Page 100 of Ice Darling
“There was a stain.”
Mom accepts my words with a nod. “Thanks for the food. It was great. As usual. I really don’t know where you get your cooking skills from because it wasn’t me.”
I mumble an incoherent response and put away the rest of the groceries that I hadn’t been able to get to earlier.
“Gordie said we were supposed to have fish,” Mom muses. “Why’d you change your mind to chicken casserole?”
The mention of fish brings back the horrific memories of my bumbling invitation to Cordelia this afternoon.
I exhale shakily. “Mom, can I run something by you?”
“Of course.”
I lean against the counter. “I have a friend who came to me for…advice on women.”
“A friend?” She pops a brow. “Do I know him?”
“It’s Max,” I fib. “He thinks I’m some expert on relationships because I’ve been married before, but clearly”—I gesture to myself—“I’m not.”
Mom returns her attention to the dishes. “What advice did Max want?”
“Like I said, he has a female friend?—”
“Is she attractive?”
“Extremely.”
“Hm.”
“I-I assume,” I stutter, “based on the way he talks about her.”
“Makes sense.”
“He and his friend seemed to be getting closer.”
“Closer how?”
“Like…as friends.”
Mom makes a hurry-up gesture.
“But the next day, his friend suddenly acted strange. She didn’t look him in the eyes, she didn’t want to talk, and she ran away from him every time he got close.”
“That’s easy. She’s acting that way because she doesn’t want to be his friend anymore.”
I push off the counter and bark, “That doesn’t make any sense. Things were just fine last night.”
Mom halts in place. “Last night?”
My stomach flips over. “Or so Max told me.”
“Let me see if I understand this correctly.” Mom finishes with the last of the dishes and grabs a kitchen towel to dry her hands. “Max has a female friend that he’s getting close with, and without warning, she pulled away from him.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“Well, son, women generally have a reason for withdrawing from a man—friend or otherwise. So what did Max do or say to her before things changed?”
“Nothing. They had a really deep conversation right before things went south. She was a little quiet when he took her home, but everything else was normal.”
