“Each of my six senses is highly developed. I’m trying to figure out what that smell is.”
I remembered Felice and his sickly scent. “Is it sweet?” I asked, raising the hand I had used to shake his and smelling it. The faint aroma still lingered on my fingers, but it wasn’t as strong as Mrs. Bailey was making it out to be. Maybe I’d gotten used to it.
“Yes,” she said, taking my hand and sniffing it. Her whole face furrowed in concentration. “Is it a new perfume?”
“I’m not wearing perfume.”
“Ah,” she heaved after a moment. Her voice was unbearably smug. “I know what it is!”
I folded my arms across my chest, pretending impatience, but a cold knot had already settled in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t not take the bait. “What?”
Mrs. Bailey arched an incriminating eyebrow, savoring her response. “It’s honey.”
The rest of the day passed in a blur of monotony. Uncle Jack finally called the diner to check up on me. He gave me the number of his new phone, but before I had time to talk to him about anything at all, he was hanging up again. I spent the rest of my shift wondering exactly what he was doing and why he hadn’t come home yet. I wondered, too, about the honey, and whether Felice’s strange scent was linked to the jar I had found next to the register.
Ursula had been pulling twelve-hour shifts to fill the void of competency left by my uncle and by Alison and Paul, who spent more time making out in the kitchen than waiting on tables. Millie, on the other hand, had gotten the day off and been spending it wisely. I called her when I left the diner that evening, and we traded stories about how our days had gone.
“So Valentino basically kicked you out?” she asked through a dramatic intake of breath.
“Pretty much,” I said, still feeling a tinge of embarrassment about it. “The whole thing was weird. Did you get a strange vibe from Dom on your date?”
“Nope!” The excitement in her voice fizzed down the line and I felt an unwelcome twinge of jealousy for how differently things had gone for her and Dom. “We just hung out and went on a picnic,” Millie chattered away cheerfully. “Can you believe that?”
I stopped when I reached the edge of the parking lot, wondering which route to take. “Seriously? That sounds so — ”
“Scripted? I know. It’s like something out of a movie.”
“And what about his scar?” I asked, crossing the street and opting for the shortcut, unwelcoming Priestly house be damned.
“Boating accident,” said Millie through a yawn.
“Really?” I asked, hearing the skepticism in my voice. Dom didn’t seem like the boating type. Then again, his brothers didn’t seem like the basketball types, either, and I had been wrong about that.
“Yeah, it’s a boring story. Something about a fishing hook,” said Millie dismissively. “Anyway, we got sandwich wraps and smoothies and brought them to Rayfield Park. We just talked for hours. He seemed really interested in me so I guess that’s a good sign.”
“Definitely.” My path home began its slow incline, and my chest started to burn from the effort of walking uphill while trying to explain to Millie everything that had been bothering me at the same time. I mentioned the whole their-dad-might-have-been-a-notorious-murderer thing. Even though I couldn’t trust Mrs. Bailey, and when I Googled every possible variation of “Priestly Killer Chicago” on my phone nothing relevant to Nic’s family had come up, I wanted Millie to know.
“Do you think we should stay away from them, at least until we find out what’s going on?” I ventured.
Millie whined in disapproval. “Soph, Mrs. Bailey is, like, a walking gossip magazine. She thrives on ridiculous rumors. Remember that time she told my mum I was pregnant? She’s crazy. There’s nothing wrong with Dom or his family, trust me.”
“I just think there’s something not quite right about it.”
“Then let’s figure it out!” she urged. “Think of it as a mystery. A sexy mystery.”
“What if it’s not something we should be trying to figure out?” I asked, thinking again of the cloying honey smell, and the idea that Dom was in a boating accident. I just couldn’t picture him wearing deck shoes.
“I’ve seen the way you look at Nic, Soph,” Millie said. “Tell me he’s not worth figuring out.”
Maybe she was right; even if there was something sticking in the pit of my stomach, the way Nic made me feel was undeniable. And Millie knew it. Plus, I didn’t want to stomp all over her excitement with hearsay.
“So what did you guys talk about?” I asked instead.
“He told me about how he used to live right in the center of the city with his family, and how the suburbs are boring in comparison. He’s nineteen, which is sexy and totally risqué, though he does go a bit overkill on the whole hair gel aspect of his perfection. I mean, Danny Zuko is only a good look on Halloween. Not that that stopped me from staring at him in a daze when he talked. I had to ask him to repeat himself a lot, which was awkward. Anyway, then the conversation turned to me mostly, but I am a pretty fascinating topic. And we touched on the subject of you as well.”
I felt my cheeks grow hot. “Why?”
I turned onto a narrow avenue where gated estates and rows of cherry trees climbed uphill beside me. Halfway up, the street intersected with Lockwood Avenue.
“As much as I love talking about you, it was actually Dom who brought you up, by accident.”
“Oh?” I didn’t know Dom in the least, except that he was obviously less weird than Gino, and that he ranked far below Luca on the I’m-a-smug-ass scale. “What did he say about me?”
“He was asking about the diner and stuff. I mentioned you were probably going to take over running it soon from your uncle and that we’re best friends, so you will obviously give me a huge pay raise.”
“Obviously,” I concurred sarcastically.
“Then I went on a bit of a rant about Jack and what a bad job he’s doing running the place now.”
“Mil!”