Page 7 of Whiskey Shivers

I smiled and said, “I just might.” He pulled into the lot.

“Well alright, then,” he said, turning the dial on his dash to put the truck into “park.”

“Thanks for the ride,” I said, and he rested his wrists on the top of the steering wheel, loosely lacing his fingers as he let his hands hang.

“I’ll see you bright and early, Miss Legare,” he said, and I smiled, looking back over my shoulder before I slipped down onto the ground.

“Please, call me Cor, or Corliss. Feels weird having my friends call me Miss anything.”

His grin grew into a smile, and he gave me a nod. “See you tomorrow, Cor.”

“See you tomorrow, Hex,” I said. I shut the door behind me, feeling… good. I felt good. Like I’d genuinely made a new friend.

My phone rang as I was settling up at the counter for my car.

“Hey, I’m here,” Mark said absently after I picked up.

“I couldn’t get a hold of you,” I said. “I had no idea when you would be, so I’m already at the shop. One of the custodians gave me a ride.”

“Goddammit, Liss,” Mark huffed out, irritated, and I felt my spine go rigid.

“Well, maybe if you’d answer your fucking phone and weren’t late to everything all the damn time, we could have avoided this situation. I’m trying to pay for my car and get out of here. I guess I’ll see you at home and we can continue this conversation there,” I snipped out. Before Mark could say anything, I ended the call on my end and turned off my phone.

I smiled politely up at the man behind the cash wrap and asked pleasantly, “Now where were we?”

He gave me a dubious look and, with a bit of a laugh, said, “I’d hate to be him right now, boy. I just need you to sign here.” He pointed with the pen at the line and handed it over, and I scribbled my signature.

“’K, great,” I said. “Thank you for getting this done so quickly.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m just sorry we didn’t get it done yesterday.”

I shook my head. “It’s alright, things happen.” We finished our transaction and they brought my car around – washed and vacuumed.

“Aw, thank you!” I said, beaming. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“All part of the customer service experience over here at Roald & Sons, ma’am. Y’all have a better day now, y’hear?”

I smiled and accepted my keys. “I will, thank you.”

I still beat Mark home by minutes. Boy, did we have a go at each other that ended up in both of us going to bed angry and giving each other the silent treatment.

Jackass.

CHAPTERFOUR

Hex…

“Hey, Mike, how’s it going?”

“Another day, another dollar,” I answered Mrs. Donal, the school principal. “What can I do you for, ma’am?” I asked, genially tipping my non-existent hat.

“Second-floor girl’s restroom. I don’t know what these kids are doing and I’m sorry, but all but one of those stalls is out of order. Every one of those toilets are clogged with something.”

“Ahhh, kids,” I said with a wink. “I’ll get right on it. Let me grab my toolkit.”

“Thanks, Mike!” she called after me as I backed out of the office and left her to resume her conversation with the school’s main secretary.

It’d been a few weeks since I’d given Cor a ride out to the shop to get her car, and we’d struck up a good friendship since then. I took any excuse I could to go on up to the school’s second floor and to pass her door. We’d even sort of struck up a once-a-week standing lunch date in her classroom. Just an unspoken thing that’d started up casually and had organically evolved over the last two weeks into lunch every Thursday.

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