Page 77 of Silver Linings
Do I get to know what we’re doing?
Hendrix
No.
Sunshine
How am I supposed to tell every person I know where I am in the chance you turn out to be a murderer?
Hendrix
You don’t. It’s going to make the documentary that comes out in ten years fascinating.
Sunshine
The perfect crime, no one would suspect you.
Hendrix
I’ll see you soon, Sunshine.
A few hours later, I step through the doorway of Brownstone Books to find Carmen dusting the shelves.
“Christ, I forgot how hot you are,” she states boldly, drawing a chuckle out of me.
“Thank you.” I look around for a head of bright blonde hair and sea-foam green eyes, but I don’t see Silver anywhere.
“No, seriously, it’s no wonder why Sil won’t stop talking about you.” Her gaze admires me openly, and I start to squirm at being so baldly checked out.
“Oh? She talks about me?” I know it’s pathetic to fish for intel, but any sort of outside confirmation that this insane buzzing in my chest is reciprocated is nice.
“Totally!” She bounces around the store, wiping down shelves and tables as she goes. “It’s always Hendrix this, Hendrix that.” She stops abruptly and puts a hand to her chest in dramatic reenactment. “Hendrix and I fixed this floorboard last night. Hendrix thought I should paint the shelves yellow. Hendrix is a fantastic kisser. Yada, yada, yada.”
I cough into my hand. “She told you we kissed?”
A devious smile lights her face. “No, but you just did.”
With perfect timing, Silver finally emerges from the back office. The sight of her immediately wipes away all coherent thought. She’s wearing tight fitting jeans that hug her in themost sinful way, and a pink checkerboard sweater that ties at her chest but leaves a triangle of stomach exposed. Her hair is half pulled back, tendrils framing her face, offsetting the cherry earrings dangling from her lobes. She looks so cute, I don’t know how I’m going to survive the night.
“What are you guys talking about?” Silver eyes Carmen skeptically.
“Nothing,” I say, knowing she wouldn’t want our business openly discussed like her employee seems inclined to do. “Are you ready?”
She nods and looks at Carmen. “Don’t forget to lock up, and if I go missing or get murdered, point them in his direction.” She hooks her thumb at me.
“Oh, I bet something gets murdered tonight…”
We both stare at Carmen, speechless, as she starts to cackle like a deranged demon.
Silver looks over at me. “And you thought I had no filter.”
I usher her out the front door, leading us out into the crisp, late October air. The leaves on the trees lining the block are slowly starting to shift from green to a mix of yellows and orange as we make our way down the street.
“She scares me a bit.”
Silver laughs, and it’s bright and lovely. I want to bottle the sound and have it with me for a rainy day.
“So, where to, Romeo?”
