Page 46 of Bottles & Blades

She nods.

Then she’s slipping by the workers, disappearing out into the hall.

My phone keeps buzzing as I supervise the installation of the new door, the new lock, the camera. I handle emails and calls and one short meeting with Marie.

But it’s not until I’m locking up that one of the buzzes actually means anything.

TIFF: I forgot to tell you something.

JEAN-MICHEL: Anything, buttercup.

TIFF: I know you already know you didn’t need to do that stuff with my door, same as I know I probably couldn’t have talked you out of it anyway…so I just want to say thank you.

JEAN-MICHEL: No thanks needed, baby.

TIFF: There is, but I’m not going to argue because I need to go into class. So just…thank you.

JEAN-MICHEL: You’re welcome.

TIFF: There now, that wasn’t so hard was it?

JEAN-MICHEL: We’ll talk about that at lunch tomorrow, buttercup.

TIFF: I feel like I should argue, but I really have to go, so it’s lunch tomorrow.

JEAN-MICHEL: Bye, buttercup.

She sends back a heart, and I push out into the morning sunshine.

And I know I’m smiling as I climb into my car and drive away.

But what I don’t know until later is that Angela sees me smiling too.

Fifteen

Tiff

“Make a turtle, Tiff!”

I smile up at Roxie as I pour the batter onto the griddle—it’s breakfast for dinner night—and I’m making pancakes.

In particular, my dad’s special pancakes.

They’re not really anything special; the batter is from one of those just add water mixes, only it’smadespecial because of the secret ingredient.

Melted salted butter.

It makes it effortless to flip them, to scoop them off the griddle.

But that’s not the only benefit.

The salted butter makes them taste deliciously homemade.

“Please?” Roxie says. “Pretty please?”

“Queen Rox,” Stefan begins as he walks into the room, shrugging on his jacket, “I need you to take a breath and show patience.”

“Mom says I don’t know the meaning of the word.”

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