Page 58 of Lovewell Lane

“Exactly, I’m honored. Anyway, that wasn’t even the best part.”

“Oh, do tell,” Scarlet encouraged.

“So it turns out the mistress does live in Honeyfield. She’s actually one of our regular’s far removed cousins. He called her up while he was sitting at the bar top and saw the guy with his wife.”

“No. Way.”

“Yes way, and she showed up ten minutes later. Needless to say, there was a confrontation. Thankfully I didn’t have to break up any fights, but it was pretty spectacular. The mistress poured his orange soda all over his white dress shirt.”

“What grown man drinks orange soda anyway? He clearly has a complex.”

“Yup.”

“Maybe Honeyfield is cursed with love. Do you know any happily married couples that live there?”

“There are a lot of married couples, but it’s questionable to determine how happy they are.”

Scarlet sighed into the phone. “I’m guessing there are still no updates on Derek?”

“Nope. I’m about to drop off his bread delivery. That’s usually the most interaction we have nowadays. Sometimes I even just leave it on his doorstep and ring the bell before dashing.”

“You ding dong ditch him?”

“It’s kind of fun. I watch him roll his eyes from the safety of my house.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re keeping it playful, I guess. Maybe once everything has settled with the diner—”

“Oh Scar, sorry I have to go. Just made it home and I think you’re breaking up,” I said while moving my hand over the speaker of my phone.

“Your breaking-up noises are not at all convincing,” Scarlet deadpanned.

“Okay love you, I think there’s a train coming, and wow is that a UFO? Bye!”

I hung up and walked over to Derek’s back door. Prepared to ring the doorbell and run, I was stopped by Tessa in a very sparkly dress at the door. She unlocked the glass door and swung it open for me.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hey, Tess. How are you?”

“Good!” she answered. “Can you show my Daddy how you braid my hair? He doesn’t do it right.”

“Oh, uhhh—”

Suddenly, Derek appeared looking very worn out. “Tessa, what are you— oh. Hello, Margo.”

“Daddy, Margo is going to teach you how to braid my hair.”

I stood, frozen. Tessa’s small hand reached for mine and pulled me into their living room.

“I haven’t showered yet, so I’m sorry if I smell like coffee and bacon.”

“It smells great,” Tessa answered.

I looked over at Derek sheepishly. “It’s fine,” he murmured. “Have you eaten dinner?”

I shook my head. I was planning on having an assortment of whatever snacks and vegetables I still had leftover in my fridge. The last few weeks, I had been trying to eat at least one meal at home, to maintain some semblance of a separation of church and state. Or home and work. And usually, dinner was the only option.

“We have some leftovers. Let me get you some.”

---