Page 50 of The Other Room

I’d known Jenna my whole life, and I knew that look. She’d worn the same one when she’d told Jo and I that monsters lived in our closet when we were six, causing us both to sleep with the lights on for months. She’d worn the same one when she’d told me I had permission to take the cake from Susie’s ninth birthday party... just before I’d gotten reamed out for trying to steal it.

Trouble. What was brewing in those amber eyes was nothing but trouble.

“What?” I asked, and she pursed her lips tighter.

“Nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing. It looks like something. And if I know you, it’s trouble. What?”

“Nothin’.” She grinned.

“Okay. You’re starting to freak me out.” I chuckled while Jo paced behind the bar, staring at her bottle of beer and searching the faces of the customers.

“Over here!” A man said, and I saw the recognition flash in her eyes while she hurried over to give it to him.

“So,” Jenna said, pulling my gaze off Jo.

“So.”

“So...” She smiled again, and I waited for more.

Jo appeared with a bottle of beer and held it in front of me. “Spotted Cow good?”

“Perfect. Thanks, Jo.”

“You got it.” She set it on the coaster but missed the edge and it almost toppled over.

“Oh shit!” She caught it and set it upright. The soft pink bloom in her cheeks deepened to crimson while she gave me an unnaturally shy smile before spinning and hurrying off.

“So...” Jenna said again, and I looked over to find her smile so wide she could have been the Cheshire Cat. Or from the looks of her, the cat that ate the canary at the very least.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” I took a sip of my beer.

“No reason.”

“Jenna, I know you. You’re up to something. What the hell is it?”

“Nothing.” She kept grinning.

I heard glass shatter and then Jo’s curse words punctuating the din of the bar crowd. When I turned to look, she knelt on the rubber mat picking up the remnants of a margarita glass.

“Jo seems off tonight. I wonder what’s going on with her?” I asked.

“I wonder... What could be wrong with Jo tonight? What, what, what?” Jenna’s voice trailed off, and she placed a finger to her chin, tapping on it.

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing.”

“Jenna! What the fuck?” I laughed.

Tossing her hands up in the air she huffed. “Seriously? Are you legally blind?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ugh! I can’t take it anymore! You!”

“Me what?”