Page 26 of Sweet Summertide

“Hey, jailbird. Nice to see you out of the slammer.” Holly crumpled the paper and tossed it in the corner. “I mean … what a rotten human being he is.”

“Is that fair?” Millie said. “You’ve been no angel.”

Holly huffed. “He’s just antagonizing me. What kind of gentleman treats a lady in such a way.”

“And what kind of lady steals someone else’s workers, vandalizes a storefront, and whatever you call the stunt with the delivery truck? If he’s trying to get under your skin, can you really blame him?”

Holly knew her friend was right, but she wouldn’t dare say it. Nor would she admit the she had accused him of getting themboth arrested just to hurt her. “Get me a piece of paper.” She had a note to send of her own.

Millie returned from the office with a stack of pink sticky notes and handed them over. “What are you gonna say?”

With the pen in her hand, she said and wrote the words simultaneously. “You’re no saint, Teddy Black. The charges against me were dropped, no thanks to you. I hope your shop burns down when you roast your beans. See you never, loser.”

Millie’s hand fell on the back of Holly’s shoulders. “Are you sure you want to give that to him? He’s being cheeky, and that seems mean.”

Of course she wanted to say it. Holly folded her square into a triangle, again and again, until it was a tiny, fingernail-sized note. She handed it back to Alfonso. “Can you please give this to your bro? After you help us move this big piece of furniture?”

Alfonso stashed the note in his shirt pocket while shaking his disappointed head back and forth. The slower his head rotated, the more decay she felt inside. Straightening her spine, Holly decided she had no time to feel anything for Teddy Black. She had a list of a thousand things to accomplish before she could let her heart dictate a course to her. “Oh, stop judging me with those smoky, beautiful Italian eyes of yours, and help us get this thing outside.”

Alfonso made the task look easy as the three of them worked together to maneuver the large counter out to the sidewalk. They placed it alongside the front windows and out of the way of any pedestrians. “Thank you, Alfonso. And don’t forget to give the note to Teddy.”

“Are you sure?” Millie said and shook her head at Alfonso. “I wouldn’t. Why don’t you write something else. Maybe an apology?”

“No.” A rift was opening in Holly’s heart and distracting her from her goals. She was attracted to Teddy, like a comet hurlingtowards the sun. His bright light served as a spotlight on all of her insecurities and traumas. The only way to nip this in the bud was to let it go. “Make sure he gets that, Alfonso.”

They watched Alfonso walk across the street and Millie put her arm around Holly’s waist. “For the record, I think you’re making another huge mistake. You shoot from the hip, which normally does you good, but I think you’re having a hard time squaring what you want for your future with what’s right in front of you.”

“What I want is to lay the flooring.” Holly chose to ignore Millie rather than internalize any of her words and risk the discomfort that might come from admitting the truth to herself.

Inside, Millie gathered the supplies to lay the floor tiles. “This choice of materials, however, is one of your better decisions, Holly.”

Holly had selected the luxury vinyl tiles because they looked like expensive stone and would be the most durable and easy to install option. “Just because I was spending someone else’s money doesn’t mean I wasn’t conscious about the budget.”

“It’s a smart purchase, if we don’t screw up the install,” Millie added. “First, we need to unpack the boxes and mix the tiles up, that way if there’s any variance in dye-lot, you won’t have a patch that looks totally different.”

“How do you know all this?” Holly asked as she began to unbox the dark gray and white marbled squares. “Design school?”

“Heck no. HGTV,” Millie said and giggled. “I’ve always wanted to try and do this.”

“Amelia Anne! Are you telling me you’ve never laid tile before?”

“How hard can it be?” She pulled a sheet of paper from one of the boxes and presented it to Holly. “We just have to follow the instructions. Look, these snap together. So long as the firstline is straight, it should go together like bam, bam, bam. Instant floor.”

Holly seriously doubted it would be an instant floor but decided to go along with her fearless DIY leader. At this point in her day, she had been up for more hours than she thought was natural, been arrested, felt all the emotions one could feel towards a person, and now, she was in crunch time to get the floors done.

Together, the women snapped a chalk line along the front of the shop and another up the center length of the room all the way to the rear. Holly wanted the tiles placed like a checkerboard and on a diagonal to make the room appear larger and more whimsical. Luckily, her plan wasn’t thwarted by her ambition and once the first line of tiles was laid, the rest snapped into place with ease.

“Knocky-knock,” Alfonso poked his head in the front door with the streetlamp casting a long, chef-shaped shadow across the newly installed flooring. “Note delivery.” He tossed a balled-up piece of paper across the room towards Holly where she was crouched down on her knees. The paper bounced like a skipping rock on the lake and rolled to a stop an arm’s reach away to her left. “Buona notte, Signorine. Alfonso go now.”

Millie popped to her feet and ran to the doorway where Alfonso stood. “Are we okay?” She kissed his cheek like she had done earlier and gave a brief hug. Alfonso nodded and returned a kiss on her cheek.

From where Holly was scrambling to reach the note, laid out on her belly, she was unable to hear what else Millie and Alfonso were saying with words, but no words were necessary to see that there was something more romantic happening between them.

Millie giggled and Alfonso’s chuckle filled the room. She stood perched like a flamingo with one leg bent and resting against her inner thigh of the other leg. There were more handgestures than Holly knew what to make of, but she was certain the two were up to something. When he departed, Millie’s crimson cheeks gave her feelings away.

“Oh my gosh. You like really like him,” Holly teased and sat crisscross. Millie joined her on the floor as she tossed and caught the little paper ball in her palm. “I don’t want to read it.”

“First, of course I like him …” Millie paused and shook her head. “But we’re just friends. I’ve gotten to see him a lot since working on America and Leo’s house reno, that’s all.”

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