Chapter 1
BABY POWDER SORORITY SCANDALThe College YearsChapter 1 — New MoonMexican Wedding CookiesLunar Phase: New MoonTarot Card: The MoonZodiac Focus: CancerRune: AnsuzGemstone: MoonstonePendulum: CounterclockwiseGematria Number: 18Dessert Code: Mexican Wedding Cookies
Scripture:“The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.”— Proverbs 14:10
Kabbalah Quote:What is hidden in the vessel will still shape what pours out.
Italian Quote:Il nome pesa più dell’anello.The name weighs more than the ring.
Opening Prayer:Lord, guard what is hidden before it becomes exposed. Protect the young heart walking through confusion, and give wisdom where innocence meets danger. Amen.
Seven-Card Tarot Pull:
The MoonTwo of PentaclesPage of SwordsSix of CupsThe DevilJusticeTwo of Cups
Val Caronna hated Mexican wedding cookies.
Not because they tasted bad.
Because every time she saw one, somebody made a joke about her marriage.
The powdered sugar covered everything. Fingers. Napkins. Black clothes. It drifted through the air in soft white dust while sorority girls smiled like life was sweet and simple.
Val knew better.
Nothing about marriage was simple.
Especially not hers.
She crossed the crowded student center carrying three textbooks against her chest while a sorority table blocked half the hallway.
“Val!”
One of the girls waved her over with a tray of powdered cookies. White sugar coated the tablecloth, the girls’ fingers, even the stupid pink sign hanging above them.
WELCOME WEEK BAKE SALE
Val walked slower but not because of the cookies.
Because she recognized the laugh beside the table before she saw him.
Vinny Bellucci leaned against the wall in a black hoodie with his arms folded, grinning while two fraternity boys argued with him about something. He looked exactly like he had looked standing beside her wedding years earlier:
too calm
too observant
too comfortable around chaos
Back then he had worn a black suit and smirked through half the ceremony like marriage was a joke people eventually regretted.
Val remembered being nineteen and nervous while Vinny stood beside her husband whispering:
“You still got time to run.”
She had almost laughed during the vows.
Now here he was years later leaning against a sorority bake-sale table like he owned the damn hallway.
One of the fraternity boys noticed her first.
“Yo, Vinny. Your girl’s here.”
Val rolled her eyes instantly. “I am not his girl.”
Vinny finally looked over.
There it was.
That lazy half-smile.
“Relax,” he said. “You’re too mean to be my girl.”
“You’re too late to be anybody’s husband.”
The frat boys barked laughing.
Vinny pointed at her like she had proven his point somehow. “See? Mean.”
Val tried not to smile.
Tried.
One of the sorority girls lifted the tray toward her. “Cookie?”
“No.”
“Come on.”
“No.”
Vinny grabbed one off the tray and tossed it toward her anyway. Val barely caught it one-handed against her books.
Powdered sugar exploded across the front of her black shirt.
Vinny laughed immediately.
“There,” he said. “Now you look like the rest of campus.”
Val looked down at the white powder coating her chest.
“Wonderful.”
“Very festive.”
“You buying me another shirt?”
“Nope.”
“Then shut up.”
The sorority girls giggled while Vinny watched her too closely.
Not flirting exactly.
Watching.
He had always watched people like that.
Even back at her wedding.
Even during the reception when everybody else got drunk and loud while Vinny sat near the edge of the dance floor smoking cigarettes and quietly paying attention to everything.
Val noticed things too.
That was probably why they got along better than people expected.
“You still with Kevin?” Vinny asked casually.
Val adjusted her books. “He’s deployed.”
Vinny nodded once.
No fake sympathy.
No dramatic reaction.
Just acknowledgment.
That annoyed her less than pity would have.
“And you still with Roxy?” she asked.
Vinny snorted softly. “Depends what hour you ask me.”
“That sounds healthy.”
“It’s college.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I got.”
One of the frat boys leaned toward Vinny. “You coming Friday night or what?”
Vinny’s expression changed slightly.
Most people would not notice it.
Val did.
His shoulders loosened while his eyes sharpened. Like a switch flipped somewhere underneath the charm.
“What’s Friday?” she asked before she could stop herself.
The frat boys exchanged looks.
Vinny answered first.
“Rush party.”
“That all?”
“That enough for you?”
“No.”
Vinny grinned a little wider.
There was always something slightly dangerous around him. Not dangerous in the loud way frat boys tried to be. Not fake tough.
Quiet dangerous.
Like he already knew how to walk away from trouble before everybody else realized trouble had started.
A professor’s voice echoed down the hallway.
“Business Communications moved to room 214!”
Students groaned collectively.
Val looked toward the stairwell. “Great.”
Vinny pushed himself off the wall. “That’s ours.”
“You’re actually going to class?”
“Sometimes I surprise people.”
“You surprised me at my wedding.”
Vinny laughed under his breath. “Yeah?”
“You looked more nervous than the groom.”
“That’s cause your husband looked like he was signing a car note.”
Val burst out laughing before she could help herself.
A real laugh.
Sharp enough to make a few nearby students look over.
Vinny stared at her a second too long afterward.
Not romantic.
Not yet.
More like he had forgotten she could do that.
“Come on,” he said finally. “We’re late.”
“We?”
“You know damn well if we get paired together I’m copying off you.”
“You copied off me in high school too.”
“And look how successful I turned out.”
“You’re standing beside powdered cookies harassing sorority girls.”
“Exactly.”
They walked toward the stairwell together while the bake-sale girls called after Vinny.
The hallway smelled like perfume, cigarettes, coffee, and powdered sugar.
Outside, Greek-life banners snapped in the wind across campus lawns while fraternity boys dragged cases of beer toward houses pretending administration did not see them.
Inside room 214 the fluorescent lights buzzed overhead while students filled seats in loud groups.
Val sat near the middle automatically.
Vinny dropped into the desk beside her automatically.
Neither one questioned it.
The professor began passing out semester packets.
“Throughout this course,” she said, “you’ll be developing a long-term collaborative business proposal with your assigned partner.”
Val closed her eyes immediately.
Vinny noticed.
“You already know,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“You should have more faith.”
“In what?”
“In us.”
“There is no us.”
“That’s cold.”
“That’s accurate.”
The professor started reading names alphabetically.
Val flipped open her notebook.
Vinny leaned over slightly.
“You still write everything down?”
“Yes.”
“You kept notes at your own wedding.”
“Because nobody else knew what was happening.”
“I knew.”
Val looked at him sideways.
That was true.
Oddly enough, Vinny probably had noticed more than anybody there.
The awkward tension.
The strange distance.
The way Val smiled too hard for photographs.
The way her husband drank too much too early.
The way Kevin watched her more carefully than the groom did.
Vinny noticed things.
That was the problem with him.
“Caronna and Bellucci.”
The room kept moving around them.
Val stared at the front of the classroom.
Vinny slowly leaned back in his chair.
“Well,” he said quietly. “That feels dangerous already.”
