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“Damn straight Bo. You be thinking about it. If you come back home a broken man, I’ve got your back bro.”
“Ain’t gonna happen Jose,” I assure him with a fond smile.
“I’m just sayin bruh,” he shouts over the din, as I open the door to exit.
Chapter 31
Fiona
Holly finally heads back to work, after sacrificing two hours in an ungratifying attempt to console me while I blubbered and refused to talk. I splash water on my face, redo my eye makeup, and drive to the shop to make myself useful till Quade shows up. Glancing in the rearview mirror at a light, I can see how unsuccessful I was at de-puffing my face. But I’m pretty sure Maxine and Laura will take me as I am. They’ve got their work cut out for them today.
By five o’clock I’ve successfully dropped a two gallon bucket of water, pissed off the cake designer, and assembled half a dozen table centerpieces before noticing I left out the all essential roses. The girls are loading the van to head over to the clubhouse when Quade pulls up to get me, and I’m certain they’re glad to see me go.
A wave of nausea overtakes me, as I see Quade’s face for the first time since he decided to turn my life upside down. My favorite thing about the past few months has been not seeing him. Although I miss the friend Quade used to be, I’d have been happy to never lay eyes on him again after the night he tried to…seduce me? I still don’t know what exactly that was, and some mental block always prevents me from thinking about it too hard.
He gets out and grins goofily at my storefront, pretending to take an active interest in what goes on around here, then comes to open the passenger’s door for me…his typical display of pointless chivalry. I can’t find it in myself to manage a thank you, but I afford him a convoluted half-smile as I step away from his Rolls-Royce.
“I’d like to take my car,” I tell him.
“No no no…allow me, please,” he says with pleading eyes and a vulnerable tone.
“Quade, you’ve brainwashed my father and stolen my inheritance. We are not friends!” I blurt out, already breaking my inner vow to keep my cool tonight.
“Not friends? Come on Cookie…please don’t do this here. You’re embarrassing yourself.”
“Embarrassing myself?! How am I embarrassing myself Quade?! You think I’m concerned that people driving by are gonna turn their heads and judge me for yelling at my ex in the parking lot of my own store? Do you really think I give two craps what the neighborhood thinks right now?”
“Okay, okay Cookie…calm down—”
“No, don’t change the subject on me Quade! You come to town calling me up, marching into my life like you own it, requesting that I change my plans on a dime…after you’ve already taken almost everything from me. And you know what…you can have the store. Go ahead and take it Quade! Is that what you’re here to do tonight? You wanna determine whether I’m nice enough to allow me to keep my precious store? Well guess what…I’m not! Go ahead and take it Quade! See if I care!”
A minute after I slam my purse into my car and put it in reverse, Quade calls…sounding sadder than I’ve ever heard him. He was cheerier than this when we were in the throes of our divorce.
“Cookie, you know I have a plan for you. I only want what’s best for you. I know you better than even you do, and you’ve always been on a path of self destruction. You need someone to look out for you. I’m only trying to save you from yourself Cookie.”
He sounds so morose and honestly concerned…I have to wonder if he actually believes everything he just said. Am I really self destructive? I’m disgusted with myself when Quade’s patronage causes my emotions to break for the tenth time today. My eyes flood with tears as I quietly continue driving in the opposite direction, back to the safety of Holly’s condo.
“Come on Cookie…how does sushi sound tonight?”
I struggle not to let Quade hear my cynical laugh. Yes, sushi is my biggest weakness, but food is the absolute last thing on my mind. Suddenly he’s almost reduced to someone sweet and innocent…imagining he can make it all better with a little sushi dinner. What a childish buffoon.
“Come on Cookie…I’m sorry. You know I’ll always be here for you. Let’s just talk things out, okay? We just need to talk,” he coaxes as I pull into Holly’s driveway.
My face crumples into a sobbing grimace as I drop my forehead onto my steering wheel and feel myself give in. Defeated, I put it in reverse and drive away from all that is safe and sane.
“Okay Quade, okay. Meet you at the sushi joint?”
“I want you to meet me back at the store. I want you to get into my car and let me take you out tonight. You think you can do that? Let your oldest friend take you out for a nice dinner tonight?”
I have to admit that Quade sounds like the same old placid guy I’ve always known. Has he always been controlling and manipulating me like this? To think that all my life I believed he was my puppet…how could I have been so unaware? I try to calm my mind by imagining the cozy, dim lighting of the sushi place, Quade making pleasant chit chat and reassuring me of all the ways he plans to invest the inheritance for the best interest of my future. Looking after me as always, my future, my inheritance. My inheritance. Quade patronizingly doling out all the ideas he has for my inheritance, that myfather is leaving to him because Quade is the model child Victor really wanted.
Having failed to sufficiently calm myself, I absentmindedly pull into the parking lot of Shokai before remembering I was supposed to meet Quade first. “Quade,” I say, after dialing him up to profess my error, “I’m sorry, I forgot what I was doing and drove straight to the place. Why not just meet me here, okay? It’s a one minute drive from the shop.”
“How do you know where I was going to take you?”
“You said sushi. There’s only one place we eat sushi in this town.”
“How do you know I was going to take you somewhere in town?”
