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She was brash, overbearing, manipulative, and sinfully beautiful. Once they both reached high school, she became aware of her superpowers as it pertained to the guileless opposite sex, and that was when she really hit her stride.
He’d rather yank out his fingernails, one by one, with double-nosed pliers and douse them with alcohol, than to ever come into contact with that woman again.
He had built a reputation as being even-keeled, dutiful, and well-liked by everyone in the community. After what she had done to him became public knowledge, vindication was sweet as she had become the opposite. The town pariah.
The only downside being she skipped town before having to face the music.
After her parents passed away, there was really no reason for her to ever return to Wayward. But if she did, there was no telling the level of retribution she would suffer at the hands of the locals. And he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t turn a blind eye.
Lucas grabbed his suit jacket and folder, assuring himself he did the right thing, dodged a bullet, and decided to spend the rest of the evening working from home. He met Lilith in the doorway to his office with her purse in her hands and a wide grin on her face.
Clearly, she had listened in on their conversation.
“Goodnight, Mr. Mayor, sir,” she said with a lilt to her voice and a spring to her step. “Have a lovely evening.”
* * *
Lucas droppedhis keys in the large bowl on the table next to the front door. Setting his messenger bag on the floor, he removed his suit jacket, and began to roll up his sleeves.
It was late.
He was dog-tired.
But he still had that stack of résumés to go through. To delay the inevitable, he sorted through the mail. He grabbed himself a beer from the refrigerator and considered heating up the leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.
On his way home, he received his obligatory call from Ms. Pinkie. Rather than having a fake emergency or a crisis of zero magnitude, she merely asked if he had noticed how the stock market had dipped that day and if she should make any adjustments to her portfolio.
While in college, Lucas carried a double major in both public administration and finance. Pulling together and managing stock portfolios came just as naturally to him as running a small town.
To his credit, a number of his constituents who attended his after-hours personal finance workshop enjoyed his instincts and insights and had the cash balances to prove it.
He especially enjoyed corporate finance. So much so that the local community college would ask him to be a guest lecturer each year. There he’d drone on for hours on when and where to apply certain financial analysis techniques, how to set realistic goals and compensation incentives, as well as strategies for ensuring companies optimized their financial resources and strengthened their bottom line.
Although government-run municipalities didn’t have to worry about bottom lines, per se, it was his opinion they needed to mimic the private sector by determining and focusing on agreed upon objectives and establishing criteria for success.
You can’t fix what you don’t measure was his mantra. Which at times, and due to years of repetition, caused Cindy to punch him in the shoulder telling him toshut it.
His advice that evening for Ms. Pinkie was the usual. To be patient and wait it out. He reminded her that checking her stocks several times a day was counterintuitive when managing a low-risk stock portfolio.
Before making it to the kitchen his front doorbell rang. It was Hollis Walker, the town’s fire chief, who must’ve have come straight over after his shift.
“Chief,” he said, stepping to the side, sure Penelope had shared the details of how he broke off their relationship with the large bearded man before going home.
Hollis walked in patting him on the shoulder as he passed and continued through the living room to the kitchen.
He seemed to have the same idea Lucas did, as he opened the refrigerator door and grabbed a beer. Handing it to Lucas, he grabbed another for himself.
“Penelope stopped by the station this evening.” He unscrewed the cap and took a swig.
Lucas did the same and then set the bottle on the counter.
“I’m sorry to have upset your niece. She’s a lovely woman…”
“Don’t even go there, son. She told me what she did.”
Lucas nodded. Enough said.
“What bothers me is that she doesn’t get why you’re angry.”
