"Let me make this clear, Wanda. Don't pull that pathetic face on me. We're about to get married. This is my home too. Lesley is moving in today. And if you won't let her stay, then I'm leaving too!"
Using my feelings for him as leverage?
How laughable. I wasn't the same Wanda from my last life anymore.
A cold smile curled across my lips. I lifted Lesley's bag and hurled it straight into Owen's face.
"Then leave. I'd love nothing more. Get out of my house!"
I kicked every last piece of Lesley's luggage that Owen had dragged to the doorway out into the hall. Then I slammed the door shut so hard the frame rattled.
I deleted Owen's fingerprint from the lock immediately.
The door lock beeped several times: "Fingerprint not recognized. Fingerprint not recognized."
Then Lesley's sugary little voice drifted in from the other side.
"Owen, honey, don't be upset. When you told me about that whole 'Frost System' thing, I didn't believe it for a second. Wanda probably learned some cheap parlor trick to get your attention..."
"Besides, it's just a heat advisory. What's the big deal? We're in the south, and it's the middle of summer. Didn't we get one of those warnings last year too? It was over in three days. Life went on."
Owen gradually calmed down under Lesley's cooing, completely forgetting the grim prediction he'd made just last night.
Owen was a meteorology graduate student. He'd been poring over satellite cloud maps yesterday, his face drawn tight with worry.
"Wanda, this heat event is no joke. It could last a long time, and temperatures might blow past last year's hundred-and-thirteen-degree record..."
That brilliance was exactly what had drawn me to him in the first place. Who could have guessed he'd turn out to be so rotten and so stupid when it came to love?
A shrill ringtone cut through my thoughts.
Owen.
His voice oozed smugness from the other end.
"Wanda, if it weren't for Lesley talking some sense into me, you almost had me fooled! Go ahead and spend the rest of your life alone if you've got the guts! You and your little 'Frost System' deserve each other!"
He hung up before I could say a word.
Through the door, I heard his voice go soft and tender.
"Come on, Lesley. Let's go back to my place. Let that idiot sit here with her little freezer trick for the rest of her life."
I glanced at the clock and sank back onto the couch, a cold laugh escaping my lips.