I’d been at Clementine’s for over an hour, catching up on paperwork, when I got the distinct feeling someone was watching me. And that someone was Maggie.
‘Hi,’ she said when I looked up to find her standing in the half-open doorway. She had on a white eyelet sundress and orange flip-flops, her hair pulled back at her neck, and was holding a pricing gun. ‘Got a minute?’
I nodded, and she glanced back out at the store before taking a step inside, then clearing a stack of catalogs off a nearby chair and sitting down.
She didn’t say anything, and neither did I. All I could hear was a pop song, playing from the sales floor. Something about roller coasters and sweet tangy kisses.
‘So, look,’ she began. ‘About you and Eli.’
This wasn’t a question. Or even a statement. It was a fragment, and this was my justification for not responding. How can there even be a whole answer to a part of something?
‘I know you guys have been hanging out all night, like, every night,’ she continued. ‘And it’s not exactly my business, but…’
‘How?’ I said.
She blinked at me. ‘How is it not my business?’
‘How do you know?’
‘I just do.’
‘What, you’re all-knowing and all-seeing now?’ I asked. ‘Who are you, Big Brother?’
‘This is a small town, Auden. In many ways, minuscule. Word gets around.’ She sighed, looking down at the gun. ‘Look, the thing is, I’ve known Eli a long time. I don’t want to see him get hurt.’
I’d honestly had no idea what she was getting at. None. But when I heard this, I felt like a fool for not having seen it coming. ‘You think I’m going to hurt Eli?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. After what happened with Jake…’
‘That was totally different,’ I said.
‘See, but I don’t know that.’ She sat back, folding her legs. ‘All I have to go on is what I’ve seen. And while the thing with Jake pissed me off because I was jealous, it was also somewhat karmic. He had it coming. Eli doesn’t.’
‘We’re just…’ I trailed off, not sure how much I wanted to explain this. ‘We’re friends.’
‘Maybe so.’ She looked down at the gun again, turning it in her lap. ‘But we both know you’re the reason he showed up at the party the other night. I heard you call him.’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘You are like Big Brother.’
‘I was in the bathroom. The walls are so thin there! I sometimes can’t even pee if anyone’s in the kitchen.’ She waved her hand. ‘Anyway, then there’s the bike thing, and the fact that you threw beans at him and he didn’t completely go ballistic –’
‘It was just a food fight.’
‘You don’t understand, though,’ she said. ‘Eli hasn’t done anything since Abe died. No parties, no hanging out, hardly even any conversation. Definitely no food fights. He’s been under this cloud. And then suddenly you show up, and all that changes. Which is great.’
‘But,’ I said, because there is always a but.
‘But,’ she continued, ‘if you are just jerking his chain and playing around, he might not just bounce back like Jake did. There’s more at stake here, and I just wasn’t sure you knew that. So I wanted to tell you. Because that’s what friends do.’
I considered this as the music outside changed to something slower, more dreamy-sounding. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I guess he’s lucky he has you. As a friend, I mean.’
‘I wasn’t talking about Eli.’
I looked up at her. ‘What?’
‘We’re friends,’ she said, moving her hand back and forth between us. ‘And friends are honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts. Right?’
I would have agreed with this, but my own truth was that I really didn’t know. All of this was new to me. So instead, I said, ‘You don’t have to worry. Nobody’s getting hurt. We’re just… we’re hanging out. Nothing more.’
She nodded slowly. ‘Okay, then. That’s all I need to know.’
There was a beep from the sales floor, signaling a customer entering. Maggie got to her feet, then stuck her head out the door. ‘Hi,’ she called out. ‘I’ll be right with you!’
‘No worries,’ a voice I recognized replied. ‘Just tell Auden to get her butt out here!’
Maggie turned to look at me. ‘My brother,’ I explained, pushing my chair back.
‘You have a brother?’
‘Come and see for yourself.’
When we got out to the floor, Hollis was standing by a box of half-off swimsuits, examining a purple thong bikini.
‘Not your size,’ I said as I approached. ‘Or color, either.’
‘Too bad,’ he replied. ‘I think it would look boss on me, don’t you?’
‘I think you should stick to trunks,’ I told him.
‘Actually,’ Maggie piped up, ‘in Europe, men often wear a more bikini style. Every summer we have at least one group of German tourists who show up in them.’
‘No way,’ Hollis told her. ‘Over there, you just go to the nude beach. No suit needed, period!’
‘This is Maggie,’ I said to him. ‘Maggie, my brother, Hollis.’