Vanessa pulled her coat tighter across her body to guard against the cold. It probably wouldn’t be considered fun in Anna’s book, but Vanessa did need to check out the local restaurants. She wasn’t much of a cook, so finding somewhere with a decent menu near the office was necessary if she didn’t want to live on frozen dinners the whole time she was here. It was on the company dime anyway.
“Hello,” a smiling woman said, grasping the gloved hand of a toddler as she swung a brightly colored shopping bag from her other hand.
Before Vanessa could respond, the woman had already passed her by.
A man tacked a flyer to the power pole on the corner. “Good afternoon. Don’t miss out on the sale down at the boutique.” He gave her a little half salute and jogged back to his truck.
“Thank you.” She stopped and read the advertisement, thenmoved along. The mail carrier walked out of the insurance office. With his satchel over his shoulder, he carried a handful of letters in his hand. “Good afternoon,” he said.
“Thanks.” It wasn’t long before she found herself offering a smile and head nod to the next people walking by. She felt like someone new. Laughing, she purposefully slowed down.
Why am I in such a hurry to nowhere right now?
In front of her, a blackboard balanced on a windowsill flaunted the daily specials in brightly colored chalk. Double-dipped fried chicken, crispy catfish, and fried chicken livers, taters, and homemade gravy. Under desserts: homemade banana pudding and chocolate skillet cake.
My pants feel tighter just reading the menu.
She sucked in her gut.
That banana pudding sounds good, though.
She forced herself to move along in search of something a little less fried, but if that restaurant was open on the walk back, banana pudding to go was definitely going to happen.
A woman with two sniffly red-nosed children tumbled out of the door of the Fraser Hills Family Medical Practice. An attorney’s office took up the next few spaces. She tried to picture Robert practicing law in a town this size.
Suddenly, knowing there was no one back at home waiting for her, she felt a little lost. A little alone. She and Robert had been introduced at the AGC Christmas party three years ago. Had she wanted from the beginning for things with him to work out so badly that she’d overlooked the most important part? The part where her heart was supposed to be involved? Or had things changed along the way?
She stopped in front of the window display at a flower shop called The Stalk Market. Twinkle lights sparkled among thepetals of bright red poinsettias, and a snowman made of flowers almost reached the top of the space. She hadn’t seen anything this elaborate since she went to Pasadena for the Rose Parade. Of course, those floats were twenty times the size, but this definitely showed an artistic eye, and clever use of natural goods.Is that pipe made out of lavender seeds? Ingenious.
Vanessa admired the techniques.
“Hi. How are you?”
She swung around. A woman about her age, wearing a brightly colored floral apron over her black outfit and a wreath of baby’s breath balanced atop her short black pixieish haircut, stood there smiling. “I’m Diane.”
Somehow the woman made each word carry on for about three syllables.
“Hello,” Vanessa responded. “I was admiring your lovely window decoration.”
“You must be the lady from Chicago.” Diane stuck out her right hand. “Welcome.”
“Word travels fast around here,” she said as they shook hands.
Diane patted her on the shoulder. “You’ll get used to it. People really do mean it in a nice way.”
“I’ll try to remember that. Nice to meet you, Diane. I’m Vanessa Larkin.” She pointed to the window display. “This really is absolutely eye-catching. I love the detail.”
“Thanks. I love decorating the windows. Not just Christmas. Valentine’s. Heck, I decorate for Flag Day. That’s the benefit of owning your own shop.”
“Well, you’re certainly good at it.”
“Thanks. I went to school in New York. Took a job doing windows in the city for a while. We did really elaborate stuff. I’m kind of competitive, so I really liked that.”
“New York City? What brought you here?”
“I first came down to do a special project for the Porter’s store window. It was a short-term project for a joint campaign they were doing with the company I was working for. My marriage was kind of a mess. My husband was a highly paid stockbroker who loved his job way more than he loved me. Well, I shouldn’t really say that. He gave me lots of pretty stuff, but no time and that’s all I wanted.”
“I’m sorry.”
