Chapter 1

Darci sat behind the defendant’s table, tears running unbidden down her cheeks. She swore she wouldn’t do this. She promised herself she would be strong today and that Derrik wouldn’t get to see her cry again, but her heart had other plans. Inside she was falling apart, just like her decade-long marriage. Betty, her divorce attorney, tried to comfort her, but Darci didn’t think it was helping much. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Derrik and his attorney chatting quietly but casually. Occasionally, when Derrik looked her way, she saw a cruel smirk on her soon-to-be ex-husband’s face, as if he enjoyed throwing away ten years of marriage and seeing how much it hurt her.

Derrik hurt her, but the man behind Derrik, his attorney, simply destroyed her during this hearing. The man painted her as a woman coldly denying her husband any intimacy while expecting him to do all the work and pay all the bills while demanding money to feed her obsession with plants and gardening. He even called up some of Derrik’s co-workers and friends who had visited the house and seen the tension between her and her husband firsthand to bolster the picture he painted of her.

Darci’s tearful refutation of the attorney’s claims seemed to do little to sway the judge. Betty warned her that waterworks would have little effect in the courtroom. They saw sobbing soon-to-be exes every day, men and women. She also didn’t have anyone who could stand up for her like Derrik did. Since her husband finished his schooling, most of her contact had been with her boss at the local greenhouse, Carla, and her best friend since college, Mary. Mary liked Derrik up until he got this latest promotion at his job. Now she often waited until he was away or at work to visit.

The elderly judge looked over his square-rimmed glasses at Darcy, then at her attorney. “Does Mrs. Labarre have anything else to bring to the court’s attention?”

Betty glanced nervously at the courtroom entrance and sighed. “No, Your Hono—”

The attorney stopped and looked back again as a man in a grey suit stepped through the courtroom doors, followed by a blonde in a black leather jumpsuit for motorcycle riders. Betty breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of them.

The judge frowned as the gray-suited man sat down in the gallery. “Mr. Knight, are you here for this case or the next on the docket?” the judge asked, his displeasure plain in his voice.

Mr. Knight stood up. “This one, your honor,” he answered with a cocky smile before sitting again.

Mary walked up to Betty and handed her three manilla envelopes.

“You were almost too late, and I don’t have time to look over the contents of this,” Betty hissed. “You swear everything you told me on the phone is in these?” she asked, tapping the envelopes.

Darci’s friend flashed the woman a smile filled with malice. “Every last juicy bit,” she said, turning the smile on the two men at the plaintiff’s table. Derrik looked away from the blonde’s piercing gaze as his attorney leaned over and spoke to him in low tones while glancing worriedly at Mr. Knight.

Betty turned back to the bench and held up the envelopes. “Your honor, I do have a few final items to present.”

“Approach,” said the Judge, waving her forward. “You too,” he said to Derrik’s attorney.

Betty left one envelope beside her briefcase, handed another to the judge, and the last to Derrik’s counsel.

The judge opened the envelope and pulled out some paperwork and a small box filled with memory cards.

As he inspected the items, Betty spoke up. “The paperwork is Mr. and Mrs. Labarre’s taxes for the entirety of their marriage. If you look through them, you will see that Mrs. Labarre worked two and sometimes three jobs to make ends meet while Mr. Labarre attended school for his Master’s degree.

“That’s interesting but not really relevant,” said the other attorney.

Betty glared at him. “Does that sound like the actions of an uncaring wife?”

Turning back to the judge, she continued, “The memory cards will show that my client is not nearly as frigid as the plaintiff claims. Instead, Mr. Labarre didn’t have the energy left for intimacy with his wife because he was tiring himself out with his secretary.”

“You can’t be seriou—”

“Look for yourself. The contents of all three envelopes are identical,” Betty interrupted.

“Why did Mrs. Labarre not bring this up during questioning?” the judge asked.

“As of this moment, I believe she suspects Mr. Labarre was cheating on her but did not have any proof to present. Her friend, Ms. Mary Barnes, suspected Mr. Labarre of having an affair and told my client of her suspicions. Mrs. Labarre refused to listen then, choosing to trust in her husband and firmly believing her and the plaintiff’s relationship would improve. Ms. Barnes then contracted Knight Private Investigations Services for confirmation. Each of those cards is one hundred ninety-two gigabytes of that confirmation.”

“You are bringing this to my attention without the defendant’s knowledge?”

“In her distress over the divorce, Mrs. Labarre left everything up to my discretion. I can provide documentation if you wish that I have the power to act on her behalf. She has not seen and probably does not want to see the contents of this envelope. At this time, my client just wants this done and over with so she can move on with her life.”

“I would like to see that document, counsel. The court will recess for thirty minutes so I can review the footage,” said the judge with a sharp rap of his gavel. “Mr. Knight, counsel, please join me in my chambers.”

Mary came around to the defendant’s table and hugged Darci the entire recess, only returning to the gallery when the judge, attorneys, and private investigator entered the courtroom again. The rest of the proceeding went by in a whirlwind, with the judge finding in her favor. Derrik stared dumbfounded, and his attorney shook his head in defeat as the judge awarded Darci the house and significant alimony.

“Finally, the defendant’s counsel has submitted a motion that today’s proceedings be sealed and that only the plaintiff, defendant, and judgment be made public record. Does Mr. Labarre concur with this motion?”

“Yes, he does, Your Honor.”

“Motion to seal records granted, this hearing is adjourned.”

As the gavel struck, Darci burst into tears again. While, in reality, her marriage had been over since Derrik served her the divorce papers, the crack of the gavel rang like a death knell in her ears. Mary hopped the low wall separating the gallery and gathered her friend in her arms

“She took me for everything, and now she’s crying about it? What more did she want?” Derrick spat.

“No,” said Betty as she gathered her documents into her briefcase, “Your former wife just wanted this over with. Mrs. Barnes and I took you for everything. You took eight years of her life as she put you through college so you could land that cushy job and hot-to-trot secretary. We just made sure you gave something back.”

“Bitch,” Derrik muttered.

The attorney smiled. “Justice can be one at times.”

Darci didn’t leave the house for the next few days and rarely left her bed. On the fourth day, Derrik and an officer showed up with a moving company to collect his belongings. Darci gathered her treasures and heirlooms in what was now only her bedroom and pointed out a couple of pieces of furniture she wanted to keep, but otherwise, let Derrik take whatever he wanted.

That afternoon, Darci was sitting on the floor of her empty living room when she heard the whine of Mary’s motorcycle pulling into the driveway. A minute later, a tone played over the speakers hidden in the walls.

“There is a visitor at the door,” said the house. “Face and voice match stored records for Mary Barnes.”

“Let her in,” Darci mumbled. She really just needed to give the woman a key and get her entered into the security system.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t quite make that—”

“Let her in!” she called out a second time, startling the cat in her arms. Beans was a black and white short-hair that got her name from the black kidney-bean-shaped patches on both sides of her torso. Her other cat, a gray long-hair named Shadow, lay next to her feet.

Mary stepped in and looked around at the empty space. “Oh no,” she muttered while stripping off her leather gloves and riding jacket

Darci’s friend sat down in front of her. “Looks like he took just about everything.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Darci replied.

Shadow trotted over and climbed into Mary’s unoccupied lap, laying down with an ungraceful flop. “Is she giving all her love to Beans and neglecting you?” she laughed, petting the cat for a moment before looking back up at her friend. “We’re going shopping tomorrow Dar. New life, new start, new fashion.”

Darci shook her head, “I have to go to work tomorrow, and there’s no way I can afford to redo my entire house.” She sighed, “At least not until Derrik starts making payments.”

“Nice try. I might have believed you if you didn’t tell me before the hearing Carla gave you the week off. We’ll hit up Ikea and do the thing where you can buy the whole room. They come in and put everything together for you too. I had them do my apartment when I remodeled. It’s super easy and if you’re up for some fun, make sure you’re the last delivery of the day.”

Darci rolled her eyes. Somedays, everything was about sex with this woman. “Mary, I barely have any money. I told you that Derrik cleaned out our joint accounts the day he served me the divorce papers.”

“Who said you were paying for it?” Shadow yowled in protest as Mary set the cat off her lap and stood up. “I have some money set back for a rainy day, and this seems like the perfect use for it.” Darci reluctantly gave up Beans as Mary took her and put her down with a quick scratch in front of the cat’s tail. She pulled Darci to her feet and led her toward the bedrooms. “I should also mention James gave me a hefty discount,” she said with an exaggerated sway of her hips and a naughty smile

“Mary ... please tell me you didn’t whore yourself out to pay for investigating Derrik.”

“Whore myself out? Dar, please. I would never do that.”

“Oh, thank goo—”

“I sucked his dick because he’s fucking hot under that suit. All rugged and just yummy.”

“Mary!” Darci exclaimed as Mary pulled her into her bedroom

“What? He’s not interested in getting married, says his job killed that idea years ago, but he enjoys some female companionship on occasion. You know I’m not looking for anything permanent, and he’s got a nice rod, so we hooked up a couple times since your hearing.

“I think he might have suspected something like this might happen because he gave me the discount, and I paid him in full before we fucked. It might have been all the times my hand brushed across his dick ‘by accident.’”

“Maryyy,” Darci growled as Mary pulled her sundress over her head.

“Since when do I not go after the things I want. Bra and panties?” she asked, looking Darci over. “That’s odd for you.”

“Not wearing anything under my dresses made me feel sexy, and I liked knowing Derrik could touch me whenever he wanted. I haven’t felt very sexy lately.”

Mary reached around and unsnapped Darci’s bra before pulling it off ad tossing it in the direction of the hamper by the closet. She felt her nipples harden as Mary looked her up and down.

“You may not feel sexy, but that bod of yours is still hot as hell, woman. Fuckin-a, Derrik was a goddamn idiot to go looking for some strange when he had you at home.”

Darci smiled, “Thanks. It helps when you have your own exercise room. I haven’t been in there yet since he left. I bet he took everything.”

“Probably. I’ll go check once you’re taken care of,” said Mary, hooking her fingers under the band of Darci’s panties.

“Mary, why are you undressing me?”

Mary froze. “If you are going to mope around all day, then you may as well do it in the comfort of your own bed.” After tugging Darci’s panties the rest of the way down, Mary looked up to see Darci’s shaved sex. “Now there’s something I haven’t seen since college,” she said, licking her lips.

“That was when we were young. Now I’m almost thirty and divorced. I’ll be lucky if anyone wants me.”

Darci stepped back as her friend shot to her feet and grabbed her face in both hands.

“I want you,” said Mary, her eyes intense. “I can’t count the number of times since you started dating Derrik that I’ve wanted to rip that sundress off you and bury my face between your legs for the next week.” She took Darci’s hands in hers, “I probably shouldn’t have told you that because it might make things weird between us, but I don’t want you to ever think you aren’t wanted or loved. Now get into bed and just let me know if I can get anything for you. Ice cream? Wine? Double Stuff Oreos and a gallon of milk? Derrik’s cheating dick on a silver platter? While we’re on the subject, I just want to say, you may have married an opportunistic, cheating asshole, but you were one lucky bitch when it came to dick.”

“How would you know how big he is? Please tell me you didn’t fuck him.”

“No, I didn’t fuck him. You seem to have forgotten that when you two started sleeping together, you bragged about how big he was all the fucking time. But honestly, I forgot about all that until just now. Some of the footage James got was of Derrik at his secretary’s apartment. It has a balcony, and she seems to have an exhibitionist streak, kind of like someone I know.”

“Is she pretty?”

“Yeah, she is. I’d like to tell you no, but I think you’ve been lied to enough by your ex. If it helps, put you and her side by side with me, not knowing either of you from Eve, and I’d probably still pick you.”

Darci walked backward until her legs bumped the bed and sat down. “Mary, my husband of ten years left me for another woman.” She extended her arms towards her friend and spread her legs, “Show me I’m still beautiful. Show me you want me as much as you say you do.”

Mary stared at Darci’s exposed sex for a long moment before swallowing hard. “Are you sure about this, Dar? I have other lovers and no plans on settling down with a single man or woman.”

Darci beckoned her forward with a finger. “At least I know you’ll be honest with me.”

Mary stepped forward and mashed her lips to Darci’s, moaning with pent-up need. Darci began undoing the buttons of Mary’s blouse while her friend’s hand roamed over Darci’s front. The brunette’s hands faltered as Mary touched her. It felt like forever since she had been touched like this.

Then she realized it had been forever. Derrik was a good lover throughout most of their marriage, but he never touched her quite like Mary did.

Darci’s gripped the blonde’s blouse as her fingers lightly brushed over her nipples, making her back arch and push her chest out for more.

“Let me take care of that,” said Mary, gently removing Darci’s hands. “Hot as it would be, I don’t want to sew my buttons back on.”

Darci blushed. “Sorry,” she said as Mary pulled her blouse off and tossed it to the side.

“Don’t be,” she replied while reaching behind her back to undo her bra. “I’m fighting the urge to rip my clothes off too.” Once the bra was gone, Mary shimmied out of her pants, hooking her panties and pulling them down as well.

Darci moaned as their naked bodies came together again for the first time since college. The feel of Mary’s skin stoked a fire inside her that had been neglected for too long. Their lips found each other’s, and the flames burned even brighter as their tongues danced. Darci felt deliciously lost in a sea of sensations as Mary’s hands roamed her body and lips trailed kisses down Darci’s neck. Fingers brushed across her stomach and down her leg before teasingly sliding up her inner thigh. Mary’s fingertips felt like they were charged with electricity as they played across the sensitive skin, making Darci shiver and moan as they approached her sex.

Mary’s hand turned at the last moment, leaving Darci whimpering and thrusting her hips forward. “Please,” she begged. “Please make love to me.”

Mary kissed and sucked on her nipple for a moment before answering. “How can I say no when you beg me like that?” Pushing Darci down on the bed, Mary grabbed the woman’s ankles and spread her legs. “Your pussy is just as beautiful as when we were in college.” Letting Darci’s legs fall to the side Mary crawled up the bed like a cat stalking its prey. “Now it’s time to see if you still taste as good.”

Darci hummed to herself as she worked her way through the flat of flowers, plucking out dropped petals and leaves, pinching off dead or dying leaves and offshoots, and looking for signs of any grubs or bug eggs that may have stowed away on the last shipment. With the size of the greenhouse, this usually took up the majority of Darci’s day, but the care she took translated into a good deal of repeat customers. There were two larger greenhouses on the city’s outskirts, but customers always said her plants looked so much nicer than theirs. Darci knew that both places used the same supplier as The Petal Peddler but figured that they just threw the flats straight onto the tables from the truck.

Tending to her plants, it was easy to not think about Derrik and instead focus on how her life had changed since the hearing

Things settled back into a rhythm after a few weeks. Mornings began with a workout session in the exercise room. She was initially surprised Derrik mostly left the room alone, but her ex-husband had one of those annoying natural physiques that required no maintenance. He only took the weight bench, which he never used beyond the first week they bought it and left the bike, treadmill, and free weights, all of which he never touched.

A groggy Mary sometimes joined her for breakfast if she spent the night. If Darci felt frisky after her workout, Mary sometimes ended up being Darci’s breakfast. She loved waking the woman up by dragging her tongue across Mary’s sex. Afterward, she was off to her job at the local florist and greenhouse.

Darci loved plants. Enough that she and Derrik chose this particular house for its large greenhouse on the back patio. When first built, the house had a large in-ground pool. But a later owner decided it was too much hassle to maintain and filled it with concrete. She and Derrik bought the house from an older gentleman who had lost his wife many years earlier. Taking care of her houseplants helped him through his grief. He came to enjoy it so much that he built the greenhouse where the old pool used to be.

Plants, and her cats, became Darci’s outlet for affection as Derrik’s new job made him more and more distant.

Of the places she worked while Derrik finished his Masters, she only kept her job at The Petal Peddler once he landed his current job. He was still nice back then. He suggested she quit the greenhouse and just stay home for a little while. He even talked about having a baby.

But for all the bad things she could say about her ex-husband, the man was smart. Shortly after his first year at the company, he got a promotion, a new office, and a secretary.

Looking back, she should have known then. Talk of having a baby waned and eventually vanished, as did their bedroom life. Sex became rarer and less fulfilling when she did finally cajole him into bed, or the kitchen, or the living room, or his study. She essentially made herself ‘free use’ for him, but he wasn’t interested. He kept telling her that his new position was a lot more work and that he was just tired. Like a fool, she kept believing him. Even when Mary came to her one day saying he might be cheating on her, Darci stood by her husband. She wanted to trust and believe in the man she loved, as she had done for so many years. Yes, it was foolish, but she didn’t regret it.

After finishing work for the day, she came home and changed into a sundress, usually with nothing on underneath, then checked up on the plants in her own greenhouse.

The house’s original owners put a shower outside to rinse off before or after a swim, and Darci absolutely adored it. Its plumbing needed some work when they bought the place as the previous owner neglected it, but Derrik was able to get it repaired with his meager plumbing skills and a lot of cursing.

The first time she stripped her sundress off and took a shower outside was a magical experience for her. She got so worked up that she marched inside without toweling off and attacked her husband on the couch. Wet, naked, and very horny, she popped the button off his pants in her haste to get his cock in her mouth. It was one of her favorite memories.

Now she took a shower each time she finished working in her greenhouse, and at least once a week ended with her coming quietly as she played with herself beneath the spray. The tall privacy fence around their property hid her from the neighbors, but there were still a few second-story windows that someone could see her from. Darci often got turned on just by being naked outside. The chance she was being watched only turned her on more. As her sex life dwindled, she sometimes fantasized about a handsome young man seeing her masturbating and coming over to ravish her. With Mary back in her life, it was no longer just handsome young men, but occasionally a beautiful young woman showed up to ‘help.’

Since Mary began spending the night, Darci tried to time her showers for when her lover arrived. The idea of getting caught outside, naked, under the shower turned her on even more than when she tried similar things with Derrik.

However, Mary also appreciated her body more than Derrik ever did. By the time they purchased the house, they’d been married for almost nine years, and while the internet might say that men still loved seeing their woman’s tits for the eighty-billionth time, Derrik had become the exception. She walked around in sheer sundresses that left her nipples easily visible and stopped wearing panties altogether. She even began shaving her pussy because he said he preferred it nice and smooth. The first couple of weeks was an itchy hassle, but now she enjoyed the feel, especially on windy days. Sure, a few times she got him worked up enough to bend her over right then and there, but that happened far less than she expected for her efforts.

Darci felt like a goddess the way Mary worshipped her body. When they were dormmates in college, the blonde had been just as attentive. With another ten years of experience, Mary seemed to know all Darci’s buttons, as well as when and how hard to push them. At times, she felt guilty because she knew her skills making love to another woman were nowhere near Mary’s level. Sure, she did her best to give with as much passion as she received, and could get Mary off with her mouth, fingers, or a toy, but she always felt clumsy and almost brutish by comparison. If her friend had any concerns about it, she never let it show.

The only thing that really bugged Darci was Mary’s insistence on remaining friends. Friends who slept together and loved one another, but still just friends. She knew she shouldn’t be complaining. Aside from her and Mary’s relationship, Darci wasn’t very interested in other women.

Most of Darci’s day was still taken up tending to the plants at the greenhouse. She loved the tiny blooms of the Lantanas, the wiry Butterfly Bushes, and the pudgy leaves of the Succulents. Of the jobs she had over the past ten years, this was the only one she looked forward to, even if it didn’t pay the most.

It wasn’t that Carla, her boss and the owner of the “The Petal Peddler,” didn’t want to pay her more. Darci had become indispensable and ran the greenhouse portion of the business with no supervision. Carla approached Darci multiple times about buying the greenhouse part of the business from her. The florist built the large greenhouse hoping to expand her business but soon found out she didn’t have nearly the passion for plants she thought he did. If Darci bought the greenhouse, then she wouldn’t need to worry about it anymore and could focus on the gift shop and floral arrangements.

Darci didn’t want to deal with the headache of running her own business. But now that she was single again, Carla’s offer kept running through her head. She had no doubt Derrik would try to get out of paying alimony at some point and felt it might be wise to get some steady and substantial income going before that happened.

Also, if he tried to buy the house out from under her, she wanted to see the look on his face when she told him she was doing just fine without him and wasn’t selling. She didn’t have any reason to think he would do such a thing, except maybe out of spite, but it was fun to play over and over in her head.

A month had passed since the hearing, and Darci stood in front of a flat of red and white, cone-shaped flowers called candy-cane oxalis. Humming to herself, she was thinking about just that situation and wiping the smug look off Derrik’s face when one of the glass panes above her shattered.

Looking downward and covering her neck with her hands, Darci jumped to the side as shards of glass rained down on her. It wasn’t the first time a roof pane had broken, but it was the first time it had happened directly above her.

As the last few shards fell, Carla ran into the room to see Darci standing there. “Darci! What happened? Oh my goodness!” she yelled, covering her mouth with her hands.

“I think ... I think I’m okay,” she replied, cautiously pulling her hands away from her neck. There were several cuts on her hands and arms, but nothing looked serious.

“No, you aren’t!” said Carla pointing at her leg.

Darci looked behind her and muttered, “Oh, that’s not good.”

A shard of glass had buried itself in the back of her calf. The blood from the wound had already run down her leg and begun soaking into her sock. Pulling the shard free caused another gush of blood that overflowed the blood-saturated the sock, and ran down the back of her workboot to drip onto the floor.

As Darci stared at the small puddle forming, Carla set the shop’s first-aid kit next to her and began tending to the wound.

“I told you you should be wearing pants,” her boss grumbled as she placed a wad of gauze over the wound and began wrapping it with a bandage to apply pressure.

“This was a freak accident, Carla. Make me wear pants, and you’ll find me in here dead of heatstroke one of these summers.”

“Whatever. Let’s get you to the hospital,” she said, pulling Darci’s arm over her shoulder and helping her limp out to her car. Darci reached out and grabbed one of the plastic bags from the gift shop counter as they passed by.

At Carla’s quiestioning look she said, “So I don’t bleed all over your car.”

Her boss just shook her head and set the “Will Return at” sign for two hours before turning off the “Open” sign and locking the door behind her.

Back in the greenhouse, a soft scraping noise broke the silence. From between the plastic flats stored beneath the display tables, a small vine reached out and touched the pool of blood. The vine’s vibrant green turned brown as the puddle shrank. Within a few seconds, only a stain on the greenhouse’s concrete floor remained. The vine took a moment to search around for more before slipping back into the shadows.

A small intruder lay hidden among the plants and flowers of the greenhouse. Its small bud at the top of the plant’s main stalk possessed two dark spots that followed the bipedal creature’s movements as it tended the other plants. Though the flora around it could not communicate, it could tell the others of its kind were well taken care of.

The newcomer’s first meal gave it enough sustenance to uproot one of the other plants in the room, drain it of its nutrients, and commandeer its soil-filled plastic container. It then stayed hidden for the next few days as something in the red liquid made it very sick. Each day since recovering, the lifeform watched the two-legged creature to determine its patterns and movements. At night it unburied the six vines near the base of its stalk and moved, picking its container up with two vines while walking with the other four. It tucked itself among the plants the creature looked after the previous day, as they were the least likely to draw her attention.

Ancestral memories began flooding into the lifeform as it absorbed the last nutrients from its seed. It was a traveler from beyond the stars sent here to look for suitable planets to colonize. Its home was part of a double planet system with a moon almost two-thirds the size of the planet, which filled the night sky.

Tidal forces made most of the planet unlivable, but its kind managed to hunker down in an ecological niche. They developed a symbiotic relationship with a quickly developing quadrupedal animal with an upright torso and two manipulator arms. Together, they constructed a civilization that not only took advantage of the sparse land but built cities out on the tidal oceans. Centuries, then millennias passed, and the creatures began looking toward the stars.

They had to. The moon was slowly falling into the planet.