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CHAPTER ELEVEN
Carine left the Shora office at 4:30 on Friday, ignoring the ringing phone on her desk. If the call was important, there’d either be a message waiting for her when she returned or a voicemail on her work cell. She’d turned off the volume on her work cell. She hadn’t had an actual vacation all year, so she intended to do what Valerie had told her and snatch a few hours wherever she could.
Not like they’re going to fire me for being off the grid for a couple of hours. I know too much of their dirt.
Heidi had said dinner was at 5:30, but Carine knew better than to cut her arrivals too close to event start times. For some gatherings, she needed to pad in a few extra minutes to get her head screwed on and her personality mellowed. When she was having less thoughtful days, she tended to barge into situations at full throttle and had to figure out how to turn down her energy to match the group’s. Starting out at a lower vibration was far more manageable.
When she arrived at Heidi’s at five, Tim’s truck was already there, as was Kevin’s.
“Oh, Lord. So much for that plan.”
She pulled down the visor mirror and checked her face for any hints of “Whore.” The late-day sun did her the solid of revealing a streak of leftover magenta stain along the rim of her bottom lip. “Nope. Nothing modest about that.”
She shimmied a microfiber cloth out of the tight and cluttered glove compartment, doused it with some of the mineral water left over from her lunch, and scrubbed off the pink. The friction made her lip look even pinker than when she’d started, but she had high hopes that the irritation would recede before the Murrays arrived.
Valerie opened the front door of Heidi’s condo before Carine made it all the way up the walk. “You really came. I thought she was joking.”
“Nope. I’m chasing the excitement tonight, hon. So what if it’s an old lady’s birthday? I’m flexible. You gonna welcome me and pretend I belong?”
“Hush.” Valerie hugged her neck and scanned the parking lot. “No Murrays out there yet?”
“I wouldn’t know. I have no idea what they drive.”
“Hopefully they’ll arrive at five-thirty on the dot. They’ve already got Timmy drinking, and you know he doesn’t really drink the way the rest of us do.”
“Yikes. They’re really that bad?”
Valerie grimaced as she scooted Carine out of the way of the door and locked it behind her. “Let’s just say you’ll earn every single crumb of cake you eat tonight.”
“Better be a big piece of cake, then.” Carine gestured to her prairie dress. “Look how ugly.”
“Mm.” Valerie pressed her lips together tightly and nudged Carine onward.
That’s when Carine spotted Kalimah, swallowed up by the massive sofa, wearing an identical frock.
Kalimah, a woman of approximately ninety-five pounds, with most of that being in her braids, absolutely succeeded in the “I am but a doll” assignment.
Carine looked down at herself. She’d locked and loaded, but compared to Kalimah, she was positively tarted up, just by virtue of her English serf“better hold on to that fluff for winter”genetics. “For God’s sake. Just give me a bedsheet to wrap around myself or something.”
Valerie snickered. “Why do you think I’m keeping this trench coat on? Not willing to risk it. The last thing I need is Mrs. Murray going around town telling people that Tim’s newer wife looks like she doesn’t own a decent bra. Can’t help the way the girls hang. I’m nursing. It’s like trying to keep inflated balloons on a shelf, and they’re never the same size.”
Heidi strode over wearing a slim-fitting black blouse, black cropped pants, and a severe bun. Eying Carine from head to toes, she handed her a hard seltzer and an antacid packet. “Go ahead and take the antacid now,” she murmured. “You’ll need it.”
“How come you get to dress like a gothic highwayman?” Carine asked as she ripped the paper wrapper.
“I’m doing this to divert attention from you, who’s trying to divert attention from Kalimah. Hopefully, we’ll succeed in confusing them enough that they don’t know who they’re supposed to criticize. I guarantee my mother will ask me if I’m already dressed up for Nana’s funeral. Nana will pretend she didn’t hear her clearly and make her repeat every word, and that’s when the fun will start.”
“Can’t wait,” Carine said weakly. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything else for me to wear, would you?”
Heidi narrowed her eyes. “Hmm. I might have a blazer or something. Come on. Let’s go try some things on.”
“She’d better be getting a damned good Christmas gift this year,” Carine called over to Kevin, who was zooming Naomi around the room like a human airplane.
“Who, Naomi?” he asked, pausing his half-sister mid-cloud.
“No. Kalimah.”
Kalimah sighed. “I think I’ve gotta pee again.”
