CHAPTER FOUR
“The skank unfriended me too,” said Reece, staring at the shop’s computer, sitting on the front sales counter. Facebook sat open on the screen in all its blue brilliance.
“Bitch,” I muttered.
Skye had a new name and it wasn’t nice. Much deserved, but not nice.
Between Reece and I, we’d called everyone who might have known where she’d gone. Lucky it’d been a quiet Saturday morning so far. We’d had no luck with our search. People either didn’t know or weren’t saying. Everyone sounded sorry. But no one could, or would, help. Some days, humanity sucked.
“I think we should stop,” I said.
“What? Why?”
“Think about it. Realistically, what would I even do if I found her?” I crossed my arms and leaned my hip against the counter. The pose was all the better for holding my shit together. “Slapping her silly is illegal. As nice as it would be to rip her a new one, it won’t get me my money back. There’s no point going to the police because it’s just her word against mine. I’m screwed.”
“There’s the defeatist attitude I’ve come to know and love.”
“Shuddup.” I smiled.
Reece smiled back at me, little lines appearing at the corners of his eyes behind his cool-guy thick-rimmed black glasses. A dimple popped in his cheek. He had an awesome smile. No matter how many times I’d seen it, I’d never quite become inured. Though, upon reflection, it didn’t make me stupid like Mal’s cocky grin.
Huh, interesting.
There was, however, a lot to be said for not being reduced to brain-dead hormonal mush by a man. Reece and I were solid. Though, for some reason, the usual rush I got from being around him was missing. Still, I barely knew Mal. Reece was real. Mal was just a dream on my teenage bedroom wall.
And since when did I compare Reece’s smile to anyone’s?
“What was the party you went to?” Reece asked, scratching his head in his usual adorable manner. His dark hair flopped over his forehead and I just knew we’d make great babies together one day. Marriage would never be in the cards, not for me. The institution meant so little. But there was a lot to be achieved just by living in sin, by being a life partner.
Reece would make a great life partner.
When Lauren had hinted at my having a thing for Reece last night, she might have known what she was talking about.
Ah, Reece.
I’d worked at Lewis’s bookshop since moving to Portland two years ago. Lizzy had asked me to come out for a while, to help her settle in. Obviously, I was still here. I liked being close to my sister and Portland was a cool city. I liked my job and the friends I’d made. Everything was better here.
“Lauren invited me to drinks at Ev’s,” I said.
Reece’s chin retreated in what appeared to be amazement. “The girl that married the dude from Stage Dive?”
“That’s the one.”
“And you didn’t invite me? Damn, A. I like a couple of their songs. That San Pedro album wasn’t bad. Their new stuff is shit, though, gotta say.”
“I love the new album. “Over Me” is a great song.”
He snickered, the corner of his mouth lifting. “It’s a song about someone doing your friend.”
“I choose to ignore that aspect.”
An elderly woman in tie-dye wandered in, heading straight for the self-help/philosophy section. Two teenagers started making out next to the new cookbook display. Sweet, but this was hardly the place for it. When a hand wandered too far south I cleared my throat, loudly. “Keep it above the waist, boys.”
The bell above the door jangled crazily as they bolted from the shop at light speed. One turned on the most amazing blush. I almost felt bad for him. Guess he’d wanted that grope real bad.
Reece chuckled. Well, he might. He picked up regularly within these four walls. A habit he’d hopefully grow out of one day soon. “Calm down. They weren’t hurting anyone.”
“There’s a time and a place.”
The little bell above the door dinged again as about the last person I expected strolled on in. Evelyn entered with a cup of coffee in hand and a hesitant smile on her face. Despite only working a couple of blocks away, I don’t think she’d ever been in the shop before. For certain, she’d never delivered coffee to me. If that was what was about to happen.
I stared in surprise.
Reece perked up. Then he spotted her humongous wedding engagement ring combo and perked back down again. Coming in from across the river, he didn’t go past Ruby’s Café like I did. Ev was unknown to him.
“We missed you this morning,” she said, sliding the tall cardboard cup of coffee onto the counter in front of me. “You didn’t stop by for your regular. Figured I’d bring it to you.”
“You’re wonderful. I woke up late for some reason.”
“Fancy that.” She smiled.
I took a sip of the superhot brew. Perfect. It was f*cking perfect. Evelyn was basically the patron saint of the coffee bean. What I’d do in a few weeks when she left to go on tour with the band, I had no idea.
Cry, most likely.
Ev’s long blond hair was tied back in a braid. Like me, she wore head-to-toe black. Only she wore a pencil skirt while I’d gone for skinny jeans. “Ruby’s Café” was plastered across her bounty of boobs while “Lewis’s Independent Book Store” was written over my more sedate mounds. Apart from the chunk of ice on her finger she could have been any other local girl. Why she kept working as a barista when she’d married a millionaire I had no idea and it wasn’t my place to ask.
I turned to introduce her to Reece but he’d taken the opportunity to disappear out back, all interest in Ev gone as soon as he saw the ring.
“I also wanted to apologize for last night,” she said, resting her arms on the counter.
“What for?”
“The part where Mal tackled you onto the floor, mostly. Unless there’s something else I missed I should also be apologizing for?”
“No.” I waved her words away, smiling. No need to bring up my shouting abuse at her guest earlier in the evening. “That was fine. He was just playing.”
“Yeah. He’s kind of like a puppy on steroids. Doesn’t know his own strength.” She looked around the shop, face open, curious. “This place is great. Why haven’t I been in here before?”
“Time, probably. When you weren’t working you were studying. Now you’re married.”
“True.” She beamed. “It was good to see you last night, Anne. I’m glad to hear Mal didn’t do any permanent damage.”
“No, I’m fine. And thank you very much for the coffee. I seriously needed it. I don’t know how you handle getting up so early after the late nights.”
She lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “Things wound down pretty much straight after you left. Ben and Mal went out, taking everyone with them. David and I crashed. We don’t do the party thing often. If we did I’d be ruined this morning.”
“Ah.”
“Sooo, David said you were talking to Mal out on the balcony for a while.…” Which was about when her coffee-bearing visit started to make sense.
“Yeah, I was,” I said. “And then David asked me if he’d said anything. I still don’t know what that was about.”
Ev’s lips pressed tight. “Mm.”
“He sent you to ask me about it,” I guessed. Correctly, if the flash of guilt in her eyes was any indicator.
“You deserved coffee, anyway. But yes, he did ask if I would mind talking to you.”
“Okay.” I licked my lips, buying some time to get my thoughts in order. Out of sight my foot fidgeted, doing its best to wear a hole in the carpet. “Honestly, we didn’t talk about much, nothing particularly personal or private. Just some nonsense about my ex-roommate.”
“Lauren mentioned.” Pity filled Ev’s eyes.
I shrugged. “Yeah, never mind. I’ll figure it out. But really, Mal and I didn’t talk much about himself. Mostly, he just teased me.”
“He does that.” For a moment longer, she looked at me. Trying to gage the truth, I guess. She was clearly pretty worried about Mal, but the fact was we didn’t know one another well enough for this sort of heart-to-heart. It felt awkward, stilted.
“Thanks for letting me know,” she said at last. “Mal’s been acting strange since he came up a week ago. Manic … more so than usual. Then other times he just stares into space. We’ve tried talking to him, but he says nothing’s wrong.”
“I’m sorry.”
“We don’t know if he’s depressed or on drugs or what. And after having Jimmy go through rehab so recently …” She gave me a small, sad smile. “I’d appreciate you not mentioning this to anyone.”
“Of course.”
“Anyway, I’m done for the day. I’d better get going. David will be wondering where I am. It was good to see you.”
“You too.”
“Come over again soon, okay?” She backed toward the door, waving good-bye. The request seemed genuine. It soothed my heart. After the horror of Skye I could do with some real friends.
“I will. Thanks again for the caffeine.”
She gave me the rock-star chin tip and then she was gone.
Reece wandered back out, his own cup of coffee in hand. “Your friend go?”
I snapped back to reality, dragging my mind away from the six-foot something conundrum that was Mal. My mind liked lingering on him far too much. He’d apparently become my new go-to thought despite all of the other things happening in my life. “Yeah, she had to get back to work.”
“You’re frowning. Still worrying about the bitch?”
I nodded the lie. Though it wasn’t exactly a lie. I worried about everything. Mal had been wrong. Uptight wasn’t my thing, worry was, and right now I was worrying about him. I shook off my frown, drank some more coffee. “Why don’t we do some work today, boss?”
“This is why you should be in charge.” Reece sighed dramatically. He had an impressive business degree behind him while I’d only barely finished high school, but most days it seemed I was the one with the work ethic. When mom went through her darkest days after Dad left, I couldn’t just leave her on her own. The day I came home to find her lining up codeine and sleeping pills on her bedside table convinced me of that. So I was ‘homeschooled.’ Child Protection Services came around once and we put on a good enough show.
I made damn sure Lizzy turned up to classes at the local high school Monday to Friday, however.
Reece lifted a box of new stock onto the counter so we could start pricing it out. “Tell me more about last night.”
“Ah, I got to meet a couple of the band members. That was cool.”
“You got to talk to them?” Reece’s expression was rapt. Usually shop talk revolved around his innuendos and escapades due to my life being boring. His language, not mine. I’m pretty sure you don’t need to be balling every female in the downtown Portland area to make conversation. Perhaps that was why we’d never gotten together. Our hobbies differed so wildly.
My thoughts were remarkably bitter and twisted today.
Where had I left my happy face? Most likely it still lay on my doorstep, where it had fallen some sixteen hours ago. Malcolm Ericson had briefly resuscitated my joy before he’d started in on my supposed failings. Still, just thinking about him made me feel lighter.
How strange.
Lizzy hadn’t texted me back yet. Not a surprise. Her college lifestyle kept her pretty busy. She could also be crap at remembering to charge her cell. I didn’t doubt my sister would be there for me, though. Her and her dorm-room floor. I’d left a message for my landlord and received no response from him either. Fat chance he’d give me an extension on the rent. Even if I found a new roommate in record time, I still couldn’t come up with my half of the money.
Time to admit defeat whether Reece liked it or not. Time to move on.
Said friend waved his hand in my face. “Anne, fill me in. You get to talk to them or not?”
“Sorry. Yes, I talked to Mal, the drummer.”
“About?”
There was the question on everyone’s lips.
“Not much, it was only briefly. He was busy. There were lots of people there.” For some reason, I was loath to admit to more. Actually, for several reasons. Talking to Reece about another man would be weird. Also, I’d clearly blown the night out of proportion when it came to Mal Ericson. There’d been no connection. No one had looked into anyone else’s soul. My fevered imagination had clearly been working overtime last night. So I rushed right on. “David seemed nice. Ben was there too, but I didn’t really get to speak to him.”
“You’re totally dropping names right now.” He chuckled.
I gave him a friendly smack in the ribs. “You asked. It’s not name dropping if you asked.”
“Okay, okay, I believe you. Don’t beat me up. So can you get me into the next party there?”
“I doubt I’ll be going to another party there, Reece. It was a pure fluke I wound up there last night.”
“What use are you?” he joked.
The elderly tie-dyed woman shuffled toward the counter with a copy of The Alchemist in hand.
“That’s a great book. I think you’ll really like it.” I rang up her purchase and handed it over for her to put in her reusable bag. Was there anything more wonderful than sending someone home with a book you loved? No, there was not.
I turned to Reece, who was straightening up some credit card receipts. “So you want to hang out tonight?” I asked. “If you’re not doing anything. Maybe I’ll try to perfect my martini.”
“Hmm, I’m kind of leaving my calendar open tonight. There’s a girl I’m waiting to hear from.”
Of course there was.
“Buuut,” he strung out the word. “If she doesn’t call me, how about I come over for a martini?”
My heart sank a little bit. Stupid heart. I put on a fake smile. “Sure, Reece, it’s not like I have anything better to do than wait around for you all night.”
“Exactly,” he said, and I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. At that moment, I wondered what exactly I had been chasing and why. Answer: a dream, because I was an idiot. Maybe Mal had a point about my usability. I’d covered for mom for so many years, perhaps the habit had stuck.
He was fiddling with his phone now, a goofy half smile on his face. “She wants to meet up,” he said. “So … I have a huge favor. Could you close up tonight? Since you’re not doing anything?”
“I should really say no. Shit, Reece. I’m not a total loser. I do have some boundaries.” No matter what Malcolm Ericson said.
“Please. I’m sorry. You’re right, I shouldn’t have asked that. And I respect your boundaries, I do. I’m an ass and you’re a name-dropping celebrity party animal. Forgive me?” He didn’t look sorry, just vaguely desperate. But whatever, this was Reece. The man had offered me his couch last night as an emergency home.
And let’s face facts. He was right; I didn’t have any grand plans outside of reading.
“Alright,” I said, resentment burning deep down in my soul. It soon gave way to sadness. Probably, I should buy chocolate or alcohol on my way home. A truly wise use of the extra money made from the extra hours. Chocolate martini, here I come.
“Thanks. I owe you.”
“No worries. Not like I have anything going on.”
It wasn’t as if I’d be seeing Mal ever again.