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“Hey, Junebug. How’s your day? It’s nice and quiet in here.” He looked around with a smile, setting a stack of letters on the table.
“It’s not half-bad, Otto. How’s yours?” She rifled through the letters, turning her attention to a letter with her name and address printed on a label.
No return address?
“A good day so far,” he said answered, heading to the coffee bar.
“Hey, Otto?” She looked at her friend, helping himself to a cup of the steaming liquid. “Do you know who this is from?”
He came over, stirring the milk and sugar in. “Not a clue. So long as it’s paid for, the post office doesn’t care. It is post-marked Oak Valley, though.”
She looked where he pointed and saw the familiar zip code. “Huh. Okay, then.” She slid her finger under the flap, Otto standing by with curiosity in his eyes.
When she pulled out the two paper sheets inside the envelope, she almost dropped it.
A flight confirmation — with her details — and a confirmation of a one week stay at a luxury resort in the Caribbean, complete with photos.
“What the…”
“Well, Junebug,” Ottos chuckled, tipping his head to her. “I’d say you have a secret admirer on your hands. Hope it’s a good one.” He waved goodbye, leaving June with the mystery papers.
June turned the envelope over in her hands, desperately seeking some new information on who it was from. She double checked the confirmations — the trip was set for the end of April — but found nothing. Not a slip of a name or telephone number.
The door opened, and Molly came in with her lunchbox. She was still in veterinary scrubs, and she was humming a Mario song.
“Hey,” she said, setting her lunch box on the desk and taking the seat next to June. She looked over June’s shoulder. “Wow, are you finally going on vacation? You know what—” Molly held up her hands, “— good on you. You deserve it. Just walk away, start a new life, and finally take a break, for fuck’s sake.”
“No, Molly…” June turned to her friend, a paper in each hand. “These showed up in an envelope with my name on it. The flight has my details, but I have no idea who it’s from.”
Molly snatched them from her, peering at the information. “Scoot your boot, it’s recon time.”
June let her friend take her seat, watching as her friend looked up the price of the plane tickets and the place where she was supposedly staying for a week.
“Okay, so the total price of the seats and hotel is…” Molly sat back and looked at June with wide eyes. “Holy shit, June. This trip is like, ten grand. Who do you know with that much money?”
June stared at her friend. “Ten… grand? As in tenthousanddollars?”
“Uh, yeah,” Molly’s mouth was agape. “Who the fuck do you know with that much money? I want to be their friend.” She pouted, switching back to her seat and forlornly looking at her salad from the local supermarket.
June ran through the names in her head of everyone she knew.
It wasn’t a long list, and it was even shorter when she figured out who even had the money for that.
Colton, Ruby’s fiancee.
“Well?” Molly asked through a mouthful of her food. “Who do you know?”
“Um, Ruby Delacey, who’s engaged to Colton Taylor.”
Molly nodded. “Right. Ex-pro-footballer, now baker-extraordinaire. But why? What’s the motive? We’re basically in a mystery novel right now.”
“I genuinely don’t know, I don’t even think we’ve spoken since Mr. Shapiro’s 9th grade Chem class,” June shook her head.
“Dude, that’s nuts.” Molly shoved another forkful in her mouth, talking while she chewed. “You gotta tell me when you figure it out.”
“Great, another thing on my plate. Thanks for helping.”
“Hey, at least this one ends in a luxury vacation. And whoever paid is coming with you — two plane tickets were bought. So probably not Colton, unless Ruby was going with you. Which also doesn’t make sense.”
