Page 32 of The Alien Reindeer's Bounty
The woman wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Ugh,no. I mean the other one. The hot one.”
“Mads?”
“Yeah. Do you know him? Is he single? I saw him give you his number, so maybe he isn’t, unless you’re seeing him now, then I’m sorry. I’ll back off, but is he… single?” The woman bounced on her toes, waiting for answers.
Odessa wiped her hands on her jeans and stuck out her hand. “Odessa. You are?”
“Oh, Alyse.” She shook Odessa’s hand with enthusiasm. “So, are you dating him?”
“No.”
“Do you mind if I ask him out?”
“I honestly do not care what Mads does while he’s in town.” She lied. She cared. A little. She felt possessive of him, even though she had no right.
“Is he in town for long?”
“I don’t know,” Odessa said.
“Is he single? Divorced? Kids? Does he drink? Smoke? Drugs? Mommy issues?” Alyse went through the questions rapid-fire, like she was reading off a list. Then, “Daddy issues?”
“Look, I don’t know. We were friends when we were kids, but I haven’t spoken to him in a decade, so I really don’t know. Sorry.”
Alyse frowned. “He’s just so amazing and good-looking. If he’s single, what’s wrong with him?”
“Probably the same stuff as anyone else.” Odessa didn’t like the backhanded implication that there was something wrong with her because she was single.
Calm down. The lady was talking about Mads. Stop being so self-centered.Besides, her own single status had everything to do with being too busy to date. No other reason.
And that reasonwasn’tthat she was hung up on a six-foot-plus Norwegian with honey-brown eyes and a smile that made her feel like the most important person in the universe, because it would be sad to have put her love life on hold for an old crush. Sad and pathetic.
“Huh. Okay,” Alyse said. “Does he like food? Should I bake him some cookies? Or a pie. No, everyone is making pie. I need something to stand out.”
Odessa resumed sorting the apples. Customers picked through the display and knocked apples to the floor all the time, bruising them. No one bought bruised apples unless they were bundled together at a discount price. They might not be pretty, but the apples still tasted sweet and cooked just fine in a pie.
“Or a tart. I can make an apple tart.” Alyse grabbed an apple. “Does he like apples?”
“I really don’t know.” The Mads she used to know had been a bottomless pit of hunger. He ate, constantly, and hadn’t been too picky about what. Sharing that information with Alyse, however, seemed too close to encouraging a conversation, and Odessa wanted the woman gone.
“Does he prefer pumpkin or sweet potato pie?”
“Is there a point to this, or are we planning the menu for your soiree?”
Alyse blushed and looked down at the ground. “He just seemed nice, like someone worth knowing.”
Odessa thought back to the early days of their friendship, when Mads only spoke a few words of English. They watched so much TV—too much, really—partly because the winter kept them cooped up and partly for Mads to learn the language. He insisted on holding her hand all the time, even when they were just sitting on the living room floor in front of the television.
They had been inseparable. He climbed through her bedroom window after their parents went to sleep and they giggled and whispered stories until she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Her favorites were grisly ghost stories and Mads had wild stories about men who changed into animals, like reindeer, that she had never heard before. They were probably Norwegian folktales or Laplander—or was it Sami?—but she could never find the stories again in any books.
How bad had living with Arne Sommerfeldt been? How did she never notice that her best friend never wanted to go home? Mads said his father had only been physically violent after they moved away, but abuse took many forms. Verbal and emotional abuse hurt just as much as a punch. Worse, perhaps, because there was no bruise and it left the kid wondering why they felt so bad when “words will never hurt me.”
Such baloney. Stick and stones hurt, and words also hurt.
And she had no clue while it was happening. None. He didn’t trust her to share his secret and she was a horrible friend who didn’t recognize when her best friend walked on eggshells around his father.
“He was a really great friend to have growing up, better than I deserved, but I really don’t know what he’s been up to lately. I’m sorry I can’t help you,” she said.
Mads
