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“You people need to get hobbies,” I said as I washed my hands.
“Oh, don’t get all up about it. Nothin’ happens ‘round here anymore. Can’t blame us for being nosy. It’s a beloved Lindenbach pastime.”
“Still annoying,” I said in a sing-song tone.
“Be flattered. Coulda been much …”
I glanced at her when she trailed off, but her eyes were trained through the steel kitchen window and into the dining room. When I followed her gaze, my mouth went bone dry.
Because Marnie Mitchell-Vargas had just taken a seat at the counter, and she did not look happy.
Granted, Marnie never really looked happy. How the spoiled daughter of the mayor ended up being a nurse was beyond me. I wanted to be the bigger person and say she must have a kind, giving heart—she was a caregiver, and Sebastian married her, so she couldn’t be all bad—but when you’d been her favorite target for rumors, pranks, and the occasional catfight, there wasn’t a lot of grace left over.
Her eyes snapped to us, and Bettie and I looked away too quickly. Bettie laughed like I’d just said something hysterical, saying, “Don’t give her the satisfaction,” through her smile before patting me on the arm and gently pushing me toward the door.
With a deep breath, I put on my best waitress smile, hoping Aggie was around to help Marnie, but alas, luck was not on my side—Aggie was caught at one of the big corner booths, taking the orders of a pack of rowdy teenagers. I didn’t know who had it worse, her or me.
When forced to make eye contact with Marnie again, I decided it was definitely me.
I tossed a cocktail napkin in front of her with that smile still pasted to my face. “Hi, Marnie. What can I get for you?”
She wore a bored smile in answer. “Could I see a menu?”
I reached under the register for one like I was supposed to even if she didn’t need it—every human being in a thirty-mile radius knew the menu by heart, seeing as how it hadn’t changed in thirty years. Marnie’s personal mission in life was to fuck with me, and the best way to fight back was to not fight at all.
“Here you go. I’ll be right—”
“What do you recommend?” she asked, browsing the menu. “Lemon meringue or peach pie?”
“I think anything with lemons would be right up your alley.”
“Peach it is.” She folded up her menu and handed it back. “A la mode. And a cup of coffee with two creams.”
“Creamer’s on the counter—”
“Aggie always gives me creamer fresh out of the cooler.”
“Absolutely,” I said with a fake-ass smile.
One saccharine word, and her face soured.
Billy Pruitt, who’d requested “Jailhouse Rock” said, “You ready?”
“Gimme a few, would you, Billy?”
He winked at me and put his quarter on the table.
I turned for the pie case and cut her a generous piece, hoping she ate every bite and couldn’t fit into her pants tomorrow. Into the microwave it went, and while the clock ticked down, I poured her stupid coffee and got her two fresh creams from the little cooler under the counter. All the while, especially through excavating ice cream from a three-gallon tub of Blue Bell, I played through all the things she’d say and how I’d respond. In a few of them, I smashed hot pie in her face. In another, I grabbed the scoop of vanilla with my bare hand and slopped it into her perfect blonde hair.
But Marnie wouldn’t play it straight with me, not if I knew her. We’d suffer through this uncomfortable dance and part ways hating each other as per the usual.
If Bettie knew about the party last night, Marnie had probably been sitting in his driveway in the dark alternating between screaming at the top of her lungs and crying to Adele.
Be nice, I told myself. I might hate her, but I had no small amount of empathy for her situation, fueled in part by guilt for the part I’d played. But she and Sebastian were never good together, never staying together for more than a few months at a time before breaking up again. They fought like cats and dogs, but if you asked Marnie, Sebastian was hers, end of—the fact that she left him was moot. As such, the target on my back was bigger than the Lone Star State itself.
He must have loved her to keep going back, even though they looked toxic from where I was standing. How they ended up married was a mystery to me, but that they were in the middle of a divorce surprised me zero percent. But I couldn’t ignore the fact that she loved him and lost him. It had to be impossibly painful. Especially once she found out I’d had his child, the child he wouldn’t give her.
