All in all, it took less than half an hour for her to be ready to leave the state. She stood near the door, surveying theapartment, and was almost disappointed that in a year, she’d accumulated so little that mattered.
It had been like this when she’d left Tennessee, too. Archie had taken anything valuable with him, and the rest had been put in an estate auction or donated to charity after Grandma had died. Cami had spent so long just working to keep the bills paid, even after high school, that she’d never had money to spend on anything worth keeping, and most of what was in that house had been Grandma’s, not hers.
She snorted mirthlessly. It was the same here. Most everything in this apartment belonged to her grandmother, and she hadn’t even known it.
She had nothing. It had been stupid to think that Des might be interested in her for more than a roll in the hay. She should have taken the hint the first time she saw him standing in this little converted bachelor apartment, surrounded by fraying this and patchwork that and secondhand everything. He’d lived a gilded life. Sure, he’d suffered some hurt, but if he tried to pack up his life it would take up more space than one duffle and a backpack.
She shouldered her pathetic belongings, stepped outside, locked the door behind her, and went to the store below.
“Hey!” Tristan chirped from behind the counter. He was flipping through some kind of magazine displaying a spread of shiny surfboards. “Your shift doesn’t start for hours. What’s up?”
“I’m not coming in for my shift.” She dropped the apartment keys into the spine of the magazine. “Give these to Lenny for me?”
Only then did he seem to notice her bags. His brow furrowed. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah, fine. If Lenny doesn’t show up to cover me, just lock up and head home, unless you want the hours yourself.”
“Uh. Okay?” His face scrunched up, but Cami wasn’t in an explaining mood.
“It’s been nice working with you, Tristan.”
He froze behind the counter, processing her words. “Cami, what?—?”
“I’ll see you around, maybe.” She turned away, tuning out his hurried questions so that the last thing she heard on her way out was a chime of finality from the bell above the door.
Des wasn’tsure how long he sat in that armchair in the lobby, but it was long enough for his coffee to get cold. Everything had gone to hell so fast his head was still spinning. He’d try to call Cami, hoping to get her to hear him out, but he didn’t know what he’d say that would make any of it better, and besides that, she wouldn’t pick up. He couldn’t blame her. He’d lied to her, and those lies hadn’t exactly been of the little and white variety. He deserved a lot more than her scorn.
He finally mustered up the motivation to get a fresh mug of coffee, and while he was snapping the lid on his travel mug, his phone began to chime from the pocket he’d slid it into. His pulse stuttered in his throat. Was it too much to hope that Cami had reconsidered?
He pulled his phone out. In white small caps, above the symbol of a ringing phone, the screen read: LENNY SEAVER.
Des metLenny at a food truck on Ocean Ave, close enough to Pacific Park that he was unable to keep from frowning at theFerris Wheel as he passed it on his bike. He parked and propped his helmet on the handlebars, then scanned the crowd around the food truck for signs of Lenny. He found her on a metal bench nearby, eating a loaded sausage dog with her Great Dane next to her. He bypassed the truck and took the seat to her left, instead.
“Not hungry?” she said, tucking her mouthful of food into her cheek to get the words out.
“Not really, no.” He sighed and took in their surroundings. All around them, life was continuing as normal. Cars zipped by. People bought their lunches. Lenny consumed more sausage than was probably healthy for a woman her age. “Since when do you eat meat?”
She glared at him. “I’m feeling risqué. Don’t police my diet, Desmond.” Then she smacked him on the thigh for good measure. It was a playful motion, but he got the feeling her heart wasn’t in it, and likewise, he didn’t have the heart to tease her about her cholesterol this time.
“So, you said jump, and I’m here to ask how high. What can I do for you, Lenny?”
“You’re no fun today.” The words were exactly what he would have expected, but she didn’t shoot him the mischievous glance he’d have anticipated. She didn’t look at him at all. She just continued eating.
“You’re not exactly bursting with joy, either.” His mouth pulled into a taut line, his cheeks stiff. He leaned back, spreading his arms along the edge of the bench in the hopes that a more open posture might encourage a better mood in him. He doubted it, all things considered, but it was worth a shot.
“Cami?” she prodded. Her tone was flat, deceptively disengaged.
“Yeah,” he muttered.
Lenny dipped her head. “Me too.”
That was the only thing she could have said that would have taken him aback. His head whipped to face her, eyes narrowing in on the way she seemed to shrink in on herself, fingers tight on the cardboard cradling her sausage. In the months he’d known them both, he’d never heard of them arguing. He didn’t know how close they were, exactly, but Cami had given him the impression they were like family.
“You first,” Lenny said, and the surprise melted off his face, replaced with a mix of upset and resignation.
“She found out what I really do. To be honest, I thought you told her.”
“Wasn’t me, but she’s a smart kid.” She gave a one-shouldered shrug, appearing disinterested in how Cami had come to know about his job. “I’m not surprised she figured it out.”
