March Street Murder, page 6
“Look at the time, I’m going to be late,” Shirley snapped. “Where’s my phone?”
Cowed, Nancy led the way to the pile of phones in the grass. I couldn’t tell them apart in their identical Marchville civic pride cases, but Shirley snatched her phone up and marched across the grass. Nancy grabbed hers as well and hurried after her. Grandma Iris dropped her phone into her purse and sighed.
“I didn’t even get to show them your paintings.”
“Don’t worry about it, Grandma Iris, they probably wouldn’t have appreciated them anyway.”
She laughed. “Philistines.”
We walked toward the downtown.
“Nancy Cook was always a brown-noser, as long as I’ve known her.”
“Grandma Iris!”
“Well, it’s true. When we were teaching at Marchville Unity High School, she never missed a chance to butter up the administration.”
“It must have worked, if she got to plan the Say No To Drugs presentations.”
Grandma Iris cackled. “I don’t know that it ever got her much more than that, and her after-school self defense for girls club. We were paid the same salary. I heard she was the same way at Starling before the schools consolidated.”
I shrugged. “I guess some people just need to have an idol to worship, they crave that kind of approval.”
We had walked most of March Street and were now in front of the café. I looked in the window and saw that Maxwell, my ex, was sitting right on the other side of the glass. Grandma Iris spied him a second later.
“Oh, Kelly, you should go in and have a bite to eat with Maxwell before your shift begins.”
I shifted to the other foot. “I thought we were going to have a longer walk.”
“Nonsense, I can finish walking Buddy. You go on in there.”
“But Grandma Iris –”
“La la la, I can’t hear you, we’re walking away.”
My shoulders slumped. I knew when I was beaten. “Bye, I’ll see you tonight.”
She waved a hand airily over her shoulder and I went into the café. I made eye contact with Maxwell and he waved me over to his table.
It took a minute to order a coffee and a sandwich, and then it was the two of us sitting across from each other at a café table. Not at all like two people on a date. Not at all.
I was relieved when Lucy brought my coffee. It gave me something to do with my hands and somewhere to direct my gaze.
“I’m glad you’re here today. I have something to tell you, and I didn’t want to bring it up over the phone.” Maxwell took a deep breath and held it for a second before continuing.
I added another sugar packet and stirred the coffee harder. When Grandma Iris had insisted I should join Maxwell in the café, I knew what she was really thinking: that Maxwell wanted to get back together with me. The problem was, I didn’t know how I felt about that. Sure, I still found him attractive. And I was mostly over the incident that broke us up way back when. But did I want to start dating him again? Did I want to date anybody?
“Kelly? Kelly? Did you hear what I said?”
I blinked and let go of the coffee spoon. I’d been so busy thinking about how I might respond to Maxwell that I’d tuned out completely.
“Sorry, could you repeat that?”
“I said that I wanted you to hear it from me, not as a piece of gossip. Your friendship is important to me.”
“Uh, hear what?”
“That I met someone. We’re seeing each other, and it’s, uh, getting pretty serious. I think Nicole could be the one.”
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Estelle Richards, March Street Murder
