Jingle Hells by Misty Evans Page A

said
it that it was true. She looked almost identical to the painting in
the Bible under the chair.
    She straightened, one hundred percent pure
gracefulness, pure femininity, and locked eyes with Adam. Her skin
was so fair, it looked almost translucent, and her eyes were the
same brilliant mix of color as the cat’s had been. She had curves
in all the right places, and as she moved toward us, she moved
those curves in all the right ways.
    The mother of humankind was standing in my
living room, bearing down on my boyfriend. “Whoa,” I said under my
breath.
    While he now seemed speechless, the look on
Adam’s face said he was thinking the same thing. It irked me just a
little so I intercepted her before she could touch him. “What are
you doing here? And how did you get here?”
    Her eyes sent daggers at me. “I would think
that would be obvious.”
    Adam. She’d come for him. To take him back
to Heaven? Or just to take him back, period? “You can’t have
him.”
    “He’s my husband.”
    Okay, point to the mother.
    Before I could think of a snappy retort,
Adam rose and reached a hand out to touch her. “I can’t believe
it’s you.”
    I didn’t much like the awe in his voice. I
didn’t much like what happened next either.
    While I rummaged in my closet for some
clothes for Eve, she and Adam were in the living room making
plans.
    “We just need to talk,” he told me as he put
his coat around her shoulders and propelled her to the door. “I
promise this doesn’t change anything between us.”
    I wanted to believe him. When he kissed the
end of my nose, however, and said, “I’ll call you later,” before
ushering her out the door, I didn’t.
    Emilia found me a little while later in my
office with the blinds drawn and a box of tissues in my lap. I
couldn’t bear to stay in my apartment with Adam’s gifts still
strewn on the love seat and the cat’s claw marks everywhere. I
refused to tell Em what had happened, and the next thing I knew,
Keisha was in the office handing me a cup of Java Brownie Chip ice
cream.
    “Talk to me.” She sat in her normal spot and
put her feet up on my desk.
    I sniffed. “Eve.”
    “Eve?” She raised her hands palms up in that
what are you talking about way, but then as if it suddenly dawned
on her, she repeated herself, this time with awe just like I’d
heard in Adam’s voice. “The Eve?”
    Throwing a used tissue in the waste can next
to me, I nodded. “That calico stray Liddy found? Not a cat.”
    “Oh. My. God.”
    My thoughts exactly. “She and Adam left me
to go talk.” I used my fingers to put air quotes around the word
talk.
    “Oh. My. God.”
    I picked up the ice cream and glared at her.
“Don’t’cha got anything better to say?”
    “Um, actually…no.” We sat in silence for a
minute as I ate a spoonful of ice cream. Then she said, “You don’t
think they’re going to…”
    “Get back together?” I supplied, swallowing.
“She’s his wife, Keisha. God literally made her from one of Adam’s
ribs. Odds are, yeah, they’re going to get back together.”
    Setting the bowl down, I grabbed for another
tissue and wiped my eyes. I felt more angry than upset, but I
always cried when I was really, really angry.
    Keisha sighed and Emilia stuck her head in,
motioning for Keisha to follow her. They left me quietly, sliding
the door closed behind them. Putting my head down on the desk, I
let myself cry some more.
    A few minutes later, I heard Keisha come
back in. “Someone’s here to see you.”
    I didn’t need to look in a mirror to know my
face was blotchy, my eyes were bloodshot and my nose was the color
of Rudolf’s. “Go away.”
    While I heard the door shut again, I also
knew there was a presence in the office with me and it wasn’t
Keisha. This certain presence was turning my office into an oven.
Keeping my head down, I spoke again into the desktop. “What are you
doing here?”
    “Keisha was worried about you. She summoned
me.”
    I knocked