when we went to the coast after she graduated from high school." Idly bouncing the broom against the floor, she leaned against the doorjamb that separated the showroom from the workroom.

"It's been that long? Time flies." Denise straightened a stack of catalogs. "You won't recognize her. She's no longer skinny as a stick. She's beautiful, Jody. I don't know where she got those wonderful genes. Her father was no great looker, and they certainly aren't from me." Denise patted her rump.

Jody looked at her lifelong friend. Denise's body had thickened some since high school, and regular appointments with a beautician were needed to keep the gray out of her curly brown hair, but she was still an attractive woman.

"There's nothing wrong with your genes," Jody said. "I remember when you thought Mark Murray was G.o.d's gift."

Denise rolled her eyes. "I swear, sometimes I wonder what I was thinking then. I should have stuck to the plans you and I made to go to college together. At least I would've had an education to fall back on when he left me for that twenty-year-old flake."

"Denise, we made those plans when we were thirteen. Things change."

"Yeah, nine months of change. If I had listened to what Mom tried to tell me, I wouldn't have been three months pregnant when I graduated."

"Just remember, you got Ellen as a result of that pregnancy." Jody knew that would calm Denise's regrets.

"You're right." Denise went into the showroom and started rearranging a table of ceramic planters that stood in front of one of the large display windows.

"Denise, go home and rest. You've been cooking and cleaning all week." Jody put the broom away. When she returned, Denise was putting the live flower arrangements into the cooler that ran the length of the end wall of the shop. Jody flipped off the display lights, locked the front door and turned on the fluorescent CLOSED sign. She didn't want to attract after-hours shoppers. "What time does she get in?" Jody asked, referring to Ellen. She began pa.s.sing the last few arrangements to Denise.

"She wasn't sure since she's never driven out. We estimated between eight and nine tonight." Denise shook her head. "Ellen is so stubborn. She insisted on driving all the way from Los Angeles by herself. I tried to tell her how dangerous it was, but she swears she can't live without her car. I told her she could use mine, and I would hitch a ride with you, but apparently a six-year-old Taurus would cramp her style."

Jody stifled a sigh. To listen to Denise babble about the dangers of traveling alone, you'd think Ellen was coming home in a covered wagon. Would she ever stop babying Ellen?

Oblivious to Jody's thoughts, Denise continued, "She scares me to death sometimes. I don't know why she didn't sell her car and buy another one here, or she could have shipped it home. The company she works for told her they would pay to have her car shipped. But, no, Ms. Independence has to do it herself." Denise placed the last live arrangement into the cooler and scurried to the cash register. She opened the register and sighed. "I still have to balance the register, batch the credit card sales, and go to the bank."

"Bag everything and I'll come in early in the morning and do it for you."

"Are you sure?"

Jody nodded and smiled at the look of relief on Denise's face. Jody held a cash bag as Denise emptied the register tray into it.

"I even offered to fly out and help drive back, but she wanted to do it alone." Denise continued her ranting as she headed to the workroom.

"Sounds like someone I know," Jody said as she zipped the bag and followed Denise.

"Are you crazy? I'd never drive cross-country by myself."

"Maybe not now. What would you have done twenty years ago? Especially, if your mom had said you shouldn't."

Denise snorted and took the bag from Jody. "I see my days of peace and quiet are gone. Between you and Ellen, I will have no chance. Come on," she said and switched off the workroom lights. "I'll put this in the safe. Are you sure you don't mind taking care of this? I could stay and do it."

Jody grinned at Denise's reference to the safe. It was nothing more than an old clothes hamper full of rags they used for cleaning. On the rare occasions when they left money in the shop, Denise would bury the cash bag in the hamper, certain that no burglar would ever think to look there. "I don't mind. The bank is open until noon tomorrow. I'll have plenty of time to run it over."

"Good." Denise took the money to the back of the workroom. She reappeared a moment later. "Let's get out of here."

Jody grabbed her backpack and breathed a sigh of relief. She had a date with Sharon tonight and wanted to get home early. It was almost seven. The shop closed at six, but by the time they cleaned and prepared the days' receipts, they rarely left before seven-thirty.

Denise dug through her purse as Jody locked the back door.

"What are you and Sharon doing tonight?" Denise asked as she pulled out her car keys.

"We're going to stay in with a pizza and watch a movie." She felt a tickle of excitement. Pizza and a movie with Sharon translated into a night of great s.e.x. She had been dating Sharon for almost a month, and things were proceeding smoothly. At least the s.e.x was great. They never got around to talking. She quickly pushed the thought away. To examine their lack of conversation might lead to a conclusion that Jody wasn't yet ready to face.

Jody and Denise crossed the parking lot. Jody gave her a hug and tossed her backpack into the pa.s.senger seat of her black Jeep Wrangler.

"I'll see you Monday," Jody said. "Tell Ellen I'll see her soon." Jody was in no hurry to see Ellen. Since the week-long whine-fest she subjected them to after her high-school graduation, Jody had made it a point to be elsewhere whenever she was in town.

"Sweetie, thanks again for working this weekend," Denise called as she got into her Taurus. "Tell Sharon I'll make it up to her."

Jody and Denise took turns working weekends at Petal Pushers, with Eric, their part-time employee. In their original plans for the flower shop, she and Denise had agreed to not hire a full-time employee until the shop's profits could cover a decent salary for each of them and their employee. They had finally hit that goal two years ago, but since their current arrangement had worked so well and the shop's clientele continued to grow they had recently started discussing the possibility of opening another shop. They decided to delay the hiring of a full-time employee until they made their minds up about the new shop.

Jody climbed into her Jeep. Maybe it was time to re-think the decision to delay hiring a full-time employee. Her hasty offer to work for Denise this weekend would severely limit her time with Sharon.

One more reason to not like the brat, Jody thought as she pulled out of the parking lot. She had wanted to spend the weekend in bed with Sharon, but instead she would have to work.

Jody drove to the video store and rented the African Queen. They had both seen the movie a half-dozen times. Tonight, Jody didn't want the movie distracting them. Leaving the video store she drove to her home in northwest San Antonio. As she drove, she started to feel guilty about her unkind thoughts of Ellen. Most of the time, Ellen had been a sweet kid. Jody realized she shouldn't continue to judge Ellen by her teen years. Ellen had probably matured into a nice person.

Jody would overlook most of Ellen's shortcomings simply because she was Denise's daughter. Denise had been her best friend since the third grade when Jody's family moved into the house across the street from Denise's family.

The two girls quickly discovered they had a lot in common. They were products of single-child households, a rarity in the late 1960s. Their fathers worked for civil service at Lackland Air Force Base, and their mothers were housewives addicted to soap operas. Denise and Jody loved books and movies. During the summers, they spent most of their free time at the movie theater.

During their junior year, they began trying to decide which college they would attend. Studying came easy for Jody, but Denise had to work to maintain a B average. Jody wanted to go away to college, but Denise wanted to stay in San Antonio. They finally decided to submit applications to Tulane University in New Orleans, Trinity University in San Antonio, and Baylor University in Waco. They agreed they would attend the university that accepted them both. Jody could still remember running to Denise's house when she received scholarship offers from both Tulane and Trinity on the same day. A week later, Denise received her acceptance letter from Trinity, but was turned down by Tulane. With only slight regret, Jody agreed with Denise that Trinity University would make a fine alma mater.

But then Denise met Mark in their senior year and everything changed. Their plans to attend college together fell apart when Denise married Mark two weeks after their high-school graduation.

It had been a difficult time for them. At about the same time Denise began to make plans for her wedding, Jody fell in love with her math teacher, Mrs. Hardin. Confused by the intensity of her emotions, Jody slipped away to the library seeking validation for her feeling. What she found was a handful of outdated references that declared her love a perversion against not only mankind, but G.o.d as well. Jody kept her secret. She wanted to tell Denise but was afraid Denise would think she was perverted. Faced with unrequited love and hurt by what she saw as Denise's betrayal, Jody ran from everything familiar. She turned down the scholarship to Trinity and accepted the one from Tulane.

Denise's wedding was a blur of activity. As maid of honor, Jody stood beside Denise and tried to be happy for her best friend. She studied Mark but couldn't see what Denise had found so attractive about him. He was too self-centered. The baby blue tuxedo he wore made him appear even shorter than he really was. Denise looked tired and a little frightened. The newlyweds would be leaving the following morning on their honeymoon, two weeks in Cancun. The trip was a wedding present from Denise's parents. Jody tried to imagine spending two weeks in the same room with Mark and felt her stomach give an uneasy toss. Why had Denise agreed to marry him? Her too-loud sigh of confusion caused the minister to glance her way. Embarra.s.sed, she gave up trying to figure out Denise's actions and turned her thoughts to her own future.

During Jody's second week at Tulane, she met Angie, who would eventually become Jody's first lover. Angie was thirty-seven and owned Riddle's, a popular college hangout. She and Jody were together for almost a year until a tall, lanky cowgirl from Montana named Rita came along and caught Angie's attention.

A few weeks after arriving at Tulane, Jody received a letter from Denise. In the letter, Denise apologized for ruining their plans. She went on to explain that she had gotten pregnant and felt she had no choice but to marry Mark.

At first, Jody was devastated that Denise had not trusted her enough to tell her about the baby sooner, but then she realized that she had been keeping her own secret.

Jody wrote back and announced her lesbianism to Denise. She spent the next week praying their friendship would be strong enough to survive her confession.

The friendship not only endured, it was stronger than ever, Jody thought as she pulled into the garage of her small two-bedroom ranch-style home.

A gush of hot air hit her as she opened the door leading into the kitchen. It was only April, but the days already held hints of the sweltering heat to come. She turned on the central air conditioner and checked her watch. It was almost seven-thirty. She wouldn't have time for her daily run. If she hurried she could shower and maybe catch a quick nap. Since she never got much sleep when Sharon was around, she needed to sleep when she could. She grabbed a pair of shorts and a tank top from her dresser, then raced to the shower. As she washed her hair, she thought about how her life and Denise's often paralleled.

They had continued to call each other on special occasions. When Jody visited her parents in San Antonio, she would always spend at least one day of her vacation with Denise. They would laugh and reminisce for hours or until Mark came home. After he arrived, Jody would quickly find an excuse to leave. She had tried to at least tolerate him for Denise's sake, but there was just something about him that set her teeth on edge. After fifteen years of marriage, Mark left Denise for a younger woman.

Two weeks later, Jody, who worked as an investment advisor for a major brokerage firm in New York, came home to find her Manhattan apartment in disarray. A note from Mia, her lover of nine and a half years, lay on the table. The note informed Jody that Mia had moved to Tucson to live with a young artist whose work had been on exhibit at the gallery where Mia worked. The betrayal shattered Jody's ability to trust and her belief in commitment.

Since their worlds were imploding, Jody invited Denise to New York. After a take-out Chinese dinner and a couple of bottles of wine, they spent the night berating their exes and vowing to never fall in love again.

The next morning they awoke with ma.s.sive hangovers, but the fires of adversity had forged another link in their friendship. Jody had taken the week off, and they spent the time exploring the city. By the time Denise returned to San Antonio, their shattered hearts were a little closer to mending.

Jody would later learn that Denise had returned home to face not only a teenager but also a pile of unpaid bills. Denise's parents were dead. Her mother had died of breast cancer and her father had been killed in car accident less than a year later. Mark proved useless, since he had been more interested in flying off to Cancun or the Bahamas with his new love than he was in helping to finance the cost of raising a daughter. Denise took him to court to get child support, but at that time, child support laws were a joke. All she received for her effort was a bill from the lawyer.

Jody knew nothing of Denise's financial problems until the bank threatened to take the house, and Denise called Jody asking for advice. After almost a half-hour of arguing, Jody convinced Denise to accept a loan from her. Jody paid off the delinquent bills and sent a check monthly until Denise found work in a flower shop. Over the next few years, Denise had repaid the loan with interest.

Stepping out of the shower, Jody toweled off before slipping into the faded denim shorts and deep blue tank top. She looked into the mirror. The tank top accentuated her sapphire eyes. She smiled, knowing the shirt would serve two purposes, since it was also easy to slip off.

As she combed her short, dark hair, she tried not to dwell on the increasing number of gray strands. Instead, she focused her thoughts on Sharon and found herself growing aroused as she antic.i.p.ated their upcoming evening. Maybe they should talk before they hopped into bed. If she intended to build a relationship with Sharon there would have to be more than carnal knowledge between them. Did she want a relationship with Sharon? Or was s.e.x the only thing between them?

The clock on the fireplace mantel in the living room chimed. Surprised, she glanced at her watch. It was almost nine. Time had gotten away from her. There was no longer time for a nap. She shrugged. It didn't matter. She was too excited to sleep.

As she brushed her teeth, she noticed the faded postcard of the Hollywood sign taped to her mirror. Denise had sent the postcard on her first trip to visit Ellen at UCLA.

Denise had called, devastated that Ellen had accepted a scholarship to UCLA. Her baby girl was leaving home. Jody secretly thought Ellen had made a wise decision. She needed to be away from Denise's constant mothering if she was ever going to grow up.

In an effort to help Denise deal with Ellen's leaving, Jody made the trip back to San Antonio from New York on the pretense of attending Ellen's high-school graduation. As part of Ellen's graduation gift, Denise arranged for the three of them and Ellen's best friend, Allison, to spend a week together at South Padre Island. Allison had gotten ill just before they left and canceled, but Ellen had insisted she still wanted to go. Jody shuddered when she recalled how much Ellen had whined and complained. The week at South Padre Island had gone so badly, Jody had been tempted to kiss the ground when she finally escaped and flew back to New York. A couple of months later, Jody had received the postcard from Denise.

Jody chuckled at the memory as she rinsed her toothbrush and put it away. She pulled the postcard from the mirror and flipped it over. Instead of the usual "Wish you were here," Denise had written: "Be glad you aren't here. The traffic is horrible and the food is worse. I can't find a decent breakfast taco anywhere."

Jody glanced at her old New York address and experienced a moment of wistfulness. For the most part, she had loved New York. There was always something happening. The memories brought back visions of the constant rushing, the job pressures and the seemingly endless crush of people.

"That's why I left," Jody said and replaced the postcard on the mirror.

After returning to New York from the graduation trip to South Padre Island, Jody quickly settled into her normal routine. Over the next three years, she dated several women, always keeping them at a safe distance. Then she met Lauren, and her carefully guarded world fell apart. More like I blew it up, she thought ruefully as she went to the living room and rearranged the pillows on the sofa.

She had been dating Lauren for almost six weeks, which, since being dumped by Mia, was a long-term relationship for Jody. She had no interest in prolonging the relationship beyond the l.u.s.t stage, but Lauren professed she was madly in love with her.

Lauren, who worked in the publishing industry, was struggling financially, and Jody felt sorry for her. She allowed Lauren's persistence to chip away at her reluctance until she finally gave up and let Lauren move in.

Jody immediately realized she had made a mistake. She didn't love Lauren. She wanted to explain to Lauren how she felt but couldn't bring herself to say the words. Besides, Lauren seemed determined to stay.

Jody never consciously made the decision to sabotage the relationship. But less than a month after moving in, Lauren came home early from work one afternoon and found Jody in bed with a colleague.

Jody didn't probe too deeply into why she had cheated on Lauren. The other woman had held no real interest for her. The one episode was all that ever occurred between them.

At about the same time she split with Lauren, the stock market turned sour. Wall Street firms began to trim their budgets by laying off people. Those lucky enough to keep their jobs found themselves left to absorb the workload. Jody's workday increased from ten hours to fourteen. After a year, she had burned out.

Jody quit her job, sublet her apartment, and called Denise with her flight number and arrival time. She returned to San Antonio financially secure but physically and emotionally exhausted.

Denise fixed up her spare bedroom and listened patiently as Jody admitted her guilt over hurting Lauren and her inability to maintain a relationship. Denise never condemned or judged Jody's actions.

Six weeks later, armed with Jody's finances and Denise's knowledge, they became business partners and opened Petal Pushers. Located on Wurzbach, near the medical center, the shop continued to steadily increase its clientele.

Jody bought a house a few blocks from Denise and less than ten minutes from the shop. She quickly found herself back into her routine of getting in and out of relationships.

Now, three years later, Denise was ecstatic that Ellen was transferring back to San Antonio; Jody was in a relationship that had lasted longer than three weeks; and the shop was doing so well that she and Denise were talking about opening a second one.

At last, it looked as though their lives had settled down and everyone was happy.

Chapter Two.

Sharon Larson, a tall, vivacious redhead, was six years younger than Jody's forty-four years and worked as a physical therapist. To relieve stress and keep fit, Sharon lifted weights. She tried to get Jody interested in weight-lifting, but Jody's addiction was running. She viewed lifting weights as a form of punishment, but she did appreciate the result it had on Sharon's body.

Sharon could easily lift Jody, which made for some extremely interesting s.e.x.

Jody's doorbell rang promptly at nine. She opened it to find Sharon dressed in shorts and a halter top that left little to the imagination. Sharon came in with a pizza.

Jody barely managed to get the door closed before Sharon dropped the pizza on a side table and pulled her into an urgent embrace.

"It seems like forever since I last saw you," Jody whispered as she ran her hands along the firm muscles in Sharon's back and nuzzled her neck.

"So it's true. Absence does make the heart grow fonder." Sharon's fingertips traced Jody's jaw. "I've not seen you in four long nights. Are you hungry?" she whispered in Jody's ear.

"Famished." Jody caressed Sharon's small, firm b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "But what I need can't be found in a pizza box."

The pizza was forgotten as they made their way down the hallway to Jody's bedroom, leaving behind them a trail of clothing.

It was well after midnight and Jody and Sharon sat in the kitchen sharing warmed-up pizza and wine.

"My parents are having a barbecue a week from tomorrow. Would you like to come?" Sharon plucked a slice of pepperoni off her pizza.

Jody's pizza congealed into a queasy clump in her stomach. Meeting the family was always a dangerous sign.