“Nate seems stressed about Tim’s pool.” Emma volunteered up. Bless her heart, as my grandma would say.
“Well, that’s not okay,” Grace began.
Thank goodness. She was going to be the voice of reason with these coworkers of ours.
“Because I have the eleventh. I need you to shit or get off the pot, Nate,” Grace announced.
Yep. This is what I got for working in a small town. My fault, really. After growing up in a neighboring town, as well as visiting my grandparents here, I really had known better. Maybe I should revisit that whole glad-I-left-Chicago mindset from a few minutes ago?
I turned to look at these three ladies across the kitchen as they stood watching me with a fair share of amusement evident.
“Where’s your string?” I asked.
Grace tipped her head to the side. “What?”
I gestured to encompass them all. “Which one of you is Atropos? You know, you’re the Fates, right? You’re screwing with my destiny here, aren’t you? That’s what’s happening.”
Grace shook her head as she headed to the coffee maker. “Enough on the Greek mythology, Nathaniel. Now, we are the gender of your intended. Want to bounce any ideas off us? We’re here to help. Should we role play?”
“But not too quickly. Maybe ease in?” Emma commented.
“Agreed. Take your time,” Gabby said with an easy smile.
“Enough,” I growled and opened a cabinet. Was there anything to eat? I hadn’t replenished my snacks this week. Damn. I began straightening the crap on the counters.
“Okay, ladies. Let’s go easy on Nate. He’s stress cleaning.” Grace looked at the other two, then to me. “Switching topics, have you unloaded your place in Chicago yet?”
Ugh. Were they mind readers now? Just the comment from Grace made me want to rub my temples. Was that a headache coming on?
I moved my coffee over on the counter before hopping up. “Not yet. The subletter will be officially moving on at the first of the year. I need to write up a listing, but I’m hoping to recoup not only what I bought the place for, but the improvements I made.” I thought through everything I needed to get done and felt more than a bit overwhelmed. “I want to look over the listing again and check around at what similar properties are being priced at to make sure I’m in line with the rest of the market. I just haven’t made it a priority.”
“You should have Elle help you,” Gabby piped up.
I gave her a look, the meddling busybody that she was.
She raised her hands. “No, this isn’t about that. Promise. Just saying she helped me write up some sale posts for crap I’d bought Aslan when I first got her, but she hadn’t liked. For example, the giant climbing tower that was taking up a good portion of my living room. Aslan just looked at it with disgust.”
This was not shocking at all. Gabby’s cat had definite opinions and didn’t hesitate to share them. Circling back. “Elle helped you?”
Gabby gave me a mischievous smile. “Yep, sure did. She said it’s similar to what she does for work, and she’s good at it. I was even able to sell the tower for a bit more than I bought it for.”
I moved to the doorway that took you from the kitchen and peeked into the library. Sure enough, the focus of our conversation sat at the table in the front room by the window. She stretched her back, tilted her head to the side. Her long brown hair cascaded over her shoulder. Spending time with her almost daily over the past six weeks had only reinforced my gut reaction when we first met. Elle had become my friend, and I was on board for a whole lot more.
I’d thought about approaching her the other night at the Reds event, but her dash to the bathroom made me worry. I didn’t think these feelings were one-sided, but I sure didn’t want to scare her off. Maybe this was just the inroad I needed.
5
Death by Text Message
Elle
I pushed my laptop back and stretched my neck to the right, then left. The satisfying pop resounded in the quiet nook of the library. For a Monday afternoon, there weren’t many patrons milling around. Looking out the window, I noted the damp leaves on the ground were partially covered with a dusting of snow. We’d had an interesting start to winter in my new town, early snowfalls in November, but no real accumulation yet in December. Frankly, I was grateful for the return of sweater weather.
Bringing my attention back to the library, I saw Nate coming out of the kitchen. My cheeks heated. What did I even say to him after my almost comical repeated avoidance on Friday night? There was no explaining it. Tugging my laptop back toward me, I worked to look busy while watching Nate out of the corner of my eye. From my spot at the table in front of the windows, I could see the circulation desk where he was helping a teen who had been waiting to check out.
I glanced at the cover of the top book in the teen’s hand. Excellent choice. I’d readAristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universeyears ago based on Ava’s recommendation. Her job teaching high school English resulted in a never-ending list of books for me to read.
Vibrations from my phone pulled me back to the present.Speak of the devil, I thought as Ava’s name flashed up. Quickly I tapped to open the text.
