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Blaire sat with her arms crossed and eyebrow cocked. I sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to be pleased with my offer to walk Tanya to her car.
“What is it, Blaire?”
“Oh, nothing,” her voice barely louder than a whisper. “Just so glad you had to tag along on this lunch with me, for God knows what reason. But now you can take her to get Jitters coffee, which you were too good for two hours ago, and ‘walk her to her car’ all by yourself? Just wondering how that double standard looks from your pedestal.”
Was that jealousy I heard in Blaire’s voice? Considering I had to lean in to hear her, catching a whiff of her signature scent, I couldn’t be sure if what I heard was jealousy or anger for messing up her lunch.
I tried to keep my voice impassive as I responded, matching her voice’s volume, keeping my head inclined toward hers.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but Tanya consumed several glasses of sangria and only ate half of her salad, and she drove here. I’m killing some time, trying to see if she’ll sober up and getting some coffee in her to counteract the alcohol before she gets behind the wheel. It usually works, but if it doesn’t, I’ll take her back to Winterberry Glen and she can sleep it off in my office.”
I regretted adding the “it usually works” to my last statement, as something in Blaire’s expression—as she sat back in her chair—let me know she saw more than I wanted her to, that this wasn’t the first time I watched someone sober up or need a nap before getting behind the wheel.
Tanya chose that moment to return to the table. “Ready to go, handsome?”
“You bet I am. Now why don’t you tell me all about this blog of yours?” I stood up, grabbing her bag and letting her tuck her arm in mine.
Tanya started a long-winded explanation, as I knew she would, and we headed toward the entrance of Joe’s and back into the heat. Against my better judgment, I looked over my shoulder at Blaire as we exited the café and saw her watching us go. We made eye contact for one moment, her face a mix of emotions I couldn’t quite name in a brief glance, before I broke the connection and turned back to the town square.
Chapter 10
Blaire
It was becoming a bit of a pattern that Cole left me behind recalibrating. It’s not something I’m incredibly comfortable with. I enjoy my feelings of certainty, and Cole seems to have a way to upend those more and more every time we are together. The way he observed and cared for Tanya made me wonder what other depths and complexities he kept hidden, but I sighed and resigned myself to the fact that I may never know them.
After settling our bill for lunch, I walked to the other side of the town square to pop into Ridge Reads to visit Charlotte. I promised her I would debrief her after my in-person meetings with Cole and lunch with Tanya. She would absolutely get a kick out of the fact that the two had bled over into each other.
I walked into the bookstore and took a deep breath, letting the smell of books and memories of years growing up in this town staple wash over me. Charlotte smiled at me from behind the counter.
“It’s about time! I’ve been waiting for you to get here to take my lunch. I’m starving! Mitch, I’m taking my lunch! Come cover the counter!”
After Mitch arrived at the counter and Charlotte briefed him on the projects she was in the middle of, she bounced around the edge, grabbed my hand, and pulled me back to our favorite armchairs, tucked away in the back corner of the store.
“Okay, sit down,” Charlotte ordered me. “I’m going to go grab my food out of the fridge. When I get back, I want to know what he was wearing, how he greeted you, and if he finally addressed the Pepper’s incident, in that order, please.”
“Awesome, great, fantastic, just what I want to think about when it comes to my pain-in-the-ass festival overlord, Char. Grab me a Diet Coke to help ease the pain?”
I knew Charlotte would see right through my good-natured complaining after so many years of friendship, and I considered while she was gone if I should lie, to both Charlotte and myself, about the amount of times I had glanced at Cole’s forearms. I mean, I could describe the color and pattern of his shirt in great detail.
Charlotte returned with her salad and Diet Cokes for both of us, flopping into her seat and saying in her lovingly demanding tone, “Okay, now spill.”
“He was wearing long-sleeves and khakis in this heat, he greeted me in a completely crotchety way about the schedule, and he definitely didn’t even attempt to address the Pepper’s incident. I mean, it never really even crossed my mind either,” I responded, stopping for a sip of that sweet, sweet, so-bad-for-me-but-tastes-so-good nectar of life. At the look Charlotte leveled at me, I felt the need to revise my last answer.
“Okay, maybe I was thinking about it before he showed up, when I wondered how he would act around me, and then maybe once more when he rolled his sleeves up and flashed me those forearms, but that’s all I’m giving you on that. I focused on fighting for my preferred vendors and trying not to freak out when he decided to come to lunch with Tanya after she showed up early.”
“Wait. He crashed your lunch with Tanya? Was he trying to snoop on the angle you were taking with the press on the festival?”
Charlotte was working on a public relations degree at the local college in the limited free time she got from the store, so she always used my work stories as case studies for what she was learning.
“I hadn’t even thought of that possibility, honestly. I thought he was just being a giant turd-face and wanting to get under my skin. Especially after he conceded that my location for the ice rink was a better idea than his,” I said, thinking back to the self-satisfied smirk he had leveraged my way when he accepted Tanya’s invitation.
“So, how did that all go? Did he derail the interview? Do you think the blog post is still going to be okay?” Charlotte rapid-fire responded, her finished salad container discarded on the side table next to us.
“Well, Tanya was really laying on the charm thick, and he didn’t really seem to rebuff her advances,” which made Charlotte’s eyebrows shoot up toward her hairline. “But that’s totally fine. They’re both attractive and single individuals, and he’s obviously decided to pretend the Pepper’s incident didn’t happen, so it’s fine.” Fine. What a word! It can hold many different meanings within four simple letters.
“Tanya asked a few questions about the feud, which Cole was sort of helpful in deflecting—thank God, the towns’ feuding does not need to be the story—and then he was actually complimentary about my efforts for inclusivity and green actions! I dunno, it was a really weird lunch that ended with him taking her to coffee, so she didn’t get into her car right away after having had a few glasses of Joe’s sangria.”
“Wow! Wait, he left with her after lunch?” Charlotte wasn’t about to let that nugget slip on by. “That douche-nozzle. Moving in on a blogger...”
