Page 59 of Afternoon Delight
“Can you imagine?” she muttered, but we were both chuckling as she left.
Chapter 33
Meg
Joining Zara and her book club gave me an excuse to visit Tap That across the street. I dropped Roddie off at home first and then caught an Uber back so I could have more than one beer. Zara and Imani were already there and had ordered loaded nachos for the table.
“Presley’s running late. Yu-Jun’s in the bathroom. How are you? How’s the store? How’s Georgia?” Zara asked.
“Good, good, and good.” I hung my jacket on the hook between the booths. It was deep enough for six, so we weren’t crowded when I sat down next to Imani and waited for Yu-Jun to return.
“Before I forget, can we talk about making the store wheelchair accessible?” I asked Zara. “Georgia’s starting rehab next week, and her prognosis is that she’ll walk again, but I’m looking into offering workshops to get more people into the store. One is about accommodating impairments in the bedroom, but with the stoop, the target audience might not be able to get in.”
“We’ve talked about fixing it a few times, but we’ve never made it a priority. I’ll ask Kyle to drop by,” Zara promised. “Zak said your son comes into the antique shop after school, the way we used to.” Her smile brimmed with reminiscence. “He sounds like a nice kid.”
“He is. And I just got a text from my daughter saying she’s coming for spring break. She’s driving from Calgary and stopping in Kelowna to see some friends. She made the drive alone last September, so I’m trying not to be a mom about it, but...” I wasn’t succeeding.
“My oldest leaves for Dalhousie this fall,” Imani said glumly. “There was a part of me that’s been counting down to that for years. I thought I was ready for the hands-on child-rearing to end, but the more real it becomes, the more I want to throw up. How will she survive if I’m not there to tell her how to live her life?”
“Right? We’ve spent eighteen years teaching them to eat right and do laundry. We know damn well they weren’t listening.” I thanked the server who arrived with my cloudy IPA. “And thank you all for inviting me.” I raised my glass for a toast. “I’ve been isolated for the last few years. I lost touch with most of my friends while Dad was sick, then I was stuck in the trenches of divorce and bullshit at work. I forgot to hang out with women who swear.”
“We’ve been looking for a name for this group. I think that’s it,” Imani said.
“Fuck yes.” Yu-Jun clinked her glass with ours.
Chapter 34
Zak
“Were the kids okay last night?” Kyle asked me when he came by the next morning to help me load the van.
“Fine.” I had babysat at Zara’s house so I could put the kids to bed. Dad had called Lance ‘Zak’ and Jade ‘Zara’ a few times, but he had remembered that Lance liked cars. They had gone through Lance’s Breakdown of a Motor Car Engine book a few times. Written in the eighties, it had turned up in the shop at some point. Almost none of it would be applicable to today’s smartphones on wheels, especially not by the time Lance was driving, but he had a helluva career ahead of him in classic car restoration.
“Ollie got a case of the sillies when it was time to brush teeth, but Jade read him the riot act. What do you even need me for? She seems to have those two firmly under control.”
“The Zara is strong in that one,” Kyle agreed from his end of the oak tabletop. Maybe it was exertion that made his tone sound a shade more sardonic than affectionate.
“Everything okay between you two?”
“No.”
Great.
“I should have come home sooner,” I said once we’d set down the tabletop inside the van. “I’m here now. I just told her the other day that I’m not going back to Vancouver.”
“Does Erica know that?” He looked up from tightening one of the straps.
“I texted her. Said we should talk more seriously about whether she’s staying in the condo and how that looks on paper.”
“What’d she say?”
Nothing yet, but I didn’t get a chance to tell Kyle that. The receiving door of Meg’s shop popped open. She poked her nose out.
I paused in gathering the table legs so I could take in how pretty she looked. Her blue top was thin enough I could see the shadow of her black bra beneath it. Her hair was loose, and her jeans were the ones I liked. They cupped her ass really well.
“You know you’re going the wrong way with that?” she said as I handed the legs to Kyle.
“That’s what she said?” I tried.
