Page 114 of Light in the Dark
He stares at me for a moment, and then closes his eyes, shakes his head, and then opens them and stabs the answer button. "See you, Em," he says to me, then puts the phone to his ear and shifts into reverse. "Hey, Bear. Brennan show up yet? No? For real? Fuck. Alright, I'll swing by his place and see what's up. He's never even been late, let alone a no-call-no-show."
I shut the door, and he immediately reverses out of the spot and is gone in a cloud of diesel fumes. Heart aching, eyes burning, body, heart, and brain giving me wildly mixed signals, I head inside to find Noelle and Raina waiting for me at a four-top.
"Hey, girl!" Noelle says, all sunshine and eager joy. She shoots to her feet and hugs me as I approach the table. "Did Connie break you?"
"Nearly," I mumble.
Raina—Noelle's friend, and now mine—rises as well and embraces me. Raina is a couple inches taller than me and similarly built, with long, thick black hair and brown skin. She's funny in a dry, reserved way, and far more conservative than I am, having come from a very traditional Iranian family. She moved up here a few years ago to forge her own path, and is now a dental hygienist at Three Rivers' best dental office. I adore her.
She's also very perceptive. "What's wrong?"
Lainey sweeps over, wearing an ankle-length floral skirt and a tight white tank top, her short hair held back by a headband with a big bow. On anyone else, it'd look sorta silly, but she pulls the giant bow off, somehow.
"Here ya go, Sparky." She sets my usual order on the table—chicken pesto sandwich and a small Greek salad. "Last sesh on Friday, right? Bet you're ready to be done with that."
I cock an eyebrow at her. "Sparky?"
She shrugs, giggling. "I dunno. Ember? Sparky? No? Never mind. Enjoy!"
The sisters still won't let me pay. I've tried stuffing twenties into their tip jar, but I always find them returned to me somewhere, somehow.
"Actually, Lane," I say, acting on an idea as it pops into my head. "Do you guys need any help? Once I'm done with the P-T and all that, I'm gonna need a job, now that my vlogging days are over. I've gone through a good bit of my savings."
Layla is at the till, counting ones—she and Lainey trade glances, and then Layla nods. "You're hired."
I grin. “Really? That would be cool. I love this place, and I love you guys."
Layla smiles back. "Absolutely. We’ve been tossing around the idea of hiring someone, but everyone we've interviewed hasn't been a good fit. And you, my dear, are perfect."
Raina turns me to face her. "That's great. Back to me, though."
I shrug her off. "I'm fine."
She taps my nose. "If you were Pinocchio, your nose would have just grown a foot."
I groan. "I'm hangry, Raina. Let me eat and then we'll talk."
She sighs. "Fine. Be all needy and human, if you must."
I feel eyes on me as I eat, but I ignore them. What I'm feeling is complex and weird, and I don't know what to do with it.
I let Raina and Noelle's idle, friendly chatter wash over me as we eat, and I occasionally chime in, but mostly, I'm thinking about Felix.
The distance in his eyes. How he said he was 'hanging on by a thread." The sense of hidden pain.
When we're done eating, Noelle gathers our plates and silverware and brings them into the kitchen—we're all here so much we're not really even regulars anymore—we're more like fixtures. We take our various beverages and go sit outside in the sun under the pergola.
Noelle smacks my knee as she passes me to sit on my left while Raina sits on my right; the cafe is empty, so Layla and Lainey pull an ottoman over and squeeze onto it together, facing me.
"So," Noelle says. "Why are you upset?"
"Who said I was?" I ask.
Lainey traces a line down between my eyebrows. "Your elevens."
"My what?"
She frowns and points at the two vertical lines that appear between her eyebrows. "Your elevens. They show up when you're upset."
