When Constance came back twenty minutes later, she had a greasy paper bag in her hands and a scowl on her face.
“What is it?”
She gestured toward the door. “Do you know that man?”
I headed to the door to find a man in leather parked outside The Mercantile. “No. Who is he?”
“I don’t know,” she grumbled. “He practically wouldn’t take no for an answer when he asked me out at The Mercantile. Your friend, Hux, walked me back over here after that man followed me around the entire store.”
I spotted Hux walking back, making sure to say something to the man on the motorcycle as he went.
The man on the motorcycle shrugged and grinned, showing off his fake veneers.
I studied the man’s face as Hux pointed at him then to the road in the universal sign of “get out of here.”
“I have no clue,” I said. “I haven’t seen him around town either.”
She huffed. “He reminds me of someone.”
I look toward her. “Who?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I can’t put my finger on it. But just someone I used to know.”
“Coco!” Wendy called. “Daddy is calling!”
Constance hurried over to the phone I hadn’t realized she left behind and answered it, a huge smile on her face.
“Mackey, hi!”
“Hi!” Mackey replied back.
I walked closer to see the screen and frowned, being sure to stay out of view.
The man that I could see on Constance’s phone looked…bad.
Half his head was sunken in, his face was misshapen, and there was a clear look of “not there” in his eyes.
He smiled and waved, but it was with the help of a woman who was holding the man’s arm and doing the work for him.
This must be the best friend.
“How are you doing, Mackey?” Constance beamed.
I thought I’d seen her smile before, but the smile she had for this man was breathtaking.
The worst part was, I was jealous of a man with the mental capacity of an eleven-year-old.
God help me.
“I’m okay,” he drawled slowly.
It was odd hearing a man’s voice come out sounding boyish.
“Mackey, tell Constance and Wendy what you did today!” an elderly woman who you couldn’t see but hear, encouraged.
“Counted to five!” He sounded excited.
The woman from earlier finally came into view, her smile soft for her son.
