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Tim drummed his fingertips percussively atop the table.
He’d always had good rhythm.
“Would you mind buttering my toast for me?” Heidi asked Valerie. “I need to step outside for just a moment.”
“I’ll butter your toast, all right.”
Heidi clucked her tongue. “Careful with that sort of tone. People might start making inaccurate assumptions about you.” Heidi pushed back from the table, ignored Tim’s extended-arm gesture to take the baby from her, and promptly stepped outside.
God.
Mother always told her that what was done in the dark always came to light. Heidi had always thought that was just another of the many ways her mother instructed her in compliance and taught her to feel guilty about everything she did and was. In actuality, the proverb was merely a warning to never expect anything to remain a secret. Human beings hadn’t been able to keep those since the day they decided to make language.
Carine was idling her car at the curb. As she was looking down, she hadn’t seen Heidi emerge. By the time Heidi made it to the driver’s side window, Carine had finally turned her focus outward.
“Damn. I needed that shirt to go with the suit I was going to wear tomorrow,” she said.
“Wear a different shirt.”
“That’s the only one I have that doesn’t gape.”
“So wear one without buttons.”
“I can’t rearrange my fashion sense that way. I always have to wear things with the same pieces, or the outfits don’t look right to me.”
“That’s called being stuck in a rut. I think you’ll survive, knowing you’re doing the most honorable of good deeds.”
Sighing, Carine brushed the bottoms of her thumbs across her leather-covered steering wheel and eyed Heidi speculatively. “You look better than I look in my shirt.”
“Whoseshirt?”
Again, Carine brushed the wheel.
Heidi leaned further into the window and repeated even more softly, “Whose shirt?”
“It’s…yours to do with what you wish.”
“Oh, thank you for acknowledging that. I worried we might have an issue. But because I believe in rewarding good behavior, I might let you wear it sometime.”
“Tomorrow would be nice,” Carine said.
“You want to wear it tomorrow?”
“It really goes nicely with navy blue.”
“I don’t want it worn with navy blue.”
Carine brushed the wheel some more.
Heidi suspected she’d developed a temporary fidget to fill in the gaps where she usually would have blurted a quip.
“Then what do you want it worn with?” Carine asked.
“Brick red lipstick.”
“I think I have some. And what else, if not navy blue?”
“Why do you assume there’s anything else?”
